Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is urging Americans to not travel, even after getting vaccinated for the coronavirus.
Fauci said during a CNN Global Town Hall that there is “some degree of protection” to COVID-19 after 10 to 14 days from receiving the first dose of the vaccine, “but you can’t rely on that.”
He added that “the maximum immunity begins about 10 days to two weeks and beyond following the second dose.”
Fauci then declared that “it is not a good idea to travel, period,” unless travel is absolutely “essential.”
“We don’t want people to think because they got vaccinated then other public health recommendations just don’t apply,” he continued.
Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the president, noted that people question why they need to wear a mask after getting vaccinated for the coronavirus.
“The reason is very clear: that the primary endpoint of the vaccine trial was clinically apparent infection,” Fauci said. “So you could conceivably get infected, get no symptoms, and still have virus in your nasal fairings, which means you would have to wear a mask to prevent you from infecting someone else.”
He added, “The other side of the coin: You may not be totally protected yourself.”
“Getting vaccinated does not say now I have a free pass to travel, nor does it say that I have a free pass to put aside all of the public health measures.”
Fauci was pressed to clarify whether someone could possibly get infected after getting the vaccine and if that is fact or still being studied.
He said, “We do not know that as a fact, but we can now as we get a few months into the follow-up, what we will be able to do is quantitative assessment of the amount of virus in the nasal fairings of a vaccinated person who got an asymptomatic infection compared to an unvaccinated person who had an asymptomatic infection.”
See Fauci’s comments below:
The U.S. has seen a downward trend over the past 14 days with positive coronavirus cases reported.
There has been an average of 163,182 positive COVID-19 cases reported in the U.S. over the past week — a 34% decrease compared to the two weeks prior, according to The New York Times. Over 429,000 deaths due to the virus have been reported in the U.S., as of Thursday morning — deaths remain at near peak levels.
According to the Times, more than 25.6 million people in the country have tested positive for COVID-19 in total.
Over 47 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been distributed in the U.S, and more than 24 million have been administered, as of Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.