Until 80% to 90% of the population become vaccinated against corona virus, wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing is the best policy to ensure your and your family and friends protection. This is true even if you have had your vaccination.

I get a lot of questions about whether you should continue wearing a mask after being vaccinated. As more and more of us are getting vaccinated against COVID-19, which is terrific, this question becomes more prevalent.

The reality is you can still become infected with the COVID-19 virus even though you’re immunised. It’s simply means that you won’t get seriously ill. So if you’ve had the Astra vaccine, there’s an almost 40% chance of reinfection. If you’ve had the Pfizer vaccine, the chance of reinfection is 20 or 30%. You are not going to get terribly sick but you can pass it onto others.

This reinforces the advise that wearing a mask gives you extra protection. It’s almost like having 100% protection with a mask versus the normal 70% protection you would have if you didn’t wear a mask. Therefore being vaccinated and wearing a mask together, provide maximum protection.

Until 80 or 90% of the population is immunised, mask wearing is really going to become the norm.

Dr Norman Swan, Physician and Journalist

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