4 ms·

If everyone was vaccinated it would make a big difference.

• orra 5y ago
  People act astonished the COVID vaccines aren't perfect. You mentioning universal vaccination is such a key point. Let's look at smallpox. We eliminated smallpox. Amazing! Yet, first, the smallpox vaccine wasn't perfect. It was 95% effective against infection. I would bet it's actually less than that. They probably mean symptomatic infection, because who was widely testing asymptomatic vaccinated people for smallpox? In contrast, symptomatic smallpox patients are pretty obviously and unambiguously infected with smallpox. Second, what's particularly interesting is if you were the only smallpox-vaccinated person in a house of a couple others, the vaccine efficacy fell to about two thirds. This isn't a world apart from the COVID vaccines. Two doses protects you 92-95% against severe disease. And two doses reduces the rate of transmission, if you end up infected, by 50% (this was 80%, pre Delta). As I said, people act astonished the COVID vaccines aren't perfect. In reality, they're just focusing on COVID efficacy in ways they never have with other vaccines. The COVID vaccines are substantially more effective than your typical seasonal flu jag, or the BCG. COVID vaccines are not a world apart in efficacy than the Smallpox vaccine—and we beat smallpox! Smallpox elimination required universal vaccination, but we managed.