Can I still spread the coronavirus after being vaccinated against COVID-19?

You have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or will soon be in line. You may think you are off the hook and can no longer carry the coronavirus, but studies so far paint a different picture.

If you are wondering if you can still get infected and spread the coronavirus after being vaccinated, the answer is yes, it is possible. Experts say the risk is low, but are still studying the ability of vaccines to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Current COVID-19 vaccines, which include those developed by Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech used in Turkey, as well as the Moderna vaccine in the United States, Sputnik in Russia and the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in Europe, have been shown to be very effective in preventing people get seriously ill with COVID-19. As the antibodies disappear quickly after infection, those who previously had COVID-19 were also encouraged to get vaccinated.

But even if vaccinated people don’t get sick, they can still get infected without showing any symptoms. The Pfizer vaccine, for example, has been shown to be 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic COVID-19. Experts believe the vaccines would also reduce the chances of these people spreading the virus.

“A vaccinated person controls the virus better, so the chances of transmission will be greatly reduced,” Dr. Robert Gallo, virus expert at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told The Associated Press (AP ).

In Turkey, only a few fully vaccinated people have been infected and none have died. And, as the case in Israel has shown, 317 out of 715,425 people were infected within a week of receiving both doses – when heightened immunity is expected to kick in. When infection is possible, the question of spread also arises.

Among the evidence to date: Studies suggesting that if people are infected despite vaccination, they harbor less coronavirus in their noses than unvaccinated people. This makes the propagation much more difficult.

In an attempt to resolve this issue, the United States is launching a study of students who wish to undergo daily nasal swabs.

Given the uncertainty and the arrival of more contagious variants, experts believe that fully vaccinated people should continue to wear masks and distance themselves socially in public and when visiting with unvaccinated people at high risk of serious illness in case of infection.

“We still have to be careful,” said Gallo. “The vaccine is essential. But it is not a panacea that will end the epidemic tomorrow. “

Other factors can also affect the likelihood of a vaccinated person spreading the virus, including the immune response to the vaccine, vaccination rates in the community, and whether there is a continued increase in cases locally.

“We want to think it’s all or nothing, but it’s very specific to the situation,” Dr. Laraine Lynn Washer, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan, told AP.