PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — As of Monday morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports more than a million people have received a COVID-19 vaccine in the commonwealth, and nearly 207,000 are fully vaccinated. As more Virginians roll up their sleeves every day for shot, many are wondering when we can get back to some kind of normal.
Allie Luck misses big volleyball tournaments, concerts and parties with friends.
“I’m young, I’m in my early 20s you know, dating and stuff, like I don’t want to wear a mask when I’m out in public,” she told WAVY.
This week the hospital worker will roll up her sleeve for a second dose of Pfizer’s vaccine. She will be fully vaccinated, but still not free to resume a normal social life.
“What was the point of getting the vaccine if I still have to quarantine?” she asks.
Mask wearing and social distancing are still the mandate from public health. In fact, the CDC says “Not enough information is currently available to say if or when they’ll stop recommending it.”
10 On Your Side reached out to Dr. Laurie Forlano, Deputy Director of Epidemiology at VDH to learn more.
“I think it’s because this is a novel virus and one that’s new and there are still so many susceptible individuals,” she said.
We asked Dr. Forlano at what point then can we ditch the masks and get back to big events?
“The short answer is that I don’t think we have a solid timeline on that yet, but I definitely understand why people are asking the question and I share the goal of getting to a degree of normalcy.”
So what’s the hold up? A lack of knowledge.
We do know the vaccines are effective in preventing someone from getting severely ill from COVID-19, but we still don’t know if a person that’s been vaccinated could spread the disease because the government did not require that information from drug makers in order to approve it for emergency use.
“I think most scientists expect that it will have a significant impact on disease transmission,” Dr. Forlano said. Knowing for sure however, will take time.
So, it would seem we just need enough of us to get the vaccine in order to rip off the masks, but again, Dr. Forlano points to a problem.
“The concept of herd immunity is different for different organisms I believe some of the estimates I’ve seen in the literature for COVID-19 range anywhere from 40-70%.”
Experts do not have a solid number on that either. So what do they have?
“I do have confidence that as the vaccine rollout grows, not only in Virginia but around the country and the world, that we will be able to be relaxing some of the restrictions on our lives. I don’t know when.”
Hopefully by late summer or fall we’ll start getting back to some kind of normal, but even then she said the mask may still be required.
While that won’t sit well with some, it’s alright with Luck. “Hopefully something happens because I’m ready to go back to the real world!”
