I had my second Pfizer vaccine. So can I kiss Bubby and Zayde?

More than three million Israelis have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and nearly 1.8 million have received two vaccines. As more and more people achieve peak immunity, does that mean they can come together? Can extended families visit and eat together again like in pre-coronavirus days?

“We always recommend the use of masks and social distancing,” Coronavirus Commissioner Professor Nachman Ash said on Monday in response to a question from The Jerusalem Post. “This is the case in a meeting of two people who have both been vaccinated, and especially when it comes to meeting unvaccinated people, like grandchildren with their grandmother or their grandmother. dad.”

He said that, “although we look forward to hugging and kissing [our grandparents], we still have to move away socially and wear masks in case we could infect them and they could then pass the infection ”to someone who could develop a severe case of the disease.

There are currently about 450,000 Israelis over the age of 50 who have yet to be vaccinated, Ash said.

There are still many unknowns about the effects of the Pfizer messenger RNA vaccine, including to what extent people considered fully protected can still be infected and spread the disease afterward, health experts explained.

A person is considered to have maximum immunity about seven days after receiving their second dose of the vaccine. The second dose of Pfizer vaccine is given 21 days after the first, so that maximum immunity is achieved approximately one month after the start of the vaccination process.

The waiting period between the two doses of Moderna vaccine is 28 days.

Additionally, although Pfizer and Moderna have reported that their vaccines are effective against the British and South African variants, there is no guarantee that they will work against all other future mutations.

“I keep all the precautions” despite the vaccination, said Professor Gabriel Barbash, former director general of the Ministry of Health Publish. “It’s because there are so many variations. I don’t know who is wearing what and some of the variants are very contagious … I don’t want to be able to get anything even after being vaccinated.

Finally, the “maximum protection” for the Pfizer vaccine is actually 95%. This means that one in 20 people vaccinated can get the disease, although it is unlikely to be a serious case.

Experts believe that as more and more Israelis are fully immunized, it will be realistic to relax some of the cautious behaviors people need to adopt now.