From what I understand (and the CDC guidance is still pending), you can still be a carrier, the vaccine isn't 100% (you can still get infected, albeit less likely and less severe). Also, it's not a panacea, there's still a LOT we don't know about the effectiveness of the vaccine over time.
I don't know if I mentioned it before, but one of the aerosol toxicology expert doctors testing masks and giving input into CDC mask guidelines, I played two sports with in highschool. Made out with his sister, too.
90% means that it won’t work for 10/100 people. In an office setting that is not trivial. If people come in with no vaccinations, that increases the problem.
Beyond HIPAA there's the issue of the vaccines being authorized for emergency use by the FDA, which is different than standard FDA approval. It's my understanding that that is a big reason why you can't make it mandatory at this point (much to my chagrin, as one of my coworkers with 2 kids in elementary school and one in daycare and a conspiracy theorist husband is refusing to get it).
"So you're saying masks prevent the transmission of saliva aerosols? So they literally stop you from swapping spit? Maybe you should have been more vigilant about recommending masks to your sister."
I haven't flown on a plane in a year. For some reason, I thought flights were still observing the alternate seat arrangement. Nope. ATL airport was packed, first flight full, connecting airport packed. Only thing different I've noticed is the seating areas have some "skip-a-seat" stickers on them. But, everyone is wearing masks.
Pretty good article taking about the J&J vaccine and how those effectiveness numbers are a bit misleading. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/how-effective-johnson-johnson-vaccine-what-know-n1259652
So I think I’m technically a long hauler at this point? Going into week 6 since the symptoms, still having issues. At least I got the antibodies. Major headaches though and mental fog, still can’t gain weight back, and my breathing issues returned today (never completely went away, but got a lot worse). This stuff fucking sucks, but at least I didn’t die. I found out a few days ago that during the first 10 days of me having covid, my wife was having conversations multiple times a day with my mother trying to figure out if it was time to call 911. Didn’t realize how bad it got from the outside. wear a mask and use common sense with sanitation and distancing ladies and gents, y’all don’t want this shit.
I can say with 100% certainty I never want it again. I don’t have my olfactory sense back, and we keep getting janky lab results when blood work is run. Texas is stupid.
In addition to the vaccine not being 100% effective (so you still need to care about who you interact with, because you don't know which side of that effectiveness metric you're on), there's a lot to study about whether vaccinated people can be carriers and for how long (i.e. maybe you are vaccinated but can spread it to someone you interact with). In addition, one of the vaccines' strong points is preventing severe disease - but one thing we don't know much about is the long term health effects from COVID, even for those who did not have severe cases. There are studies which are showing asymptomatic people with lung damage and cardiac damage. It remains to be see if acquiring a mild case of COVID after vaccination will result in long term health effects. Until there's a pretty widespread herd immunity from the vaccine, we still need to be cautious. Hep A/B has been studied forever - we are well aware of the effectiveness of the vaccine (e.g. the Hep B vaccine is 98%+ effective and there aren't a bunch of variants that are reducing that), the transmission (since it requires direct saliva/bodily fluid contact, your risk pool is much smaller), and since there is more vaccine in distribution, your risk pool is smaller still. It's a new virus that's not well studied, with variants that are not well understood, and a vaccine whose trials have had limited time to be investigated. We just don't know enough to treat it like some diseases and vaccines that have been around for many years.
My sister-in-law is experiencing the same weight issue... along with continuing hair loss. Her worry that she may be as bald one day, keeps growing. Thoughts and prayers for her head are appreciated.