Finding the 'sweet spot' between freedoms and restrictions post-vaccination

WhenU.S. President Joe Biden's press secretary recently remindedpeople that they'll still have tophysically distanceand wear maskseven after vaccination, it sparked a backlash among someconservative pundits on social mediawho slammed her forsuch a pessimistic message.

The comments by Jen Psaki"will discourage people from getting vaccinated and will land among many as demoralizing goalpost shifting counter-productive imo," tweeted Guy Benson, a U.S. political pundit andFox News radio host.

Robby Soave, a senior editorfor the libertarian magazine Reason wrote that it's "a demoralizing and excessively cautious point to keep emphasizing" and that "health officials are at risk of criminallyunderselling the miracle of the vaccines."

Psaki isn't alone in noting that preventive measures will have to continue even after vaccinations.

Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, points out that the World Health Organization, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all state thatmask wearing will have to continue even after vaccination due to uncertainty about whether the COVID-19 vaccines prevent transmission of the coronavirus.

However, some experts are suggestingit would be beneficial forpublic health officials tostrike amore optimistic tone.

Emphasize hope, experts say

They say that at least among groups who've been vaccinated, some physicaldistancing measures may be relaxed, and that advising those who've been vaccinated that they can't change their behaviour may carry its own risks.

In an article in TheAtlantic last month, Julia Marcus, an epidemiologist and professor at Harvard Medical School, wrote that it may be time for public health officialsto emphasize the hope that vaccines are bringing.

While scientists are still learning how much vaccines reduce transmission of the coronavirus, "the evidence shows that their efficacy against disease is phenomenal," she wrote.

The risk isn't eliminated, but close contact between two people is safer if one has received a vaccine, and safer still if both are vaccinated, she said.

Not all human interactions take place in public, Marcus wrote.

She cautioned that advising people to continue with extremepreventive measures after vaccination, even in the privacy of their own homes, cancreate the impression that vaccines offer little benefit at all, which she said isn't true.

"Vaccines provide a true reduction of risk, not a false sense of security. And trying to eliminate even the lowest-risk changes in behaviour both underestimates people's need to be close to one another and discourages the very thing that will get everyone out of this mess: vaccine uptake."

The unintended consequences of such messages, she wrote,may dissuade people from taking the vaccine andalso sap the public's hope.

Michal Tal,an immunologist at Stanford University, said there are still a lot of uncertaintiessurrounding the vaccines, including whether someone who is vaccinated, while themselves protected, maystill becapable of spreading the virus to someone not vaccinated.

"We still need more time to find out if the vaccines are preventing spread. It's possible that even those vaccinated in the early stages of the roll out will need to continue to wear masks until everyone has had a chance to get vaccinated."

'Sneak peek' of life after COVID

However, Talbelieves Marcus makes a good pointabout the need to emphasize hope and saidthat health officials need to do a better job with theirmessaging.

While in public, those vaccinated early in the roll out will still need to wear a mask, she said,but that's just untilcommunity transmission rates and new variants areunder control.

Also, she said vaccinated individuals can overwhelmingly take comfort in the fact that they enjoyprotectionfrom serious disease or death.

Meanwhile, in private homes,healthy, fully vaccinated individualscan start to let their guard down and get a sneak peek of what it will be like after this is all behind us, Tal said.

"If you are asking me: in your own private living room, a group of five who have all been vaccinated,could youstep it down a notch andfeel more comfortable? Well, of course you could."

"But if you're out and about at the grocery store and you're around people who haven't had a chance to be vaccinated yet, should you keepthat mask on for solidarity and for risk reduction of those around you? Yes."

Balance key in COVID communications

Samantha Yammine,a neuroscientist and science communicator, saidthat there's a certain way to convey the need for continued mask wearing anddistancingfrom a behaviouralscience standpoint.

"Motivation is key to anything we do. If there's too much despair, people will feel helpless.They won't follow guidelines," Yammine said.

Butif there's too much hope and everything seems rosy, she said, people won'tfeel any need to follow guidelines either.

"There's thissweet spot of balance."

While vaccines are not going to be the instant hero, Yammine said they are another tool in the toolbox,and just as masks enabled people to besafer with others indoors,vaccines, too, are another layer of protection.

"So they should enable us to have a little more wiggle room when we're doing our daily risk calculation."

Not enough celebration ofvaccines

Caulfied, the Canadian researcher, said the creation of COVID-19 vaccines have"kind of been undersold" andwe haven'tdone enough to celebrate this particular scientific achievement.

"This is like the moon landing," he said.

And when it comes to messaging about preventivemeasures for COVID-19, he said it's good to lead with the positive.

"I think we can say this: The vaccine is incredible.I think it's going to take us where we need to go. We need everyone to get vaccinated," he said.

"At the same time,there arestill uncertainties.Andtherefore, we're asking you to continue to mask."

Caulfield saidmost scientists would likely agree that for those individuals who have been vaccinated, the evidence is signalling that the risk of transmission is definitely lower.

"But this isn't the message that we want to send out there right now," he said.

"Right now, public health officials are asking us, even when vaccinated, to continue to take those precautions, even around, you know, other vaccinated individuals."

Two targets to meet

However both Caulfield and Tal, the immunologist,said they certainly see a light at the end of the tunnel, when mask wearing and physicaldistancing could be a thing of the past.

Tal said two targets need to be met: low community transmission where the risk of catchingCOVIDinpublic is very low, and when enough people are protected through vaccination and herd immunity.

"There are days ahead where where we can forget all about these masks and get back to, you know, this kind of social behaviour that we're all missing."