• Barrier gestures - wearing a mask, social distancing and frequent hand washing - were put in place at the start of the health crisis to limit contamination.

  • In a report published on Wednesday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) envisages relaxing the barrier gestures between vaccinated people.

  • But if vaccines protect against severe forms of the coronavirus, it is not yet clear whether they prevent transmission.

Will we soon be able to kiss each other?

Take off his mask?

Take your loved ones in your arms?

If barrier gestures have fully become part of our habits since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, they could soon be relaxed between vaccinated people, according to a report from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

A study by the European agency, published on Wednesday, suggests that fully vaccinated people, including the elderly, can relax barrier gestures, such as wearing a mask and social distancing, put in place to fight against the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.

No zero risk

In its report, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control says that for "fully vaccinated individuals", including the elderly, who therefore have a "low to very low" risk of contracting or transmitting the virus, “Physical distancing and the wearing of face masks can be relaxed”. An obvious conclusion for Martin Blachier, epidemiologist and public health doctor, who estimates that two vaccinated people can remove the mask, even indoors: “When you are vaccinated you have protection close to 100%. Wearing a mask is not to protect yourself, but to protect others. If the person in front of you is also vaccinated, the mask is no longer useful, ”he explains.

An opinion that does not share however his colleague Pascal Crépey. For the epidemiologist, zero risk does not exist, even for vaccinated people. “To tell people who have been vaccinated that it is safe to remove the mask would be wrong. The vaccine protects well, it does not protect 100%. Risk reduction does not mean absence of risks, ”he explains, recalling that nursing home residents contracted the virus while they were vaccinated.

On the other hand, vaccinated people "are never completely isolated, they see other unvaccinated people or go shopping," he continues, explaining that the vaccine protects serious forms, but it does not prevent d 'catch the virus.

For the specialist, if adaptations could be considered in the future for vaccinated people, relaxing the barrier gestures seems premature: "It is not necessarily a good strategy to start lowering the guard on the barrier gestures, especially when we ourselves are at risk.

And today, people who have been vaccinated, largely the elderly, are most at risk.

"

A difference between interior and exterior

Yet in its report, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control goes even further, asserting that barrier gestures, including wearing a mask and physical distancing, can also be "lifted or modified" when vaccinated people are in the presence of unvaccinated people "from the same household or the same social bubble" who do not present "risk factors for serious diseases or reduced effectiveness of the vaccine", such as the elderly or immunocompromised.

Martin Blachier warns, however: the vaccine protects against the severity of symptoms, "but it is not yet known whether it protects against transmission. According to initial studies, this would be the case, but it is still uncertain, ”he warns. In short, even if you are vaccinated, you can still contract the virus and pass it on to those who have not been vaccinated.

For the expert, the barrier gestures must remain the same indoors, but could be relaxed outdoors, the risk of being contaminated being very low.

“We contaminate ourselves with aerosols.

Outdoors, with air, these aerosols do not stay in the air.

Even without a mask or social distancing, there is little risk.

"If Pascal Crépey recognizes a lower risk outdoors, he reminds that contamination is also done by postilions:" If we do not wear a mask and we do not respect the distance, we can contaminate or be contaminated by postilions “, Advances the epidemiologist, who calls for maintaining barrier gestures.

Vaccine protection in question

There remains the question of vaccine protection. Vaccines protect well, but their effectiveness is not immediate. To consider relaxing the barrier gestures, it is therefore first necessary to be sure that the vaccine offers its maximum protection. For Moderna, it is obtained "seven days after the second injection of vaccine in subjects free from previous infection with SARS-CoV-2", against 15 days for Pfizer, can we read on the website of the Ministry of Health. For the AstraZeneca vaccine, "subjects begin to be protected approximately three weeks after the first dose", but "they will not be optimally protected until a period of fifteen days following the administration of the second dose", according to the European Medicines Agency.

“It is protection that is increasing, but it is not maximum for three or four weeks.

The first injection protects, the second perpetuates ”, summarizes Martin Blachier.

“From the first injection, you have already almost reached the maximum protection against severe forms.

Where it is less clear, it is on the transmission ”, adds Pascal Crépey.

On the side of the Ministry of Health, the instructions are clear: "It is necessary to continue to apply barrier gestures and to isolate yourself if necessary, even after the 1st dose and the 2nd dose of vaccine", can we read on the Health Insurance website.

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