in a infogram Late Friday afternoon, Canadians who posted fully vaccinated on the Public Health Agency of Canada’s website were told that they can now gather outdoors with partially vaccinated or unvaccinated people without the need to wear a mask or maintain Body distance.

According to the document, this means that a small family gathering, swimming, camping, and even hugs between people with one, two, or even no guns are now allowed-but only if “everyone is satisfied with it.”

Canadians two weeks after the two doses of COVID-19 vaccination were even told that they could gather in small groups indoors without wearing a mask or keeping their distance.

Watch | Tan outlines the social guidance for fully vaccinated people:

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said at a press conference on Friday: “Full vaccination can provide you with a lot of protection, so you can better feel protected when you enter some of these environments indoors.” .”

“If you have an underlying health problem, you may need to consider more protection, but even people who have not been vaccinated can go out without a mask with people who have been vaccinated.”

Yes, even people who have received only one dose or no vaccinations can “consider taking off their masks and maintaining physical contact with the fully vaccinated people” indoors, but again, the premise is that everyone “feels comfortable” and no one Faced with a serious COVID-19 risk, the document pointed out.

For Canadians who have been patiently waiting for national guidance on how to respond to the pandemic six months after the arrival of the first COVID-19 vaccine—that’s it.

But the infographic was released after a confusing, hour-long press conference, and officials criticized Similar regulations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention For several months and pointed out that Canadians Risk calculator From Ryerson University, this directly contradicts some guidance from PHAC.

“I don’t know what the guidelines are,” said Dr. Nathan Stall, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and a member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, who does not speak on behalf of the organization.

“Because there is information conveyed in the press conference, so there is information conveyed On the website About life after vaccination, and then the infographic-for me, they all conflict with each other. ”

Stoll said that while he thinks the guidance in the infographic is “reasonable,” it is also “vague and indirect” and “millions of doses are too late.”

“In the final analysis, this is a guideline, and the provinces and regions are responsible for their implementation,” he said. “I hope that now we have some form of national guidelines, and local public health guidelines will be updated accordingly.”

Worried about lack of guidance for children

One notable omission in the guidelines is how Canadians should interact with one of the country’s largest unvaccinated people: children.

Stoll said that unlike the CDC guidelines, which include guidelines for children, the PHAC document provides “no convenience” for gatherings with small groups of children, which is especially challenging given that they may not be vaccinated for months. .

“A lot of things are still unresolved,” he said. “Even if this is some small progress in the right direction.”

Dr. David Naylor led the federal investigation of Canada’s national response to the SARS epidemic in 2003. He is now the co-chair of the Federal Government’s COVID-19 Immunization Working Group. In the fall, it can be helpful to provide families with some type of guidance.

“Given the increasing proportion of cases aged 19 and under, it is very important to clarify this point,” he said. “In fact, many families include children or grandchildren who are 11 years old or younger, and they will not be vaccinated throughout the summer or even longer.”

“Oh, damn it,” he added Twitter“I will hug them anyway.”

Dr. Fahad Razak, an epidemiologist and physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said he hopes to integrate guidelines around infographics in the next few days. He said this is a “very good start” rather than conflicting information. PHAC website and Ryerson University Risk Calculator.

“Then consider extending it to children,” he said. “This is the next step.”

Until now there is no explanation for the lack of guidance

Throughout the pandemic, Canadians have full confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine and public health officials, agreeing to mix and match injections and postpone the second dose of the vaccine for several months, in order to return to a more normal life soon.

But as the results of our labor finally pay off—the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths has fallen sharply in recent weeks—so far there has been little change in guidance on what Canadians who are fully vaccinated can do safely.

Regardless of the shortcomings of the guide or why it took so long to get here, experts say that although it will never satisfy everyone, it hopes to prevent Canadians from making their own rules during this period.

“The whole goal is not to consider every potential situation that every Canadian may encounter, but just to make some high-level recommendations on reasonable practices and where we should be cautious,” said infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogochi. Doctors and members of the Ontario COVID-19 Vaccine Working Group.

“The other thing that may be lost here is that many people already know this and have realized what vaccination offers them and have done so quietly.”

Bogoch said that for many Canadians who suffer from “mass post-traumatic stress disorder” due to the pandemic and are struggling to progress without some kind of guidance to help with their life after vaccination, this is expected to provide some relief.

“For the past 15 months, we have been in isolation, we have been wearing masks, we have been gathering carefully, we have been keeping our distance-everyone knows that someone has COVID, and we may also know that someone has COVID Hospitalized or even died of COVID,” he said.

“It really hit a lot of us, very close to home. Some people just need this guidance and the green light from senior public health officials to say,’You know? It’s okay to start moving, and you can also start to get together with others, In some cases, the mask can be removed. So I think this is very, very helpful.”

This is an excerpt from Second Opinion, a weekly review of health and medical science news, sent to Subscribers every Saturday morning.If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can click Here.