Doctors Stress Importance Of Mitigation Strategies As Vaccines Distributed

According to Hillcrest Hospital, it's important to get a vaccine. However, no vaccine is one hundred percent effective, which is why doctors say you can't forget the basics like wearing your mask, social distancing, and washing your hands.

The State Department of Health says nearly three hundred thousand Oklahomans have received their first dose of the vaccine.

The Tulsa Health department reports forty-one thousand doses administered in Tulsa County and almost eleven thousand in the city of Tulsa.

The family physician at Hillcrest Hospital, Dr. Emily Grewe-nelson said the vaccine is 95 percent effective against the symptomatic disease. However, she said the effectiveness for patients who are not showing symptoms, is still unknown.

"Theoretically, someone with a vaccine with an asymptomatic case, if they are still not wearing a mask and doing social distancing, then they can still spread that to someone else."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 40 percent of people with COVID-19 are asymptomatic.

"The pandemic really has a lot to do with the involvement of our community so the science community and the medical community cannot stop it on its own."

Dr. Grewe-nelson said masks help limit the spread of all strains of COVID-19, despite mutations.

"That's why every year it's a guess of exactly which strain should go into the vaccine and sometimes people will get the vaccine and end up getting the flu."

You can check the status of vaccinations in Oklahoma by clicking here