A few nights ago, a family member texted their work friends’ concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine. The message suggested that colleagues thought it was not worth getting the vaccine, as epidemiologists say even vaccinated people can still transmit the virus.
In other words, the thought went: If a vaccine doesn’t guarantee you and everyone around you total immunity, what’s the point?
This family member and their friends were all young essential workers who had been given priority vaccination. But the answer to their skepticism was simple: get the vaccine as soon as possible.
This is why.
Our best tool to fight the new coronavirus is our own immune system. The basic problem is that our immune system needs to see the virus that causes COVID-19 to learn how it can protect us. Vaccines solve this problem by showing our immune system what the virus looks like before we are actually infected so that it can learn how to fight the virus. Booster shots – one is required for both vaccines that are allowed in the US – act like exercise and help the immune system to further improve its ability to fight the virus.
Through an unprecedented global effort and the use of the very latest technologies, we have developed a vaccine against COVID-19 faster than previous generations ever thought possible. The need to quickly reduce the death rate with this new tool meant that we had to act before we knew exactly how much it would help to limit transmission, unlike disease.
The clinical studies have made it clear that current vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and others worldwide are safe and effective against the serious COVID-19 disease. But some questions went unanswered immediately after the introduction. How long does the protection last? Will the vaccine prevent transmission, rather than just help prevent people from getting very sick or dying? Will the virus evolve like the flu and cause repeated epidemics?
Because of these unknowns, reporting around the vaccine was cautious. Scientists and public health officials are reluctant to make any statements about the effectiveness of a new pharmaceutical product without evidence to support it. That’s especially true because false statements, however well-intentioned, can undermine confidence during a pandemic in which the response to public health guidelines is far too politicized.
Example: attitudes about masking.
But there is a downside to this cautious reporting. Lack of certainty or strong empirical evidence is often interpreted as an indication that we have evidence that something is that not true. This phenomenon is only exacerbated by voices from the anti-vax community and other public health skeptics. People may only hear that we cannot say that the vaccine does not prevent transmission, and not that this is simply because we are waiting for the evidence to come in, or that most experts would be shocked if it did not have at least some effect on it. prevention of contamination.
Likewise, prudent public health advice designed to prevent unintended tragedies, such as admonitions to socialize and take precautions, even when vaccinated, often leads to growing skepticism about vaccination.
As a result, too often people fail to see why they should be vaccinated at all.
These are not vaccine skeptics or anti-vaxxers who are normally against vaccination. Instead, they are concerned, thoughtful people feared they would refuse someone at high risk with a protective vaccine, or take another new medical product for little benefit to themselves and others.
It is critical that we pass the message on to such individuals about both how we think the vaccine is likely to work based on the underlying biology, and what rapidly emerging evidence tells us about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines.
That message is this: Based on the performance of comparable vaccines, the fact that asymptomatic people are less likely to transmit the coronavirus, and a rapidly growing body of direct evidence from studies and campaigns, we believe that vaccination against COVID-19 is decreasing. the chance of transmission of the virus. Protection against transmission may be considerably less than protection against serious disease, but at this point it would not be shocking if there were no impact.
There is some evidence that natural immunity lasts for many months, although reinfection is possible (especially after mild illness). The vaccine is likely to provide a similar duration of protection, although this is less clear-cut. Most importantly, even if protection is not permanent, be it due to declining immunity or new variants of the virus evolving to escape growing human immunity, subsequent infections are likely to be less severe for those whose immune systems are had a chance to do something about the virus.
Critically, even if the effects of vaccines on COVID-19 transmission are imperfect and transient, vaccination will still lead to a massive reduction in cases if – and only if – there is widespread vaccine uptake. in the general population. This is the surest way to get back to a place where we can all participate in the parties, dinners, and simple office conversations we crave so much.
So if you have the chance to get vaccinated, grab it. It will make our whole life better.