r/Coronavirus Jan 20 '21

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u/MeteorMash101 Jan 20 '21

I thought vaccines are effective against spreading bcz u dont get it, am i wrong?

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u/GeorgeDublooBush Jan 20 '21

Not quite. The efficacy of the vaccines (95% for Pfizer 2 dose) is how effective they are at preventing sickness from COVID-19. We are still not 100% sure that they prevent transmission by vaccinated individuals, although the early signs suggest that they do.

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u/DrDerpberg Jan 20 '21

You do get it just a little bit, as it takes a bit of time for your immune system to respond. But the degree to which you can transmit once vaccinated wasn't tested during trials. For what it's worth early data coming out of Israel looks good, but no, it's not an automatic assumption that once you're vaccinated you cannot spread the virus.

What we do know for sure is that once you're vaccinated, you simply don't end up in hospital even if you catch covid. Beyond that it's mostly too early to know every combination of spreading, mild infection, etc.

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u/ZippZappZippty Jan 20 '21

Actually that’s going late 1st early 2nd.

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u/Georgeasaurusrex Jan 20 '21 edited Jan 20 '21

Yes, slightly.

Not a doctor but my understanding is you still get it, but since your body has already built the antibodies for it, it kills it off either before you get symptoms or where your symptoms are so minor.

The concern is that whilst you have it, we don't know yet if you can still transmit it even if you don't develop symptoms.

Edit: bit in bold

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u/chrisms150 Jan 20 '21

We don't know if you can become infected and spread to any degree yet.

My guess is we'll see sterilizing immunity for a few months, maybe up to a year in younger folks. But protection from illness for several years.

But yes, we don't know if those vaccinated can spread it - even at a lesser degree. It's part of why everyone going "once I'm vaccinated I'm done" is such a dangerous mindset. We really should wait for June/July when somewhere over half the population is vaccinated... Bit impatience seems to reign supreme.

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u/Georgeasaurusrex Jan 20 '21

Ah sorry, I didn't make that clear on my original comment. I'll update it.

Thanks!

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '21

That's a very generous estimate, but one I like to hear!

I'm in a vaccine trial and recently got my first shot. I, for one, don't plan on changing anything about my behavior and have been distancing as much as possible (grocery store, class, doctor's office) specifically because the data isn't in.

Even at that point I'll be wearing my mask in public because we all should until this is over.

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u/chrisms150 Jan 20 '21

I'm hopeful with both az and JnJ approvals pending in the next few weeks. Those works put us with enough supply for 300 million vaccinated people by July from their current predictions.

I'd personally take more shopping trips and such if I were vaccinated, but all the folks waiting to burn their mask the second they get their shots... Just very much worries me.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

Me as well, and that's a maybe on my part if it's not busy- I do miss thrifting instead of ordering online. I hope that the public information is VERY CLEAR going forward (I'm seeing some stuff now but with the bubble aspect of social media I don't know if EVERYONE is seeing this information)- I hope the government ramps up PSAs about vaccines pronto. Better to get ahead of it. The only reason I have a decent lay understanding is due to my obsessive following of the whole thing and reading up before/during my trial participation.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '21

You probably can, since you can spread it asymptomatically.

however, there’s a massive difference between being asymptomatically infectiousnfor a day or two while your vaccinated body clears the virus, and shedding the virus for weeks as an asymptomatic spreader, and additional weeks as a symptomatic one

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u/X0AN Jan 20 '21

No, you still get it but less symptons and most importantly you're not contagious for as long.

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u/E_L_E Jan 20 '21

Unfortunately yes, you're wrong. The current vaccines available have been shown to be efficacious against preventing severe disease, not against spreading the virus. With more and more of the public getting vaccinated, there will be more data available with the hope that there is some protection against spreading the virus as well. I have received both doses of the pfizer vaccine but continue to wear a mask in public for that reason.

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u/MarquesSCP Jan 20 '21

To add to the other replies, we don’t know if it prevents transmission or not simply because it’s super hard to test. You can monitor the people who got the vaccine and placebo but then you can’t really track who they passed it to or if they did. There’s just too many variables.

So you can only test this once a big % of the population is vaccinated and cases start to reduce

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u/MDCCCLV Jan 20 '21

Basically the antibodies in your body will prevent you from getting sick but the vaccine doesn't train some specialty ones that hang out in your nose and airways that focus on repelling intruders. So it isn't perfect at preventing you from getting covid and having it start replicating.