The FDA-authorized Covid vaccines are, in some ways, like Spider-Man.
“When Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider, he’s not able to climb walls right away,” said Dr. Vince Silenzio, an M.D. and professor in the Rutgers School of Public Health. Similar to the bite that endows Parker with certain spider-like superpowers, the Covid vaccines — which afford people a high level of protection against this still relatively new human disease — take a period of time to kick in. “You have to wait for it to really get there,” emphasized Dr. Silenzio.
How long? Whether the second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines or the single shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine (which the FDA is currently looking into out of “an abundance of caution” regarding an extremely rare potential safety concern involving blood clots), infectious disease experts say to wait two weeks until you can call yourself fully vaccinated. As of April 2, 2021, being fully vaccinated means you can gather indoors without masks with small groups of vaccinated people and travel domestically without having to quarantine, says the CDC. (But still wear a mask if you’re visiting anyone with a high risk of Read more…
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