What to Do After You Get the COVID-19 Vaccine

Vaccines for COVID-19 are finally here. And, as members of the general public become vaccinated, we want to be sure you remain safe and have all the information you need to keep others safe, too.

The biggest, most important thing to know about getting your vaccine is that you’ll still need to take the precautions you’ve become familiar with in 2020. This won’t be forever, but it’s vital to remain diligent now until the vast majority of Americans are vaccinated to keep everyone safe.

According to the CDC, you should follow all precautions after you receive your vaccine:

• Keep wearing your mask when you’re in public.
• Stay diligent about washing and disinfecting your hands.
• Continue physical distancing outside your household.
• Avoid crowds and large gatherings (it’s not party time just yet)
• Follow CDC travel guidelines and recommendations
• Adhere to quarantine guidelines after exposure to COVID-19 or high-risk activity.

Here’s why we must continue pandemic protocol even with the vaccine:

1. The COVID-19 vaccine isn’t 100% effective in preventing illness. Rather, it reduces your chances of becoming ill with COVID-19. We want you to continue diligently soaping up, social distancing, and disinfecting to further minimize your risk of infection.
2. Even though you’ve been vaccinated, you may still be able to carry the virus (without symptoms) and pass it along to others. The medical community is currently awaiting clinical trial results to determine whether the vaccine can prevent transmission as well as an illness.
3. Experts must evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine in slowing the spread of COVID-19 before changing or easing safety guidelines. Until we have a thorough understanding of the vaccine’s efficacy to protect both individuals and communities at large, we all have to utilize the resources available to us (like masking up, washing up, and keeping physical distance) to slow the spread and conserve our healthcare capacity.

Hope for a Healthier Future is Here

It’s been a long and scary year but with the debut of not one, but two, COVID-19 vaccines (and more to come), hope for a healthier future is finally on the horizon.

People are both excited and nervous about what the future holds and, understandably, have lots and lots of questions surrounding both of the vaccines.

What are their similarities and differences? How do they work? How effective are they? What are the side effects? How do I get one?

Carbon Health’s Director of Program Development and triple board-certified pulmonary, critical care, and internal medicine doctor Aaron S. Weinberg, MD, MPhil, addresses these concerns and questions in his latest article.

Stay with us and stay strong.

The COVID-19 vaccines are our most promising tools when it comes to beating the virus and returning to our pre-pandemic lives. The hope that’s been on the horizon is now here, and it’s our collective responsibility to help each other so we can get the rest of the way through this.

And when we do, Carbon Health will be there to celebrate with you!

Liked what you read? Learn more by downloading the Carbon Health app or visiting carbonhealth.com.

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