'As safely as possible': Doctor weighs in on visiting vaccinated loved ones

(CBS 58) — As more Wisconsinites receive the COVID-19 vaccination, many will likely want to visit loved ones.

However, there is a question about safety when visiting a loved one without being vaccinated yourself.

UW Health Senior Medical Director Dr. Matt Anderson said there’s no easy answer.

“When you do a visit, the risk is lower if you physically distance and mask within that visit,” UW Health Senior Medical Director Primary Care Dr. Matt Anderson said. “We recognize that not everybody may want to do that, but that is a lower risk situation. As we get more people vaccinated in the coming months, our rate of community spread is going to go down, risk is going to go down, so in the meantime those are things we would ask people to consider.”

Anderson explained right now, it’s uncertain whether vaccines prevent someone from being a carrier of the virus.

“There is a decision to be made,” Anderson said. “If people are going to visit because we know that there are mental health and loneliness issues and other things of that nature, we want them to do that as safely as possible for those people that have been vaccinated.”

Before planning a visit, Anderson encourages people to limit the amount of people they see and to get tested.