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> It's the best protection we have against [...] your infecting others if you catch an asymptomatic case. This was a theory that the entire vaccination program
by nickysielicki 5y ago
> It's the best protection we have against [...] your infecting others if you catch an asymptomatic case.
This was a theory that the entire vaccination program was predicated upon. The theory was, "We can't prevent infections, but if the body is primed to have a less severe reaction to the virus, it will do a better job of clearing it quickly and the viral load will be lesser, thus bringing r0 down."
It didn't turn out to be totally true. It clears quicker but it has no meaningful reduction in peak viral load on average.
So now, given that we don't have good reason to suggest that the vaccine results in lower viral loads, it stands to reason that the majority of asymptomatic "superspreaders" going forward are more likely to be vaccinated. The unvaccinated are more likely to get seriously ill and isolate.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/covid-19/news/viral-loads-similar-between-vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-people https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/covid-19/news/viral-loads-sim...
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.28.21264262v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.28.21264262v...
- arbitrage 5y agoPeak viral load is a red herring. That dogwhistle predicates that viral load is proportional to severity of illness. It doesn't work like that.
- nickysielicki 5y agoIt’s like you completely avoided reading my comment. It has nothing to do with severity of illness it has to do with infectiousness and it’s the closest thing we have to measuring infectiousness.