Do I have to wear a mask after vaccination ？

The duration of vaccine protection, which is more than six months as required by WHO regulations, is basically not too much of a question."After vaccination with COVID-19, you should continue to maintain personal protective measures, including wearing masks, maintaining social distance, washing your hands frequently, and other good habits. The vaccine is not 100% protective. 

What are the expiry dates of the three vaccines currently in China ?If the expiration date has passed, is it necessary to vaccinate again?In addition, you may be concerned about whether you should continue to wear a mask if you have received the COVID-19 vaccine.

Zeng responded that the virus was discovered less than a year ago, so it is too early to say how long the vaccine will protect, and continued follow-up studies are needed.However, there is some information that can help determine how long the vaccine will protect.

One is some animal experiments that started in February.At the Institute of Experimental Animal Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the vaccine was given to monkeys and proved to protect them, all of whom are still alive today.Some recent experiments have shown that it has a protective effect.If we started in February, it would be nearly nine months now.

Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, which started in March, have a lot of volunteers in clinical trials, have been followed up all the time, their antibodies have been tested, and they continue.

Third, many medical institutions follow up the discharged patients to see if the antibodies continue to exist after discharge.According to Zeng, the first patient discharged from the Shenzhen Infectious Disease Hospital was on Jan. 23. A total of more than 400 patients were followed up, and they found that many patients still had antibodies for up to 10 months.

So all of this evidence suggests that there is not much doubt about the duration of vaccine protection, which is more than six months as required by WHO regulations.Of course, the jury is still out on whether protection will last a lifetime, or at least five or 10 years, like many viral vaccines do.""Zeng Yixin said.

Is the COVID-19 vaccine given once a year, like the flu vaccine?'Why do you get a flu shot every year?' Mr. Zeng said.Not to say that because of flu vaccine protection in less than a year, because of the flu virus quickly, may be the subtypes in fashion this year, next year may be changed a subtype in popular, so to adjust the vaccine, and is not to say that for the term of protection of the vaccine is a year, because the virus variation, different subtypes in popular.Therefore, it should be said that there is no need to vaccinate again half a year or a year, more optimistic estimate, it is not likely.

As for preventive measures after vaccination, Zeng pointed out that people should continue to maintain personal protective measures, including wearing masks, maintaining social distance and washing hands frequently.After all, the protection of vaccines is not 100 percent, and so far no vaccine has been said to achieve a 100 percent protection rate.Especially in the current herd immunity has not been established under the circumstances, even if the vaccine, the protection measures still cannot be reduced.