--- title: Can I Visit People Who Are Vaccinated During COVID-19? description: In today's COVID Questions, a reader asks how to handle visits when some family members are vaccinated and others aren't. canonical: https://time.com/5932095/can-i-visit-vaccinated-people-covid-19/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-01-25T16:18:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:09:23.606Z article:section: Health og:title: My Family Will Be Vaccinated Long Before Me. Can They Visit? og:description: How to handle socializing in the era of vaccine rollout og:url: https://time.com/5932095/can-i-visit-vaccinated-people-covid-19/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt682010859423d6dc/698a168f4ee2625c4031855e/coronavirus-vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Coronavirus vaccines og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: My Family Will Be Vaccinated Long Before Me. Can They Visit? twitter:description: How to handle socializing in the era of vaccine rollout twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt682010859423d6dc/698a168f4ee2625c4031855e/coronavirus-vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # My Parents Will Be Vaccinated Long Before Me. Can They Come Visit? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=4efbca1f-28e0-40e9-8144-6113c7015c52&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Tracking the Vaccine: From Freezer to Front Line [Watch (HLS stream): Tracking the Vaccine: From Freezer to Front Line](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0dwzz5K2.m3u8) (4:28)  _Published 2021-01-20. TIME followed the vaccination process from a Walgreens freezer to a long-term care facility to see what the roll out can look like._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jan 25, 2021 4:18 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jan 25, 2021 4:18 PM UTC Welcome to COVID Questions, TIME’s advice column. We’re trying to make living through the pandemic a little easier, with expert-backed answers to your toughest coronavirus-related dilemmas. While we can’t and don’t offer medical advice—those questions should go to your doctor—we hope this column will help you sort through this stressful and confusing time. Got a question? Write to us at [covidquestions@time.com.](mailto:covidquestions@time.com) Today, E.B. in New York asks: --- > “” --- To state the obvious, we are in a strange limbo state right now. The vaccines we’ve eagerly awaited for almost a year [are here](https://time.com/5932028/vaccine-rollout-joe-biden/), and yet…nothing about our daily lives has really changed. Unfortunately, that’s going to be the case for a bit longer. “The end is in sight,” says Dr. Colleen Kelley, a vaccine researcher and associate professor of infectious diseases at the Emory University School of Medicine in Georgia. “I just don’t know that it’s right now.” Your loved ones getting vaccinated is unequivocally a step forward, Kelley says. It would certainly be saf_er_ to visit with your parents or in-laws after they’ve gotten both vaccine doses, but the saf_est_ plan is to wait until you and your husband are also vaccinated, she says. The two coronavirus vaccines currently authorized for use in the U.S.—those made by [Pfizer-BioNTech](https://time.com/collection/coronavirus-vaccines-updates/5926234/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine/) and [Moderna](https://time.com/collection/coronavirus-vaccines-updates/5926241/moderna-covid-19-vaccine/)—are both extremely effective at preventing people from getting sick with COVID-19\. That’s a huge benefit on its own, especially for people at high risk of severe illness, such as elderly adults and people with underlying medical conditions. But the outstanding question is whether COVID-19 vaccines also stop people from getting asymptomatically infected with the virus. [Early evidence](https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-moderna-asymptomatic/moderna-says-its-covid-19-vaccine-may-prevent-asymptomatic-infection-idUSFWN2IV07D) suggests [both shots](https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-vaccine-data-suggests-decrease-in-covid-19-infection-rate-after-first-dose-11610658607) offer at least some protection against asymptomatic infection, and many experts are optimistic about their chances of stopping transmission, but the data are still coming together. If the shots turn out not to stop asymptomatic infections entirely, even your vaccinated parents could feasibly get your family sick if they picked something up while traveling to see you. Or, if you happened to be exposed to the virus, your parents could potentially carry it and pass it to others. And, while the authorized COVID-19 vaccines are very effective, there is always a tiny chance of them failing, leaving your parents at risk of illness. These are all worst-case scenarios, of course. But given the uncertainty and the extent to which COVID-19 is still spreading in the U.S., Kelley says you should wait a little while longer to visit with your parents and in-laws. If that’s not possible, you should take the same precautions you’ve been hearing about for a year: quarantining beforehand, and ideally staying outdoors and masked when possible. Here’s the good news, though. Once you and your husband are fully vaccinated (along with more of the general population), Kelley says you can feel much better about spending time with other vaccinated people indoors and unmasked—even if your toddler isn’t yet vaccinated. As you suggest, it may be a while before kids younger than 16 are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, since pharmaceutical companies haven’t yet finished [testing their shots on younger children](https://time.com/5905272/covid-19-vaccine-trials-kids/). But “if the toddler is the only one who’s not vaccinated, I would say that’s a pretty darn safe scenario,” Kelley says. Luckily, young kids [rarely get seriously ill](https://time.com/5872418/kids-children-covid-19-schools/) with COVID-19, so once all the adults in the room are fully protected, Kelley says you can feel pretty comfortable with your parents or in-laws coming for a visit. “We’re not going to get to a zero-risk situation,” Kelley says, “but we are going to get to places that are safer and safer.” ## Transcript But I am very excited that you finally come up with a vaccine. I feel the weight of it that this is going to do some good for us. And you know that I'm ready for it to start happening. You know, waiting to be in line to get my shot to. Just all the way to the Yankees or. Don't sign for Colbert. So they don't say. I actually. The biggest challenge has been temperature requirements, because that has to be kept at ultracold temperature of negative seven degrees Celsius. Or if we are transporting in a refrigeration, we have a lot more monitoring for that because it's only good for so many hours if the temperature excursion happens. And then there is a lot of responsibility in terms of liability. This vaccine has been very popular, so we have security protocols. We are putting SEALs when they're transporting. We have cameras installed specifically for this over and. Yeah. And be sorry. All right. Keep your arm relaxed. Oh, just the needle all done. You're not even bleeding. So my grandmother actually just passed away, I mean, less than two months ago from it. So to be out here protecting other people's grandparents is really touching me personally. Like, I really appreciate the opportunity and just so happy to be a part of it. The staff members here, we have about 240 that we're doing. We can get through usually with this many immunizations, 40 or 50 an hour at this facility specifically, we have over 100 residents that are all room to room based. So that takes a little more time. And then have you ever had a reaction after receiving a vaccine in the past? I can see how grateful they are. And I'm just grateful and honored to be able to give them the vaccine for me to be able to do it directly. You know, the last patient I just did, she's like, I'm waiting for the vaccine. And I was like, I'm here with the vaccine. And she's like, You're here with the vaccine. So I'm part of the bigger movement of vaccinating basically America. And that's it. Well, that's the easiest one I ever had. I'm glad with hay fever, I was you know, they can't come and visit me and I can't go visit them. But it's. Oh, gosh, it makes me mad anyway. It really is hard. And it's been harder for a lot of other people who have lost folks. And so I haven't had that problem, but it's awful. So I will mask myself any time to prevent that from happening. When I was a kid, everybody knew people who had somebody in their family that had polio. Any vaccine that prevents unnecessary pain and suffering is a good thing to have. All right. I'm just going to sanitize your arm real quick. I am happy that my son sometimes he talks to me on Facebook on face time. This time. And my daughter calls me every night. I know I can touch them and see them, but I just think the time will come. I hope. I hope I'm still alive. And make sure you're safe. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5932095/can-i-visit-vaccinated-people-covid-19/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5932095/can-i-visit-vaccinated-people-covid-19/"},"headline":"My Parents Will Be Vaccinated Long Before Me. 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