# Continuing to keep masking for your own reasons

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuing-to-keep-masking-for-your-own-reasons/941850>\
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone\
**Tags:** covid-quarantine\
**Created:** [May 11, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuing-to-keep-masking-for-your-own-reasons/941850 "2021-05-11T16:32:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 20

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**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/continuing-to-keep-masking-for-your-own-reasons/941850/20 "2021-05-11T18:24:44Z")

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> [@elbows](#):
>
> I thought your vaccine protects you from catching it, but doesn’t keep you from spreading it if you’ve been unknowingly exposed.

This has consistently been very poorly reported in the press.

It is (obviously, when you think about it) much more difficult to study relative rates of transmission _from_ people who have been vaccinated, than to study whether vaccinated people are getting sick themselves. So _we don’t know_ to what extent vaccination reduces transmission, especially with new strains circulating. But it is certainly _likely_ that a vaccine that is so successful at preventing disease will also reduce transmission significantly.

Careful scientists prudently saying _we don’t know if X is true_ is consistently poorly reported to imply that it means _we know X is false_.

So your conclusion is right - it’s prudent for vaccinated people to keep wearing a mask for the time being. But that’s not because we have any reason to believe than vaccination is ineffective at reducing transmission. We just don’t have firm data yet.

This study just started:

[https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/covid-prevention-news-releases/prevent-covid-university-study/](https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/covid-prevention-news-releases/prevent-covid-university-study/)

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