On 10 Tampa Bay, we’re committed to keeping you up to date with all the latest COVID-19 news.
That’s why every week we are taking your questions to a local medical expert to talk about what’s going on. From the latest on where Tampa Bay stands with vaccines, to monitoring the COVID-19 variants, we’ll continue tracking information.
Dr. Michael Teng, Ph.D., is a virologist at USF Health.
Here are some of the questions we asked this week:
Q: Senator Rand Paul got into a heated discussion with Dr. Anthony Fauci, claiming that if you're vaccinated, wearing a mask is unnecessary but Fauci strongly disagreed. What's the science behind wearing a mask once you're vaccinated?
A: "You might be infected with asymptomatic infection. The vaccines we know protect against symptomatic infection, we think they protect against asymptomatic infection, but that data is not as robust, so it's also a means to protect yourself from spreading the disease that you don't even know you have. Dr. Anthony Fauci also brought up the point that with these variants that are out there now, that does seem to be a little bit different immunologically, so your immune system might now recognize them as well."
Q: If you are fully vaccinated and you know that you've been in contact with someone who has COVID-19, should you quarantine? Should you get tested?
A: "Once you're symptomatic then you should definitely get tested to see if you have COVID. And, if you've been infected then you should isolate."
Q: A new study shows COVID-19 reinfections are rare, but people older than 65 are more prone to get the virus again. What can we take away from this?
A: "This was a Danish study, just posted in The Lancet. They looked at the first wave and then they looked at the second wave. So, what they're looking at is how many people were reinfected in the second wave. It was less than one percent of the people that got reinfected, so that's good news.
"Unfortunately, the older population 65 plus had a little bit higher percentages, so they estimate protection at less than 50 percent. What we do know is the vaccines that we're using give an even better response, at least in terms of antibodies than even natural infection does."
Do you have questions about COVID-19 you want Dr. Teng to answer? Text them to 727-577-8522 and we might answer them on 10 Tampa Bay Brightside.
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