My op-ed is NOW OUT!
Pls read and consider

PS trying to change title (I didn't pick it, don't @ me) to

"Is it ok to relax restrictions after COVID Vaccination?"
VP says yes, of course!

Here is why [Thread]

https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/vinay-prasad/90764

The thesis:

14 days after dose 2 of the vaccine, you can ease up on something: perhaps masking, but lets be honest thats not what people really want

What we want is a dinner party w/ vaccinated peeps, hugging our mothers, etc.

Yes, you can do that!
Hug her extra tight

Here are the caveats:

IT is about these settings

Now let us turn to the data

There are 3 lines of data that support my claim:
1. Rates of symptomatic/ severe covid are SUPER low
2 Rates of asx infection are SUPER low
3. No mask data that shows masks help after someone is vaccinated w/ a vaccine with this kind of efficacy

Lets start with 1.
95% is not the right #.

The right # is prob of covid 14 days after dose 2 if asx. That is like 99.92-99.95% no symptomatic covid

Are you hearing that?
That is good

The probability of severe covid is essentially 0%

Are you kidding me. That is a massively diminished virus.

The amazing immune response catalyzed by vaccination WILL lower the risk of contagiousness

It will do that.

2. Asymptomatic infections are also reduced
The absolute risk of PCR + on dose 2 of moderna swab is ~1 in 1000... and that is before 14 days of further asx time

That is a low, low, low risk

3. The bio-plausibility of mask wearing is vanishing by the second.

What precisely do you think the effect size is AFTER a vaccine with MASSIVE EFFICACY? What data supports that?

It is like asking what came before the big bang!
Who knows if it still adds anything?

Here is what you can tell people

Verbatim

And this

Getting vaccinated is like getting tickets from Chuck EE Cheese

You decide what to cash them in for!!

I will take hugging a loved one or unmasked dinner with other vaccinated people, thank you very much!

Objections:

Here is one.. how will people (mis) interpret this?

Sorry y'all:
Scientists must say the facts, and we cannot twist our message to manipulate people to do what we want

Too much of that has happened IMO

Humans need social connections, and my evidence based interpretation of the data acknowledges the truth about the vaccine

If you say, my view is not the 'safest'

I will say NEITHER Is yours.

You actually don't want total safety.

You never wanted it, and you will never get it

In the absence of vaccine escape, COVID is ending

And if there is vaccine escape, may God help the USA because I am not sure we can take it

Finally, if you are 14 days after 2nd vaccination and you have been asymptomatic this entire time, and you lower your mask to smile at me...

I will lower my mask, and smile right back..

Cheers!

Pls read the full article https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/vinay-prasad/90764

and the superb counterpoint by my colleague https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/90763

If you read both pieces, what do you think?

What will you do?

PS: Some folks think we cannot have these discussion out in the open

I disagree. We must be committed to reason and ideas and intellectualism above all else. We must be willing to talk about hard things.

The public is smart and can handle it.
We cannot infantilize them

We should discount the first 7 votes.

TOO FAST people, you could not have read both

;)