Vaccine doesn’t stop you getting covid

[Dodie66]

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

@SideboardOfDoom

If the vaccine removes most of the risk of serious illness the virus just becomes another illness in general circulation. NHS can cope, job done.

Well this pretty much. No it won’t eradicate covid completely but it will mean that those who do need medical support won’t be such a large number.

Covid didn’t go anywhere over the summer, people were still contracting it, but the numbers were more than manageable for the NHS. We could easily live alongside those kind of figures long term without needing the kinds of restrictions we’ve had this winter.

I think the medical community will still be on high alert for localised outbreaks for some years to come; especially since we don’t know how long the vaccine will be effective for.

@Elephant4

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

Yes it is, in a year from now if you have a car crash or a heart attack you will be able to go to hospital because they won't have so many covid cases.

Flu vaccine is lots of flu viruses and they have to guess which ones to put in that year. So obviously you could catch a different one.
my immune system is rubbish too and i think i had covid. Was ill apr to july. But ive never caught the things im vaxxed against.
What i have had is bad glandular fever so maybe that was triggered. and have autoimmune illness.
Im concerned for those who already had covid badly but are under 50.
And yes obviously children CV or ECV.

@mommybunny - it’s only from reading up since all of this started but I’m pretty sure it’s either the mumps or TB vaccine that primarily lessens the effects of the virus rather than completely prevents it.

Whether milder cases are less likely to be infective/infective for a shorter period I have no idea

Much longer than some people had thought Weevils. Some clearly thought that once people were vaccinated, those people would be risk free and could start living normally. That isn’t the case as they can still transmit.

well if basically having the vaccine meant that people generally weren't hospitalised, then i think there will be a strong case for social distancing to end once all older and vulnerable groups are vaccinated. As the number of hospitalisations which has always been the driving force behind restrictions, should come down dramatically.

I think it is more than likely that the vaccine will drive down transmission substantially, but possibly not completely. They're not sure yet.

But definitely not a case of you can do what you like once you've had your vaccine, no.

@minipie I think instead of saying “they can still transmit” it is more accurate at this point in time to say “we cannot be sure they cannot still transmit”. More words but the distinction is still important.

OP I hope you are more informed now as a result of this thread.
Covid is a huge public health concern. I do t need to go into the details.
This vaccine is a game changer, but at this stage. It's not about individuals, and how having the vaccine will give them magic powers somehow.
It's more complicated than that...
The idea is that if we give as many people the first dose, and we continue to monitor the situation...
Then, if we start to see a reduction in cases, hospital admissions, ITU admissions and deaths, as a society, we can then, and only then start to consider lifting restrictions gradually.
We simply don't know yet if we can still transmit the disease to others once vaccinated. JVT said the situation will be monitored and we should have more answers in a few months.
The AZ vaccine is great news. The best we've had so far. Please stay positive and sit tight for now. The future is bright

@Lisibeth81

Is the flu jab also of this nature?

The flu jab is a lot less effective, but yes, in older people it mostly reduces severe illness rather than infection (and it isn't nearly as good as the Covid vaccination seems to be at that). This is what the NHS says about the flu jab:

Vaccine effectiveness varies from one season to the next. Overall effectiveness has been
estimated at between 30-60% for adults aged 18 to 65 years for flu infection in primary care.
There has been lower effectiveness in older people although immunisation still provides
important protection against cases of severe disease such as flu confirmed hospital admission
and reductions in numbers of GP flu consultations.

We all got on with living our lives in this knowledge, and with many (mostly elderly) people dying of flu each year, and we'll have to do the same with Covid, no matter how much some people hate that idea.

That’s how vaccinations always work. They also do reduce the chance of passing it on if you do happen to get it, unless you happen to be very close to someone for a lot of time, in the small window between contracting it and the antibodies you have killing it off.

Vaccines are considered suitable with a 50% efficacy. The COVID vax from Oxford/AZ is much higher than this which is brilliant.

No vaccine gives 100% protection, it works in a way that means your body has the ability to fight a virus much more successfully.

There will never be a vaccine that is 100% effective and we won’t eradicate vivid. This isn’t new information. You, as a family, will need to weigh up the risk of seeing each other going forward. This is the same for everyone else who is vulnerable to something. There are lots of people vulnerable to flu and most years the flu jab is only around 60% effective. It’s just the way of life.

I'm very confused. When the vaccine was first announced we were told that its efficacy was based on how many people got covid during the trials vs those who had the placebo. But now we are being told that it doesnt prevent you getting it or transmission.

Also doesnt it kind of blow the whole 'herd immunity' theory around vaccines out of the water? If you can still get the disease and still transmit it then herd immunity doesnt exist?

If you are only 62% protected, there seems little point if you are over 65. It might even give a false sense of security as people may think they have the 90% protection offered by the Pfizer jab.

He was referring to 1 dose not 2.

I thought the vaccine was mainly to stop the NHS being overwhelmed and if you did happen to get Covid it would be a milder form so maybe more like flu.

So really the vaccine will probably just make it so we are living with another flu like illness and we will just go about our day like we do with the likelihood of catching flu, obviously some will be vulnerable to it but not like it is now.

Surely in a trial situation they can collect data on how severely people get it, but they can't collect data on transmission as that isn't in experimental conditions. The data on transmission can only be collected in the real world.

@Dodie66

Mild flu to somebody that is fit ight be ok but to somebody that had a lung condiction might be fatal

No, it’s for people with u deleting health issues like lung disease etc. It’s meant to prevent them having severe disease from the virus

Boris used wording much to the effects that the vaccines would help to reduce the people with covid before the question about mixing with others after the vaccine was asked.
Then what ut was said according to my memory is that we will have data on how the vaccines affects the transmission of the virus in around 3 months, when they have been rolled to quire a bunch of people.
There are no assurances about transmision yet. So, you will not suffer from covid (the illness) or get it mildly if you are vaccinated, but there still no assurances that you will not transfer sars cov 2 (the virus) to others.
So there is still SD to follow for a while, till they gather the data.
It is disappointing that we still have to wait. But the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer and closer.

*underlying. Not deleting!!

@itchyfinger

I'm very confused. When the vaccine was first announced we were told that its efficacy was based on how many people got covid during the trials vs those who had the placebo. But now we are being told that it doesnt prevent you getting it or transmission.

Also doesnt it kind of blow the whole 'herd immunity' theory around vaccines out of the water? If you can still get the disease and still transmit it then herd immunity doesnt exist?

We do need a large amount of the population vaccinated for the herd immunity. So that I think will not apply yet. We have not vaccinated enough people yet. Data about transmission will arrive before we have vaccinated enough people I think. Depending on the rate of innoculation they get with the Oxford vaccine.

@Dodie66

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

None of this is new information though. We knew that until a significant number of people had been vaccinated that restrictions will still be in place due to the question over transmission.

@CousinLucy

This is off-topic, but if you missed out on having the mumps vaccine as a child, then your GP surgery should be able to give you the MMR vaccine if you ask them.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/mmr-vaccine/

@Dodie66

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

He did not say this. He did say that it wouldn’t prevent the disease for the first few weeks until the body had developed the antibodies and T Cells that fight the infection.