On your first paragraph, I agree entirely. Regarding the second: with the vaccines only preventing or reducing severe symptoms without seeming to reduce viral l

On your first paragraph, I agree entirely. Regarding the second: with the vaccines only preventing or reducing severe symptoms without seeming to reduce viral load, they slow the progress of respiratory viruses toward low-impact variants. The mechanism of this is that sick people stay home and consequently, if you are a viral variant that makes people sick, you get outcompeted by variants that allow people to go about their days and keep spreading. In this sense, low vaccination rates of Africa may be just what we needed.