Which activities are safe once you're fully vaccinated? Experts say movies, travel, and family gatherings are on the table

• The US has authorized three COVID-19 vaccines.
• Public-health experts say it's probably safe for vaccinated people to meet for dinner or gather indoors.
• Some experts think vaccinated people can even return to offices and theaters or see their grandkids.

So you've received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine. Does life change a little, or a lot?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to release guidelines this week detailing how Americans can safely alter their behavior once they're fully vaccinated. But the rules are complicated by a few unknowns, namely the extent to which vaccinated people can pass the virus to others and the threat of contagious variants that may evade vaccine protection.

So far, Pfizer's and Moderna's clinical trials have tested only whether the vaccines prevent symptomatic COVID-19. But emerging evidence suggests the vaccines can reduce coronavirus transmission as well. Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine also seems effective at reducing transmission.

Without more research, however, public-health experts caution that vaccinated people should continue to wear masks and keep a distance in public. Here's what seven experts think are safe activities for vaccinated people.

Dinners with other vaccinated people are relatively low-risk

Dinners with other vaccinated people, indoors or outdoors, are a relatively safe activity.

"If we're going to gather, we should gather smart, which doesn't mean to have a 200-person wedding with people that you don't know right away," Dr. Dara Kass, an emergency-medicine physician at Columbia Medical Center in New York, told Insider. "Start, maybe, going out to dinner with a couple that is vaccinated, or your parents, maybe seeing them for a nuclear-family dinner that you have been avoiding."

In general, interactions between people who are fully vaccinated - or immune due to a previous infection - are relatively low-risk for all parties, said Florian Krammer, a vaccinologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

"We need to be cautious and need to stay vigilant about risk," he recently wrote. "But we should also allow people who have immunity to at least normalize some of their interactions."

Small indoor gatherings aren't such a bad idea either

At a White House press briefing on Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that "doubly vaccinated" people - those who have received both doses of either Pfizer's or Moderna's shot - could safely gather indoors in small groups.

"I use the example of a daughter coming in from out of town who is doubly vaccinated, and a husband and wife doubly vaccinated, and maybe a next-door neighbor who you know are doubly vaccinated," he said. "The relative risk is so low that you would not have to wear a mask."

The new CDC guidelines will say that vaccinated people can host small gatherings at home with other fully vaccinated people, two senior White House officials involved in drafting the rules told Politico.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a molecular virologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, said on Monday that he planned to visit his two oldest children and their spouses for the first time in 14 months this weekend. All of them have either been vaccinated or contracted COVID-19, he said.

Older people can see unvaccinated grandkids - with caveats

Many older Americans have said they plan to see their children and grandchildren after getting vaccinated. If all adults in a family are vaccinated, such a gathering becomes "fairly low risk," said Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious-disease physician at New York University. That's because coronavirus infections are generally mild or asymptomatic in children.

"What concerns me is the people who are not yet vaccinated," Gounder told Insider. "For example, you have three generations in a family: vaccinated grandparents, but not children or adults. That could still be a real problem."

Kass also said it was probably safe for older vaccinated people to see their unvaccinated grandkids.

"My parents are vaccinated, which means that my kids can go visit my parents with a sense of relief that we haven't had before," Kass said.

Kids under 16 likely won't be eligible to receive a shot until at least the fall or winter, or perhaps even early 2022.

Domestic travel is relatively safe

The CDC may offer new travel guidelines for vaccinated Americans this week, but at the White House briefing on Monday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that "the goal is not to sort of open up travel" just yet.

For now, the CDC recommends that all Americans avoid domestic travel if possible. For those who have been vaccinated, the agency suggests waiting to travel until at least two weeks after a second dose.

In general, experts say it should be fine for vaccinated people to travel within the US.

"If someone who is fully vaccinated decides to take a trip for nonessential reasons, they're probably very well protected themselves and probably relatively protected against spreading the illness too," Dr. Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore, told Insider.

Vaccinated people could return to offices

Experts said most indoor activities wouldn't be particularly risky if they were limited to vaccinated people only.

"For a fully vaccinated person who is in a cohort or socializes with other fully vaccinated people, I see it as being completely reasonable to go back to the theater and would even encourage people to see movies," Dr. Daniel Griffin, a clinical-medicine instructor at Columbia University, told Insider.

But the risk of transmission and infection would increase substantially if unvaccinated people joined.

"Could you return to the office if it's only people who have been vaccinated who are in the office? I think that is fine," Gounder said. "Where it becomes more complicated is if you have a mix."