As the United States accelerates toward mass vaccination against covid-19, a curious trend has begun to emerge on social media and elsewhere: people with good intentions minimize the benefits of vaccination, often arguing that vaccinated people still present a significant risk of transmission and that they should not do things like hang out indoors without unmasking around their friends and family.
While this advice is not only unjustified, it is also self-defeating. Vaccinated people are unlikely to be able to spread or spread the virus, especially not to other vaccinated people, and they should feel free to socialize in a more normal way. Suggesting that life should not change at all after the vaccine is a good way to deter people who are on the fence from getting shot.
Not necessary look away to see this kind of vaccine reindeer turned on Twitter, to the point that the argument itself has become a mature source of parody. The same logic has also been used to malign some public health experts.
Last Monday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, participated in the Rachel Maddow program to talk about covid-19 and vaccines. At one point, discussing a new CDC investigation, Walensky said, “Our CDC data today suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, do not get sick, and are not only in clinical trials, but they are also real data of the world “.
Walensky’s comments were soon criticized by outside observers, including scientists, as it is not completely accurate and is therefore irresponsible. A day later, the CDC was forced to leave its comments behind, saying so New York News that “Walensky spoke extensively during this interview” and that it was possible “that some people who are completely vaccinated could get Covid-19.”
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Walensky should have chosen his words more carefully, but the firestorm that arose around his comments and the subsequent framing of the CDC’s journey was also exaggerated and inaccurate. The New York Times history in the new CDC statement, for example, there was the headline: “Can vaccinated people spread the virus? We don’t know, scientists say.” Technically true, but misleading, given what we do do you know, which is that vaccines largely prevent infection.
CDC data that Walensky referenced found that Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines were not only highly effective in preventing coronavirus-related diseases, their intended purpose, but were also 90% effective in preventing detectable levels of coronavirus. coronavirus infection. Without infection, transmission is not possible. There is also other recent research is shown that when vaccinated people become infected they produce lower levels of the virus than unvaccinated carriers, which should reduce the risk of transmission to other people. And when Walensky referred to real-world data, he was probably talking about Israel, where high vaccine uptake has now crushed the spread of the pandemic, in part because vaccines do. significantly reduce transmission.
Again, Walensky shouldn’t have spoken at all. Some people will continue to become infected and even get sick after being completely vaccinated, events that scientists call advanced infections. Sometimes these people can also spread the virus to other people, especially unvaccinated people. Other vaccines, such as the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine, are relatively less effective than mRNA vaccines, so it should also be made clear (although the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine Johnson looks like also significantly reduce the risk of transmission).
The CDC takes into account current advanced cases orientation for vaccinated people, who say they should still wear masks and distances in public and around unvaccinated people who have a high risk of complications from covid-19. Otherwise, vaccinated people can socialize indoors unmasked and with a single home of unvaccinated people at once and can travel safely, according to the CDC.
But while more research will be done to find out how likely fully vaccinated people will be to transmit the virus, the overall picture will not change, according to data so far: vaccinated people are highly unlikely to spread the virus. Variants are also included in this equation, as none are widely used appear to substantially reduce the effectiveness of our current vaccines in the US
There are absolutely times when it is crucial to emphasize the uncertainty of important scientific issues and to act especially with caution in light of this uncertainty. A possible carcinogen discovered in a drug, for example, may be worth removing immediately, even if the exact probabilities of causing cancer are not yet known, as the risk may be high. But existing science does not support telling people that they will still be in danger or that their lives should not change for the better after getting a vaccine and that some people are likely to stay away from getting the vaccines.
The reason daily cases in the United States remain stubbornly high is because there are still millions of unvaccinated people capable of spreading the virus to other unvaccinated people. The pandemic will run out as more and more of us get vaccinated. Vaccinated people who socialize together will not change this calculation.
None of this is intended to argue against maintaining current precautions, such as widespread public disguise or avoiding large meetings indoors. Such interventions are supposed to help reduce the level of ongoing community outreach and should remain in place until the pandemic is definitively and clearly lost, not before.
But if you really want to help fight the pandemic, it’s best to do so get vaccinated as soon as possible, don’t scold someone for enjoying the benefits of immunity done in the lab.