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America’s unmasking offers Australia a lesson: stop downplaying the vaccines

Washington: Over the weekend, I witnessed something I’ve barely seen on the streets of Washington, DC, in a year: the smiles of strangers.

Since last July, residents of the US capital have been required to wear a mask whenever they’re outside their homes. Exceptions were allowed only for those working alone in an office, eating and drinking or exercising vigorously.

Unless they’re travelling on public transport, the fully vaccinated in the US are now free to go back to their pre-pandemic lives.

That’s now rapidly changing thanks to new federal government guidelines. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans are not required to wear masks either indoors or outdoors if they are fully vaccinated – except for rare circumstances such as being on a bus or a plane.

Other than that, vaccinated people have basically been given the all-clear to return to their pre-pandemic lives.

The CDC has explained the surprising, and in some quarters controversial, decision with a simple explanation: the vaccines are extraordinarily effective and official scientific guidance should reflect that fact. Being vaccinated virtually eliminates the risk of severe illness, hospitalisation and death if you contract COVID-19. And importantly, it significantly limits the possibility of transmitting the virus to others.

In an interview with National Public Radio following the announcement, CDC head Rochelle Walensky said the decision was driven by “emerging data that has demonstrated that if you are vaccinated, you generally don’t get asymptomatic infection and generally cannot transmit to other people”.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centres for Disease Control in the US, says vaccines have proved effective in preventing widespread infection.

Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, told CBS on Monday (AEST) that once vaccinated, “you become a dead end to the virus and when there are a lot of dead ends, the virus is not going to go anywhere”.

He explained: “Even though there are breakthrough infections with vaccinated people, almost always the people are asymptomatic and the level of virus is so low it makes it extremely unlikely – not impossible but very, very low likelihood – they are going to transmit it.”

Listening to Walensky and Fauci, I was struck by how their statements differed to those of Australian politicians. While Australia has excelled at keeping the virus at bay, the country seems to be falling behind the rest of the world in its understanding of what the vaccines can do.

In an interview with News Corp earlier this month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: “We don’t as of yet have considerable clinical evidence that tells us transmission is preventable [after vaccination].”

Health Minister Greg Hunt has also been cautious, if more positive, by saying the vaccines are “likely to be very effective at preventing transmission”.

It would be more accurate – and useful – to say the evidence is in and it’s clear the vaccines being used in Australia are extremely effective at preventing the transmission of COVID-19.

This evidence should be top of mind in debates about whether to loosen restrictions on international travel for vaccinated Australians and whether they should be allowed to quarantine at home, rather than a hotel, when they return.

Of the 95 million Americans who were fully vaccinated by April, the CDC identified just 9245 “breakthrough” infections (people who contracted the virus after their vaccinations). That’s backed up by a CDC study released this month that found healthcare workers vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna were 90 per cent less likely to get infected with COVID-19.

An April study from the United Kingdom found that one dose of AstraZeneca or Pfizer cuts the risk of transmitting the virus by almost 50 per cent. That followed AstraZeneca findings, released in February, that a single dose of the vaccine reduced transmission of the virus by 67 per cent.

“Not only do vaccines reduce the severity of illness and prevent hundreds of deaths every day, we now see they also have an additional impact on reducing the chance of passing COVID-19 on to others,” said Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England.

These results have thrilled public health experts in the US and Britain. But they will sound disappointing to any Australian who believes vaccines should be 100 per cent effective at blocking COVID-19 infections.

It’s incumbent upon Australian politicians and health experts to inform the public that such a vaccine will probably never exist and certainly won’t any time soon.

What people should expect is to fundamentally downgrade the threat posed by COVID-19 once a high percentage of the population is vaccinated – most importantly, once the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions have received their jabs.

The fact the vaccines virtually eliminate the risk of serious illness should make the prospect of some community transmission far less alarming than it was before. After all, the reason to fear COVID-19 is not the virus itself but the extent to which it can lead to hospitalisations and deaths.

As the virus mutates, it’s important for authorities to stay alert. It’s possible that future variants will undermine the effectiveness of the vaccines, leading to new restrictions and a need for booster shots. (Britain is speeding up its timeline for second doses in order to combat the new Indian variant.)

Until that point, there’s no need to equivocate about their impressive ability to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

As politicians try to encourage Australians to get their jabs and prepare the nation to reopen its borders, they should be championing the vaccines as the medical miracles they are.

It is the vaccine that liberated America from mandatory masks and it’s the vaccine that will liberate Australia from its isolation from the rest of the world.

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/america-s-unmasking-offers-australia-a-lesson-stop-downplaying-the-vaccines-20210517-p57sha.html


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