(INDIANAPOLIS) — Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 doesn’t mean you should stop taking
precautions.
Community Health Network chief medical officer Ram Yeleti explains the vaccine keeps you from
getting sick, but there’s not enough data to confirm it keeps you from getting the virus at all. And if
you have the virus, you can still transmit it to someone else. Yeleti says until the U-S gets to herd
immunity or the vaccines are shown to block the virus completely, masks and social distancing
will still be recommended.
Yeleti says the vaccine does allow what he says is a much-needed opportunity to get out with
other people again. If you’ve been vaccinated, he says you can probably safely give that long-
delayed hug to your grandchildren. But he says masks are especially important if you’re with
people at high risk who haven’t been vaccinated yet, or if you’ll be going home to those people
after gathering with others.
Yeleti says it takes about 10 days after the second vaccine dose for it to provide full protection.
