Sir, – Your photograph (News, April 2nd) of a radiant Mary O'Rourke captures the delight and sense of relief that most over-70s feel at their imminent full vaccination, especially the 30 per cent who live alone, many of whom have never left their homes or had any face-to-face social interaction for over a year.
In our cocoons, we have had time to learn that Sars-CoV-2 is continuously mutating, that 95 per cent effectiveness is not 100 per cent effectiveness and that although there is increasing evidence that vaccination greatly reduces onward transmission of the virus, there have not yet been conclusive tests.
Having proved remarkably compliant with health advice over the past year, our cohort is not about to discard carelessly its habits of mask-wearing, social distancing and hand-washing. But we have not reached the age of vaccination entitlement without becoming sadly aware that we are all at the mercy of unpredictable events, and that it is impossible to live a risk-free life. We are also conscious that our time to enjoy the company of our children and grandchildren is limited.
So what can we, the vaccinated, do with our new-found freedom?
On March 31st, the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre published “Guidance on vaccinated individuals visiting other vaccinated individuals in a household setting”. It is explicitly informed by two very recent documents from the European Centre for Disease Control and the US Centres for Disease Control. The CDC report is particularly valuable in helping the layman to understand the science behind a set of behavioural recommendations to people who are fully vaccinated.
It recommends continued mask-wearing and social distancing. But it also approves of mask-less meetings indoors with people who are fully vaccinated, and even with “unvaccinated people from a single household who are at a low risk for severe COVID-19 disease”. It also argues that with an effective vaccine and increasing vaccination coverage, “the burden of testing and quarantine is much higher than any marginal additional risk reduction provided for the fully vaccinated traveller”.
Having encouraged us to read this report, the HSE then appears to reject its carefully well-reasoned recommendations. We shall be allowed to accept into our homes fully vaccinated people from only one household – our single friends can be invited only one at a time. Why? It also remains unclear about whether fully vaccinated people wishing to travel are to be subject to the same PCR testing and quarantining as the unvaccinated. Does the HSE accept the CDC recommendations about this, and if not, why not? – Yours, etc,
TIMOTHY KING,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.