“When will masks go away?” That is the question on everyone’s mind right now. It seems some countries have it together, while us here in America can’t seem to grasp the idea of social distancing and public health. Take Australia for example, the other night I was browsing on snapchat and just happened to see a snap of tons of young adults at a rave, something that is unimaginable in the states as I am writing this.
With the vaccine looming over our heads and people getting it in their arms, it seems we are getting closer and closer to finally letting our mouths free. Are we though? Once you get both doses of the vaccine can you remove your mask? Short answer… no. Will we be able to at least get back to some normalcy? Long answer… it depends.
Just because the vaccine is 95% effective doesn’t mean that everyone is going to be helped by it. Scientists and health experts still don’t know the long-term side effects of COVID-19 yet and how it’s mutating. For all we know, the vaccine may only prevent A and B strand but not C or D. It will also take a while to vaccinate every person in the country. Young adults, such as us, won’t be seeing it in our arms until, most likely, late spring early summer. As for children, they won’t be seeing it in their arms until, most likely, early to mid-fall.
We also need a large percentage of the population to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Anti-vaxxers may choose not to get it and now with startling information, followed by misinformation, surfacing around the internet, even more people are not going to get the shot. The CDC has no information about how many people need to get vaccinated, but other health experts say greater than 50%.
Getting back to how life was before 2020 takes everyone to put in some effort. Normal activities should be able to resume, with masks, if enough of the population gets the vaccine. When will masks go away though? The answer is still unclear.