Vaccinated individuals may still give Covid-19 to someone else, says UK chief medical officer

The chief medical officer of England, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said that those who have already received their Covid-19 vaccination must still adhere to health protocols since they could still infect others.

The Telegraph reported that Prof. Van-Tam stated that it is not yet known if those who have already been vaccinated against Covid-19 could still pass the deadly virus to other people even if they are already protected from becoming ill themselves. Hence, he stated that even if people already had both doses they could still give Covid to someone else. He added that as a result, the chains of transmission will just keep going.

Prof. Van-Tam said that if those who have been vaccinated will ease off just because they are protected, then they are virtually putting at risk those who have not yet been inoculated, particularly those who are down the priority list.

He noted that in order to prevent the possibility of passing the virus to others, those who already got the jab must still abide by lockdown restrictions, or else the number of cases will continue to be high.

He advises everyone, those who had the jab and those who have not been inoculated, to follow the public health advice. He underscored how protection would take three weeks and it is not yet known what the impact of the vaccines will be on transmission.

Independent noted that the number of individuals who have received the vaccine in the UK has breached 5.8 million. The highest single jab record they had in one day was at 478,248.

While the UK government is doubling its efforts to hasten the rollout of vaccines to reach more people, there were some groups that criticised the move of the government to extend the gap between jabs to 12 weeks.

Previously, the British Medical Association (BMA) has written a letter to Van-Tam urging him to rethink its position. The group cited Pfizer-BioNTech where a maximum of a six-week gap was mandated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, council chairman of BMA, said that there is no other country that is also taking the approach of the UK. He said they think that the approach of the WHO in offering flexibility to extend the period between jabs up to 12 weeks is "being stretched too far."

Coronavirus Vaccine