Contact Us Online. What is viral shedding? Viral shedding and masks Because a person infected with a respiratory virus is shedding virus particles from their nose and mouth, you can quickly conclude that a mask will decrease the spread of viral particles as they are physically trapped by the mask.
Two additional aspects of masking are worth considering in the context of viral shedding: A mask also protects the person who is wearing it — Because a mask serves as a physical barrier, it offers some protection for the person wearing it. However, people can inadvertently expose themselves if they touch a contaminated mask or other surface and then touch their eyes, nose or mouth. So, a mask worn by an infected person offers more protection than a mask worn by an uninfected person because the net result is fewer infectious viral particles circulating in the air and landing on surfaces.
Said another way, if you are healthy and susceptible and you find yourself in a situation with one mask and an infected person, give them the mask and physically distance. You will be safer than if you wear the mask yourself. The type and fit of the mask is important — Given that a mask serves as a physical barrier for virus particles, the type of material from which the mask is made and the snugness of its fit are important determinants of its effectiveness.
This is why multilayer masks made of materials with tight fibers are more effective, and bandanas and gaiter masks are less effective.
You can find information on how to properly wear, remove and care for your mask in this previous Parents PACK article. Viral shedding and vaccines Viral shedding can occur following vaccination if the vaccine contains live, weakened viruses because that type of vaccine causes immunity through viral reproduction. Parts of virus — During an infection, the entire virus is produced, but the COVID vaccines only introduce the nucleic acid related to one viral protein — the spike protein — so no other genes or proteins are available to produce viral particles.
Simply put, it is impossible for the vaccines to result in the production of infectious virus particles. Our cells do not have the directions to make the whole virus.
Location of processing — As described earlier, when a person is infected with COVID, the earliest viral replication occurs in the nasal cavity. If the immune system does not gain control during those early days, the virus may spread to other parts of the body and infect cells in other locations.
This is why some people seem OK in the beginning, but then after about a week, they get more severely ill. On the other hand, the mRNA and adenovirus-vector vaccines are processed near the injection site, so the spike protein is never in an area of the body from which it could be shed, such as the nose.
Whisper-down-the-lane game — Unfortunately, because there is confusion related to whether the virus can be shed after vaccination, other misinformed ideas become conflated with the idea that a vaccinated person is shedding the virus — or even just the spike protein. For example, some people have heard that when a vaccinated person sheds the virus or spike protein, they can affect the fertility of someone else. This idea conflates the misunderstanding about viral shedding with another misunderstanding related to fertility.
No, these vaccines do not affect fertility. Studies measuring the shedding of viral genetic material from the respiratory tract have reported shedding typically lasts around 17 days. Shedding of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material can persist for more than 80 days in the upper respiratory tract, and over days in the stool. Here's why that's not surprising and there's no need to panic.
These are common in research laboratories, but are not used as diagnostic tests. Read more: How long are you infectious when you have coronavirus? Though some research has found prolonged shedding in the respiratory tract can be linked to more severe disease.
Certain groups have been associated with prolonged SARS-CoV-2 shedding, including males, children , older adults, and people with compromised immune systems. But, by sticking to COVID-safe guidelines such as keeping an adequate distance from others, wearing a face mask, and practising hand hygiene, we can minimise the risks from a person unknowingly shedding infectious virus.
Like many myths, the belief that interacting with someone who got a vaccine could potentially cause you harm stems from kernel of truth. It's a concept called viral shedding or sometimes "vaccine shedding" , a process of the body releasing viral particles from a vaccine and hypothetically creating a risk of infection to others.
That's not the basis or science behind any of the vaccines we're currently using for COVID," Vincent Venditto , PhD, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, who has worked on vaccine development, tells Health. The only way for this to potentially happen is from a live-attenuated vaccine , which means it contains a weakened version of a germ that causes a disease.
These vaccines work by letting the virus replicate inside a person's body enough times to stimulate an immune response, but not cause the disease itself, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC. The live-attenuated vaccines currently used in the US include:. And while this type of vaccine can cause a person to shed the weakened virus often through their feces , it's extremely rare to spread enough of the germ to infect someone else with the disease.
Take the flu vaccines, for example. While researchers have discovered cases in which the weakened flu virus was transmitted from a vaccinated person to someone else, they've found no instances of that causing serious illness. Likewise, there have only been about a dozen cases of healthy vaccinated people all of whom developed a rash after their vaccine spreading the weakened virus used in the chickenpox shot to unvaccinated people around the world since , per the CDC.
For example, there was a polio vaccine that had a few cases of reported viral shedding, but it's not used in the US anymore," explains Venditto. While there is an extremely low risk of viral shedding from some vaccines causing harm to others, there's absolutely no danger when it comes to the COVID vaccines. The mRNA teaches our immune cells to create the "spike protein" found on the surface of the coronavirus.
The mRNA used in these vaccines don't cause any sort of infection, and even if they could, they don't stick around long enough to pose much of a risk. By their very nature, mRNA molecules are fragile and degrade quickly that's why super cold temperatures are used to preserve them.
According to the American Medical Association , the mRNA vanishes from the body within 24 hours, and the spike protein it helps cells produce clear out within 72 hours.
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