Two weeks post second shot but not more than three months since second shot, and no symptoms. That will help me at school since I have had to quarantine twice already and work from home.

what if you have cleared the virus naturally and have natural immunity?

still quarantine?

The quarantine for people with zero symptoms is getting hold. Been exposed multiple times and never tested positive yet have to quarantine. If I could not work from home there is no way I could support my family.

The way I understand it is....the clinical trials for the vaccine were conducted for safety and effectiveness. So the question of spreading or length of effectiveness was not addressed. Therefore no actual data.

Since there is not clinical data the CDC won't say anything. Somehow all medical knowledge prior to 2020 of how our immune system works, how vaccines work or how viruses work is out the window. So "out of an abundance of caution" no one is going to make a statement or recommendation in any official capacity. <eye roll> Kind of crazy to think we are still doing this a year later for a disease with 99.8 survivability and much higher for people under 65.

JP_Losman said:

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what if you have cleared the virus naturally and have natural immunity?

still quarantine?

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According to the CDC, you get the same three months of superpowers.

100% agree with your statement but my only point is that unless CDC has learned that the vaccine does protect against transmission how could they issue this new guidance? Unless I'm missing something they couldn't.

To me the principal reason for the vaccinated to continue to wear a mask is to set a good example for those who aren't. Community case loads are still high enough that people should be wearing masks. If 10-20% of people stop wearing them because they are vaccinated, that starts to become a social pressure on others to stop wearing them. (Also - you'll have a slew of people claiming they are vaccinated just to stop wearing a mask.)

Secondary reason is that the vaccines aren't perfect and there is still enough transmission out there to put people at risk. A 95% effective vaccine alone is fine when cases are generally rare. If 4-5% of the population is actively infected, a mask + vaccine makes more sense.

I think the CDC guidance reflects some recent data that suggest the vaccines are effective at stopping transmission (although less than 95%) so the quarantines are unnecessary. This would also support that those specific people probably don't need a mask but see reason 1 above.

Long-term, I'm betting by the end of April, May at the latest, the mask guidance will get relaxed as well.

GAC06 said:

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Remember men lactate and menstruate too

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To be fair, men actually can lactate. But I know biology lessons weren't actually your point...

Asymptomatic spread has been the premise upon which quarantining for all has been 'justified.' Now, we have a drug that has not yet been shown to reduce transmission (straight out of the mouths of Pfizer and Moderna), but merely is designed to enhance one's own immune protection to the virus. Those who take it are therefore no less likely to transmit than those who don't, but now the former don't have to quarantine? Doesn't make any sense

Because they won't transmit the virus with the vaccine. They never said it won't stop transmission, they said they don't have evidence because that wasn't the target of the trials.