You've recently received both Covid-19 Vaccinations... you can finally start returning to normalcy and retire that mask you've been wearing for a year, right?  WRONG!

“You absolutely cannot [stop wearing a mask],” said Dawn Davis, a physician at Mayo Clinic. We want to make sure that you’re not potentially spreading the virus to others and also that you don’t accidentally pick up the virus from someone else.”

According to WIVB-TV, the vaccine does protect you from a severe case of COVID-19, but researchers have yet to determine if the vaccine halts transmission, or spreading from person-to-person. So to keep you and others protected public health protocols — wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands — must stay in place.

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The vaccines have proven highly effective at preventing you from contracting the virus, but there is still a small chance that the virus could break through your enhanced defenses. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the only two vaccines currently available in the U.S., are 95-percent effective at preventing you from contracting COVID.

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Although the vaccines are incredibly effective, and offer 95% protection, there’s no way to tell who the 5% will be who don’t respond to the vaccine and will still be at risk for COVID-19.

The other thing experts say to consider is that not wearing a mask in public “sends a bad message to people,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

It’s discouraging [to see people not wearing masks],” he said, “and who can prove that you’ve been vaccinated?”

For the other does and don'ts after getting vaccinated, click here.

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