Have a couple of questions regarding the vaccine?

[Justanotherdayina]

Please don't shoot me down. I need to clear a few things up in my mind in regard to the vaccine.
My first question is, people are saying anti vaxers are selfish. Why is this? As far as I'm aware the jab does not stop you getting it ,or passing it on ?

Evidence is building to say that the vaccine does prevent transmission.

Because if it stops you getting really ill and if the elderly and vulnerable have it ,then it's going to take a lot of pressure of the nhs and we can get out of lockdown

Because they’re relying on herd immunity that will only be developed through lots of other people having the vaccine. Stopping the pandemic is a community endeavour and they’re opting out, the selfish fuckers

It certainly drastically reduces your chance of getting covid badly and needing to go to hospital. This is a very very easy thing to measure and the most important thing to know with an overwhelmed health service at this point in the pandemic.
It almost certainly reduces mild infection and transmission, this is obviously much much more difficult to accurately measure the impact of and we won’t know for some months what the exact effect is. This will contribute to herd immunity and is very important for getting society back to normal, reducing the restrictions, opening up hospitality etc.
Places with very low levels are looking carefully to see which jabs will be most effective at stopping transmission and I guess will try to get the whole country jabbed before opening up, giving them herd immunity just via the vaccine. We don’t have the luxury of waiting to see, we just need to vaccinate as many high risk people as quickly as possible to keep the NHS / critical care functioning, and worry about herd immunity, relaxing restrictions come summer.

1. You won't need a hospital bed as you won't get sick.

2. The viral load in your body will stay so low your contagiousness is v little.

@QuantumQuality

Because they’re relying on herd immunity that will only be developed through lots of other people having the vaccine. Stopping the pandemic is a community endeavour and they’re opting out, the selfish fuckers

Yes this. If we all decided not to get the vaccine, where would we be? They're relying on everyone else taking a small risk to protect them, but not willing to take that risk themselves.

It is also selfish as they're more likely to need a hospital bed and therefore take one away from someone who can't have the vaccine, or who gets ill despite having it.

There are people who cannot have vaccines for whatever reason (allergy, immunosuppresed, mental health reasons) and so the rest of us need to have it to protect everyone.

There is an increasing body of work on viral loads. A vaccinated person that may be carrying Covid will expose others to a significantly reduced viral load which in turn will cause a milder illness.

I can't find the link but I was reading a paper in the BMJ about babies and how when they infect others they seem to cause milder illness because their viral load is so low.

Have a look on the positivity thread. There is evidence from Israel of Sterilising Immunity with the vaccine. This means that the immune system is able to stop a pathogen, including viruses, from replicating within your body. If true, then the vaccine absolutely is a game-changer and our way out of the pandemic.

Agree with what everyone else has said on transmission.

As far as the word selfish goes, then it depends what you mean about antivaxxers. If someone (who has no medical reason not to) declines not to get the vaccine I don't think they're selfish. I think they've made a bad assessment of relative risk, but their choice.

If you mean a campaigning antivaxxer, spreading misinformation to discourage others from getting the vaccine then I do think they're selfish. THey're putting the wellbeing of others at risk for their own agenda. I'd go a lot stronger than 'selfish', to be honest.

Just to clarify I am not an antivaxxer and have never spoken about my thoughts ( not pushing any hidden agena), but I do like to ask questions. I have seen people been jumped on for even asking.Thank you for answering.
So just to sum up- As of yet the results are unknown in regard to transmission ( it is too early to say, but if the virus acts in a way similar to others, then it should make people less likely to pass it on due to the greater viral load)- if you are asymptomatic, due you have less viral load that someone with full blown covid symptoms?

mobile.twitter.com/andrew_croxford/status/1351483415003062273

Will we need to wear masks and socially distance still, or will we just take the risk and get the milder version ( after jab). I think the thing that really worries me, that there is so much unknown and not proven and assumed.

For example I just read this on bmj "As things stand, a person who tests positive with any kind of test may or may not have an active infection with live virus, and may or may not be infectious."

I feel so confused. There is much information around. One thing leads to another on the internet and I just make my mind up and then read something else.

The advice given to people being vaccinated is that they should continue to wear masks, SD and so on.

From a public health perspective, this is absolutely the right advice to give, since the effect on transmission is as yet unproven. It is safer to be cautious.

There are also all kinds of ethical issues with privileging the vaccinated/penalising the unvaccinated, which is why the Government will try extremely hard to avoid it.

It will be masks/SD for all, until such time as the amount of virus in circulation is much, much lower. I expect restrictions to be reduced gradually, to assess the impact before moving further. It's not about how many people have been vaccinated, it's about the numbers of infections and hospitalisations. But actually it is about how many are vaccinated, because it will be that which is reducing the number of infections and hospitalisations as restrictions are removed. It's just we can't be sure yet how many we need to vaccinate - the target is uncertain.

As long as enough people DO get vaccinated, or have immunity through infection, we will reach the point where numbers stay sufficiently low without any restrictions. And normal life will resume.

But always - ALWAYS - being vigilant in case there is a new outbreak.

It will work exactly as vaccines against polio, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella - not perfectly but giving herd immunity once enough people have had it. It is also better than simply letting the virus rampage through the population. Vaccines, antibiotics, hygiene - pillars of modern medicine. Yes, there is a great deal of info out there - it is not all based on scientific study. The principles behind vaccination are so simple - we're simply improving on the immunity that nature would eventually build up in a population without the great loss of life and injury which diseases like rubella and polio inflict.

If nobody gets the vaccine. If everyone around the world is like you. What would happen OP? Please answer that.