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Original poster

Vaccine doesn’t stop you getting covid

105 replies

Dodie66 · 30/12/2020 18:01

Not sure if heard professor Van Tam correctly
Did he say that the vaccine only prevents serious illness and doesn’t stop you getting the virus? Also they don’t know if it stops you transmitting it to somebody else so we still can’t mix.
I thought once you had the vaccine that you would be able to mix

OP posts:
Passmeabottlemrjones · 30/12/2020 19:09

Christ on a cracker the doom mongering on here at the moment is summat else!!!

Vitaminsss · 30/12/2020 19:10

I thought you’d always be able to pass it on with the vaccine. That’s how vaccines work right? You can be a carrier but not get ill yourself as your body knows how to fight it. Therefore people who are vulnerable and haven’t had the vaccine are still at risk.

Florelei · 30/12/2020 19:10

I don’t understand this. As I understand it, the Vaccine is 60-70% effective. For those who do get it, it prevents serious illness and therefore death.

Can someone please explain how this is bad news?

CrazyToast · 30/12/2020 19:12

COVID vaccine not 100% effective, sure. But as far as I understand, no vaccine stops you getting something. It doesn't act like a forcefield. A vaccine gives you a quick effective immune response if you do get something in you.

Happy to be corrected by those who know if I have understood vaccines wrong and they do actually repel things before they can get in your body?

BlueBlancmange · 30/12/2020 19:13

@AcornAutumn

I'm going to try to be charitable here

If this thread is representative of the general population, I'm now

  1. less baffled by how excited people were about the vaccine

  2. thinking that school education really needs to focus on practicalities of health as part of science

  3. hoping the general population will realise that what's been going on is utter madness

To the posters who thought it was a guarantee, did you think all of those who got flu or pneumonia had never been vaccinated?

Even if people weren't aware of the transmission aspect (which by the way is not proven one way or the other yet), what in your view has been utter madness?
LastTrainEast · 30/12/2020 19:14

Tootsey11, I'm afraid that's true of most diseases for those who have immune system issues, but there's light at the end of this tunnel.

Once most people are immune or vaccinated there will be less chance of exposure and more medical staff available to treat those who get sick.

In addition to vaccines we've also developed several treatments which prevent it getting so bad.

The virus itself may mutate into something like the common cold in time.

MarshaBradyo · 30/12/2020 19:14

@Elephant4

It’s not going to make a great deal of difference. Is it?
Yes it will?

The objective is to lower hospitalisation

Once that happens we are not in the same dire situation

What I would like to consider is how likely it is that people who remain non vaccinated will get it. I think it’s likely but maybe not

Ridingthegravytrain · 30/12/2020 19:14

@AcornAutumn

Absolutely!

But also don’t forget it’s those who choose not to get vaccinated who spread the scourge...even though they have no evidence the vaccine stops spread.

I’m baffled when I read these threads how this is news to people this far down the road

IcedPurple · 30/12/2020 19:14

*"It will protect the most vulnerable from becoming seriously ill and being hospitalised or dying."

Unfortunately there are questions even about that...*

The article you link is over 2 months old. Might as well be 10 years in Covid terms.

NewLockdownNewMe · 30/12/2020 19:18

Is it too simplistic to assume it must have at least some limiting effect on transmission? E.g. if you’re less ill you’re not coughing and expelling virus everywhere, maybe you’re likely to be contagious for a shorter time period, etc. There’s been a lot made of viral load at various points - if you’re less ill, are you likely to pass on a lower viral load?

Sweettea1 · 30/12/2020 19:19

This has always been said.After having vaccine you can still catch it and spread it just won't affect you as bad. Only person protected is person who has vaccine. I don't understand why so many people didn't know this.

IcedPurple · 30/12/2020 19:20

[quote Ridingthegravytrain]@AcornAutumn

Absolutely!

But also don’t forget it’s those who choose not to get vaccinated who spread the scourge...even though they have no evidence the vaccine stops spread.

I’m baffled when I read these threads how this is news to people this far down the road[/quote]
They have no evidence because the vaccines haven't been around for long enough, and have only just started to be administered.

However, most experts seem very confident that they will indeed reduce transmission but they cannot say for sure as yet. We'll know more in a couple of months time. Almost all vaccines lower transmission rates, so it would be a major surprise if the Covid vaccines did not.

raspberrymilton · 30/12/2020 19:21

@IcedPurple

*"It will protect the most vulnerable from becoming seriously ill and being hospitalised or dying."

