Vaccine question

[mightyducks]

Just wondering if someone if more understanding than me can answer this , my understanding is that the vaccine won’t stop you contracting the virus, just that you are more protected against serious illness and more likely to be asymptotic - but you could still test positive for the virus,, am I right?

Pretty much. The data on this is quite limited and we need more time to find out fully how effective it will be on transmission rates.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(20)30226-3/fulltext

Thanks , that was my understanding, I’m working with a school where staff have been vaccinated, first dose , a few weeks ago, 3 have just tested positive on the lateral flow tests, they are horrified that they’re still having to isolate and bubbles are popping at school and kids sent home. I’ve explained my understanding of how the vaccine worked, that they would still contract the virus but not get as ill, but it’s dawning on me , and them , that the vaccine won’t stop the endless bubble closures at schools ...now teachers are being regularly tested on LFD’s picking up asymptomatic cases and it’s very worrying , not sure how we can end the cycle

My understanding is that after the first dose (Pfizer) you are, after 2-3 weeks, 80-90% protected from severe disease but that the protection from infection increases quite quickly after the first dose from about 50% to a maximum of around 95% after the second dose.
Ultimately, the decision to vaccinate double the amount of people with the first dose initially is to reduce hospitalisation and death rates.

www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4826

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine,1 found that vaccine efficacy between the first and second doses was 52% (95% credible interval 29.5% to 68.4%), with 39 cases of covid-19 in the vaccine group and 82 cases in the placebo group.

Seven or more days after the second dose, vaccine efficacy then rose to 95% (90.3% to 97.6%), with eight covid-19 cases reported in the vaccine group and 162 cases in the placebo group.

my understanding is that the vaccine won’t stop you contracting the virus, just that you are more protected against serious illness and more likely to be asymptotic - but you could still test positive for the virus,, am I right?

Correct. Which is also the case for most other vaccines too. Once the majority of people are protected there will be no need for bubbles, etc. as severity will be reduced as will transmission.