Starkville doctor explains why people who are fully vaccinated still need to wear masks and practice social distancing

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The Mississippi State Department of Health issued a reminder on Wednesday that people still should keep taking proper safety precautions even after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 7.5 percent of Mississippians have received at least one dose of the vaccine while 0.9 percent have gotten two. 

“I know it’s annoying that we still have to do all the same stuff, but we just are not there in the process where we can let everything go,” said Dr. Emily Landrum of the Family Clinic in Starkville. 

Dr. Landrum says that while vaccinated patients themselves are protected from the coronavirus, the same cannot be said for the thousands of others still waiting. 

“(They are) certainly unlikely to get the severe disease but there is still some potential that someone could come in contact with the virus and carry it around enough that they still could transmit that to others,” she said. 

Dr. Landrum and medical experts across the country say 70 to 80 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated to create the necessary head immunity to the virus. The latest numbers from the CDC say approximately 8 percent of the U.S. population has gotten at least one dose of the vaccine.  

“We hope that that’s going to improve as we see hopefully more vaccines become approved and the production increased,” Dr. Landrum said.  

With doses still in such high demand, Dr. Landrum also reiterated that the vaccine will not be fully effective until 10 to 14 days after the final dose. 

“I have had people who I know who, within 12 hours of getting a dose of the vaccine, were exposed and subsequently developed COVID because they were still in that window because they did not have the anti-bodies built up,” she said.  

As more mutated strains of the virus develop, Dr. Landrum says now is not the time to throw caution to the wind. 

“The variant strains that we are beginning to see which, from the data we have now, we should have protection from the vaccines that we have currently,” she said. “Or they should be easily modifiable so that we can gain protection but there is a lot of that information that is still to be seen.”