Modelling COVID-19 vaccination status and adherence to public health and social measures, Eastern Mediterranean Region and Algeria

The introduction of vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) added another measure to the existing set of recommended preventive measures (wearing a mask in public, keeping a distance from other people and regular handwashing). The roll-out of the vaccines, however, raised concerns that vaccination may lead to lower adherence to the existing preventive measures. The advice from the World Health Organization (WHO) was to continue these public health and social measures after being vaccinated.1 However, evidence from other epidemics suggests that there is lower adherence to preventive measures when some level of protection exists (for example, individuals who use human immunodeficiency virus pre-exposure prophylaxis