1/ So why won't life return to normal after you're vaccinated? There are many reasons but they all come from the speed of the vaccines to market and not having enough time to get answers. We don't know if the vaccines prevent infection so it's quite possible, even likely

2/ that they will prevent symptomatic disease in people but will not be 100% as that's a rarity with vaccines. That means you could get infected asymptomatically and still be a risk to others. This is why we need to get transmission numbers as low as possible before we

3/ start adminstering the vaccines. It's also why you will still have to mask and take the precautions you are now; this is to protect others who have not yet received the jabs.
The next issue is both the mRNA vaccines require 2 doses. Pfizer is 21 days later for the second and

4/ Moderna is spaced 28 days apart for their second dose.
I anticipate some issues getting people to come back for the second, if you just get the first, immunity will be severely limited it is IMPERATIVE to get both. Even after you get both shots vaccine induced immunity can

5/ take 2-4 weeks after you've received it so you are looking at up to 8 weeks after the first shot for immunity.
Also in the Pfizer trial one participant in the vaccine arm still developed a severe case of COVID.

6/ How long will immunity last? Well we just don't know. This where the compressed timeframe and lack of data come into play. We *can* say immunity lasts as long as the day the data was compiled.

7/ We can also usually say vaccine-induced-immunity lasts longer than infection-induced-immunity. To be specific it could last months or it could last years and that's not very specific is it?

8/ Side effects in reported data have been mild but we normally have years of safety data to look at and in these cases we have months. While mRNA vaccines in theory should be safe, none had previously been approved for human use so as we get deeper into the rollout in the months

9/ ahead unexpected sides could in fact show up. We just will not know until we get more time living with these vaccines.
We should definitely be optimistic on this day, the UK regulators have decided safety data is sufficient for distribution to start, and this is what we

10/ have all been fervently hoping for since March. So be happy and celebrate this great scientific achievement but temper your enthusiasm a bit. The reality is there's light at the end of the tunnel but still a long way to navigate.

11/ As I said in the summer, there will be no VE day, no big parade on THE DAY it ends; there's no day like that forthcoming. Instead it will be little victories that will add up to a return to some form of normalcy at some point in the future.

12/ Your risk of infection will definitely be significantly reduced and along with other measures, will be a major contributor to getting back to the way things once were.
Many challenges still lay ahead but we are getting there.