WASHINGTON — One of the Army’s chief scientists developing a COVID-19 vaccine often gets a question that is being asked by Americans across the country: Once a person is vaccinated, is it safe to visit parents and friends, or could they still infect them?
“Unfortunately, we haven’t answered that question yet,” said Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. “And so we have to operate on the assumption that you still have the ability to still have the virus and transmit, not get the disease, but be sort of a carrier.”
As more Americans are vaccinated, scientists will need to follow up with a study that conducts regular nasal swabs to determine if the COVID-19 virus can still attach to a vaccinated person, resulting in a positive test, even if it doesn’t make them sick, he said in an interview with McClatchy.