Unfortunately there are questions even about that...*

The article you link is over 2 months old. Might as well be 10 years in Covid terms.

The phase 3 trial protocols were already established in October though.
MyPersona · 30/12/2020 19:21

@Florelei

I don’t understand this. As I understand it, the Vaccine is 60-70% effective. For those who do get it, it prevents serious illness and therefore death.

Can someone please explain how this is bad news?

This.

I think they’re either bots or terminally stupid. Actually I’m fucking sick of it tbh.

Wherediditgo · 30/12/2020 19:22

Isn’t that how most vaccines work though??
They don’t stop you contracting a virus... a virus can still physically enter your body. You just don’t get really ill or end up in hospital??

minipie · 30/12/2020 19:22

What this means is that it will take much longer for the vaccine to allow people to return to normal.

It means everyone, including the vaccinated, will have to continue to follow distancing etc until everyone (or at least everyone vulnerable to covid) has been vaccinated.

OP, can your DH have the vaccine? Why would your daughter be getting vaccinated before your vulnerable DH?

HibernatingTill2030 · 30/12/2020 19:22

NewLockdownNewMe, the scientists probably have a good idea if it does or doesn't, based on other vaccines etc, but what they suspect doesn't matter. They need to have data and evidence to back it up either way.

I would think the same as you, BTW, but then I remember that they think asymptomatic cases are driving the spread, so who knows?

NewLockdownNewMe · 30/12/2020 19:26

@HibernatingTill2030 very true on the asymptomatic spread. And yes there’s a big difference between what they can be privately pretty sure of and what can be said publically.

middleager · 30/12/2020 19:30

Sorry go go slightly off topi, but what are the odds of catching Covid again if you've already had Covid?

HibernatingTill2030 · 30/12/2020 19:34

[quote NewLockdownNewMe]@HibernatingTill2030 very true on the asymptomatic spread. And yes there’s a big difference between what they can be privately pretty sure of and what can be said publically.[/quote]
Yes, they probably know fairly well, but in science and medical research, it's not enough to "know" or have seen enough to be fairly certain, there is, rightly, a process before you can make any claims.

middleager · 30/12/2020 19:35

Why the criticism?

It's phenomenal we have these options of vaccines so soon.

My nephew was involved in the trials and I thank all those volunteers, scientists, frontline workers and everybody who has made this possible in such a short time frame. It's extraordinary and I appreciate this achievement.

withmycoffee · 30/12/2020 19:37

@Dodie66

Mild flu to somebody that is fit ight be ok but to somebody that had a lung condiction might be fatal
yes but that is true of all mild illnesses. If the vaccine relegates Covid to a run of the mill virus then why would you still be freaking out? Do you freak out constantly about colds, strep throat, hayfever, food poisoning or the gazillion other illnesses you may get?
Aprilrainbow · 30/12/2020 19:43

@Florelei

I don’t understand this. As I understand it, the Vaccine is 60-70% effective. For those who do get it, it prevents serious illness and therefore death.

Can someone please explain how this is bad news?

It is good news however there will be a danger period when those who have been vaccinated can infect those that have yet to be vaccinated, it is going to be very difficult to explain to the elderly that after vaccination they are still a danger to others, i.e. their 60 something children.
theThreeofWeevils · 30/12/2020 19:44

it will take much longer for the vaccine to allow people to return to normal
Much longer than what, exactly, @minipie?

It is unarguable that the availability of vaccines is what is going to begin to bring this shitshow to an end. But that can't be done overnight.

mommybunny · 30/12/2020 19:46

NewLockdownNewMe, you raise a lot of points I have been considering about the vaccine. Thanks.

One thing I’d like to know, which I have never been able to find out, is if there is really an example of a vaccine that only prevents serious illness but does not prevent transmission of the disease. People talk about the flu vaccine but does that really only stop serious illness? When my nephew was born he was CEV (he had a congenital diaphragmatic hernia) and before I could see him I had to have a flu shot. I had no need of the vaccine myself - I was in my mid forties and in rude health and the flu would have been but a mere inconvenience to me - but if my newborn nephew had gotten it it could have been catastrophic, and that’s why they asked me to get it (and of course I was happy to do so). But the shot was most definitely to prevent transmission.

I totally get that they can’t yet say for sure the vaccine prevents transmission, but if they didn’t at least have a pretty good hunch this was the case why would they be prioritising vaccinating health care workers, many of whom wouldn’t otherwise be particularly vulnerable to this disease? (Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy they’re doing this and support it even if there are other reasons to do it!).