Are people going to get more sick after the masks come off?
While there’s no imminent date for when masks will be allowed to come off at full-scale across the U.S. many are asking about immunity against other illnesses.
As the weather warms up- and vaccine rollout speeds up- it’s a question that News10NBC focused its Good Question segment.
Is our collective immunity going to be less against other viruses and illnesses because of extended mask-wearing during the pandemic?
Jennifer Gutowski, Associate Director of Infection Prevention at Rochester Regional Health, tells News10NBC that immune systems are good at maintaining long-term memory.
“Our immune system works really well on the long term of our childhood illnesses, so if you are a normal adult a teenager, or child even most of us have been exposed to a lot of viruses and bacteria in our years,” Gutowski said. “We will still remember those when we are stepping back out into the real world again.”
The one exception might be young children, who haven’t gone to daycare or preschool yet. The reason is simple- their bodies haven’t experienced various illnesses yet.
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