HARLINGEN – Keep the masks on – for now.
As people line up to get vaccinated against COVID-19, medical professionals across the U.S. urge people to keep practicing safety protocols.
“You need to continue doing some sort of restrictions in order to prevent infections and death,” said Dr. Jose Enrique Campo-Maldonado, infectious disease specialist at Valley Baptist Medical Center.
“This is counting on highly-effective vaccines that will be distributed as per CDC guidelines,” Maldonado said. “This means it starts with health care providers and people who are highly at risk and then the general population.”
He made special reference to a New York Times article Jan. 24, which said millions more will become infected if people don’t continue wearing masks and keeping social distance.
The article included a mathematical model showing that if restrictions are maintained until the summer, there will be fewer infection rates during the next few months.
The model shows significantly more infections if restrictions are lifted in February.
“There is no doubt that getting vaccinated protects the recipient,” reads the article. “Still, several infectious-disease researchers contacted by The New York Times cautioned that it would be months before enough people in the United States will have gotten the shots to allow for normal life to begin.”
Maldonado pointed out that some studies, because of the pandemic’s urgency, are preprinted without peer review.
“All these models are based on parameters, and if those parameters are wrong, there are some variations that will happen,” Maldonado said. “For example, if the vaccines are not widely and properly distributed, that estimate for normalcy this summer might end up being wrong.”
He also said estimates the vaccine is 90 to 95 percent efficient are based on the “initial clinical trial that was done.”
“If something changes as far as the population or the distribution of the vaccine, that wouldn’t hold true,” he said. “But the other point that I take from that report is that people still need to follow precautions because the vaccines are not going to make the difference in stopping infection right away.”
It will take several months for enough people to receive the vaccination so that transmission will be significantly reduced, he said.
Until then, keep face masks on and remain 6 feet apart.
