Boosters will likely be needed after vaccine

NORWALK — Getting the COVID-19 vaccine doesn't mean life can return to normal, health commissioner Tim Hollinger said. During Huron County's most recent board of health meeting, Hollinger discussed getting the vaccine, what it means, as well as new variants of the virus. He said those who have received the vaccine — even both doses — should still wear masks, social distance and avoid social gatherings. "Most vaccines prevent the symptoms of a disease as opposed to preventing the infection," he said. "Just because you have the vaccine in you, it doesn't stop the virus from entering your body and starting to attack your body, your immune system will respond to that." Hollinger said those who receive the vaccine should be protected from becoming symptomatic, but they can still infect others. "You won't know you're sick, you're asymptomatic," he said. "But you can still spread it to other people." There are currently two authorized vaccines, with another from Johnson & Johnson being developed. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines both require two doses, about a month apart. Hollinger said the first shot of the vaccine starts to build up about half of immunity over four weeks and after the second dose, your immunity increases further over the next two weeks. "Potential for the asymptomatic transmission depends on how large the initial dose of the virus was in your body and how quickly the infection is controlled by your immune system," he said. Moderna has some new preliminary data, the health commissioner said, suggesting their vaccine has a 66 percent reduction in asymptomatic infection. "That could translate into lower transmission numbers," Hollinger said. "But that's saying 33 percent of the people would be asymptomatic and would be able to infect others." It's still possible for those who have been vaccinated to still carry the virus. He said the companies that made the vaccines only tested to see if recipients became symptomatic after vaccination. Hollinger said the original virus from Wuhan, China, is almost completely gone, taken over by other versions of the virus that are more aggressive or better at adapting and surviving in the host. While the first two vaccines are reported to be 95 percent effective, Moderna and Pfizer developed their vaccines before the variants existed. There are three main variants currently, a United Kingdom variant, South African and a Brazilian variant. "When they ran their tests, those variants didn't exist. Those variants are higher on transmissibility," he said. "This could mean there are now potentially three variants that have a higher transmission level, and could also be somewhat resistant to the vaccine." Hollinger said a booster for the vaccine is already being developed as the virus mutates. "This is a chess match. This is going to be an ongoing situation," he said. "It's not all doom and gloom, with the new technology it's very quick to ramp up changes in the vaccine." He said people may have to get shots on a regular basis, based on the patient, depending on if the virus mutates to be "capable of getting around the vaccine." Still, this doesn't mean the virus is anymore deadlier, but more aggressive when being transmitted. Hollinger said there has been a decline in the local positivity rate but this is likely due to less testing being done. "People aren't going to get the test and our numbers are declining so the positivity rate will decline with that," he said. "It doesn't mean there's less COVID in the community, we don't know, but we know there are less people going to ask for tests." Do you have a question you'd like to ask the health commissioner? Send questions for an upcoming story to lynannevucovich@norwalkreflector.com