Over one-third of the US population is fully vaccinated. As anyone age 16 and up is eligible to get the COVID vaccine, the vaccine rates are accelerating. But what happens when you are fully vaccinated?

Remember, being “fully vaccinated” means it has been two weeks since your second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or two weeks after the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But Biden and the CDC have released a new set of guidelines for those who are indeed fully vaccinated.

The biggest change is that “[fully vaccinated people] can gather indoors with [other] fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart,” guides the CDC in a COVID update.

A sense of normalcy will emerge for those fully vaccinated as they can safely gather with others both outdoors and indoors, and even other guidelines that we have gotten so used to—wearing masks and staying six feet apart—are no longer necessary. 

“I think it is great news and I think this news will help push people to get the vaccine and by next school year maybe it will be like it was before,” said Kriti Gaur (‘24).

Another guideline adopted in the state of California is that fully vaccinated people can walk around and be outdoors without a mask, as long as they aren’t in a large crowd.

Although there are some who already enjoyed their time outdoors forgetting a mask, it can now be done safely for those who have the vaccine to go in public unaccompanied by their mask.

These new rules show that once the country reaches herd immunity, it is very likely that our world will once again change, but hopefully for the better. With the vaccine rollouts increasing and rules decreasing, pre-pandemic life seems to be on the horizon.