patrick.net

It's been more than a year since I've seen my mother. Like many families, we live a fair distance apart and the pandemic has put a stop to our visits. I was supposed to go last April to help celebrate her 90th birthday, instead we shared a toast over the phone and tightly crossed our fingers that by summer things would be better. They weren't.

Then a few weeks ago my mother called to say that she'd been vaccinated. She's now more than two weeks out from her second dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and the thing I want to do most, is go and give her a long and belated birthday hug. But is that really a good idea, as I haven't been vaccinated yet?

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The only thing that will finally cut the risk of infection will be when the U.S. reaches herd immunity, meaning that the virus is brought down to extremely low levels and we can get back to normal.

Until then, "You still pose a clear and present danger to your parents," says Dr. June McKoy, associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.