Lindsey TheisAs more people become vaccinated, you might be wondering about the risks of getting sick with COVID-19.
We asked the experts, what’s the risk of hugging your grandkids after the vaccine?
Their take: The risk of contracting COVID-19 is low.
"The risk of hugging your grandkids is probably something that falls into the low-to-medium-risk category. And this is the reason: First, you want to make sure that you are at least two weeks out from the completion of your vaccine," said Dr. Kelly Cawcutt, associate medical director of infection control and epidemiology at Nebraska Medical Center.
"After two weeks, you definitely have built the immunity you need and definitely is much safer than it was prior," Katie Cary, assistant vice president of infection prevention for HCA Continental Division, told Newsy.
"If you as an individual are vaccinated, you can interact with one household that may not be vaccinated, or maybe every member is not vaccinated. So you may have your adult son and daughter-in-law come over with their kids, but it's one household that's there," Dr. Irfan N. Hafiz, infectious disease physician and northwest region chief medical officer at Northwestern Medicine, said.
"Your risk goes down once you've been vaccinated. So the high is going to mediums, mediums go to lows, but there's no zero risk," says Dr. Frank Esper, pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the Cleveland Clinic.
For more answers on what is low-, medium- or high-risk, visit newsy.com/whatstherisk.
