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Original poster

Explain the point of vaccine to me!

59 replies

Alittlenonsensenowandthen · 12/04/2021 15:25

Ok, so title is a bit goady but hear me out! I had covid last year. Ill but not too bad. This week ive had vaccine and im worse than with covid.
So.....
If vaccinated i can still transmit to others therefore not protect others.
If vaccinated i am protecting myself from covid. True but given i had it the risk of having again is low. If i did get it again then surely id get it milder having had it previously.
So... What was/is the point? Suppose I'm writing this as I'm feeling sorry for myself as i feel so rubbish post vaccine!

OP posts:
FlyingBurrito · 12/04/2021 15:28

There is mountians of proper scientific information out there. You're much better advised to research the most up to date data you can find rather than start a thread on which you'll get unreliable answers from people whose credentials you have no way of knowing.

Or look back at all the previous threads on vaccines

KeepSmiling89 · 12/04/2021 15:28

Even though you've had COVID, there are many strains of it, which could mean more severe symptoms than what you had previously. There's higher risk of fatality from a strain of COVID than the symptoms from the vaccine.

No expert here, just putting out what I understand.

Circumlocutious · 12/04/2021 15:29

If vaccinated i can still transmit to others therefore not protect others.

This has been a hugely misleading part of the messaging around the vaccine. We can't urge people to get vaccinated and then say 'well it makes no difference'. That's very damaging and also untrue.

All viral vaccines - mumps, polio, measles - reduce transmission to some extent, not just sever symptoms.

With the covid vaccines we have, you can still transmit coronavirus to others, but you have a significantly reduced chance of doing so. Something like 70% reduction in transmission with the AZ vaccine. With Pfizer it's very impressive - 90% chance of not getting covid at all after two jabs, not just lessened symptoms.

Circumlocutious · 12/04/2021 15:30

Link to the Pfizer data:

www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/p0329-COVID-19-Vaccines.html

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 12/04/2021 15:30

There's evidence that it reduces transmission.

Silverfly · 12/04/2021 15:32

If vaccinated i can still transmit to others therefore not protect others

This is not correct.
news.sky.com/story/covid-19-two-doses-of-pfizer-or-oxford-vaccine-reduce-risk-of-transmission-by-more-than-half-study-shows-12243898

LadyIsabellaWrotham · 12/04/2021 15:32

Reduces your chance of getting it.
Reduces your chance of passing it on to others.
Reduces your chance of becoming seriously ill if you do get it.

You may or may not feel that it’s worth it, but the benefits are hardly tricky to understand.

loulouljh · 12/04/2021 15:39

I have no idea!!! It seems to be impacting positively on deaths but regardless you still have to be masked, cannot touch people etc! So any selling point seems to be well hidden..

Babdoc · 12/04/2021 15:39

OP, when they first started vaccinating, they said there was “no evidence it reduced transmission”. Of course - because they had to wait months for the data to come in to prove that it DID!
Unfortunately a lot of scientifically illiterate people took this to mean that the vaccine didn’t now, and never would, reduce transmission.
All the data from Israel, who were the fastest to roll out the vaccine, show that it DOES cut transmission.
That is confirmed by the U.K. data. We have steadily falling case rates, and no sign of the third wave plaguing Europe, now that our vaccine levels (plus recovered cases) are approaching herd immunity levels.
This is exactly as expected. There would be no point vaccinating people with something that doesn’t work!

Wildswim · 12/04/2021 15:43

If you've had Covid there's not much point in being vaccinated in my opinion. People who had SARS were still immune 17 years later. It mutates, but not enough for your body to not recognise it and fight it off.

Tealightsandd · 12/04/2021 15:47

The point is you get a nice sticker. Perhaps they should add in a lollipop too. So there's that. Oh - and all the scientific data.

Mindymomo · 12/04/2021 15:49

How do you know if you were to get covid again, you wouldn’t suffer more than you did the first time, hopefully you won’t, but you cannot be sure.

Purplewithred · 12/04/2021 15:51

While it seems very possible that people who've had covid might be 'immune' to it and therefore not need the vaccine there doesn't seem to be much data out there to prove that. We could stop vaccinating people who've had a positive result and see what happens (how many have antibodies, how many go on to get it again etc) but it would be a high risk trial that's unlikely to get past an ethics committee. So to be belt-and-braces sure it makes sense to vaccinate everyone, whether they've had it or not.

You may well be taking one for the team by having the jab, but one of the positives from this pandemic has been the number of people who have shown themselves willing to put themselves out for the safety of others.

elaboratethen · 12/04/2021 15:54

The vaccine rollout is a public health initiative, rather than individual protection. Although it obvious protects individuals. If you look at the many many research reports snd papers on the topic ( especially the data coming out of Israel), you can see quite clearly that the Covid vaccines are WORKING!!!

It's not just lockdown that has an effect on the reduced cases, the reduced serious cases, the reduced hospital admissions and the reduced deaths.

The vaccines also appear to be able to reduce transmission to a good extent.

Stick with it. Do your bit, and we will well and truly as a population come out the other side.

Sorry if that's too simplistic

Original poster
Alittlenonsensenowandthen · 12/04/2021 15:54

Thanks for replies guys. I have been reading various articles from harvard, Oxford, bbc etc and my reading of it was that it was still at "may reduce" transmission. Fair point that this was due to lack of data yet. I'm not claiming vaccine doesn't work at all. Just from a selfish perspective whether it was worth it for me personally to have it. If it genuinely means that i won't infect others then yes of course that's worth it.

OP posts:
beginningoftheend · 12/04/2021 15:57

If vaccinated i can still transmit to others therefore not protect others. Reduced by about 50%
If vaccinated i am protecting myself from covid. True but given i had it the risk of having again is low. If i did get it again then surely id get it milder having had it previously. No evidence on this, those who get it a second time sometimes get it far worse

So... What was/is the point? Suppose I'm writing this as I'm feeling sorry for myself as i feel so rubbish post vaccine! Because the vaccine improved everything other than how you feel just now.

Get well soon Flowers

Cornettoninja · 12/04/2021 15:58

@Tealightsandd

The point is you get a nice sticker. Perhaps they should add in a lollipop too. So there's that. Oh - and all the scientific data.
I’ve had both jabs now and didn’t get a sticker for either Angry the struggle is real!

@Alittlenonsensenowandthen, yes in the beginning, and to some extent still now, scientists won’t confirm the effect on transmission without actual data to back up their statements. The hope was always that vaccinations would have an effect on transmission but they couldn’t quantify that in a real world stress test for obvious reasons.

Happily it looks like the ones we’re using do reduce transmission so along with strengthening your own immunity your also contributing to lessening the spread.

Janek · 12/04/2021 15:58

My understanding is that with all such vaccines it doesn't stop you catching it, but you are able to fight it off quickly with little or no illness. So someone else would have to be pretty unlucky to catch it from you in the short window between your catching it and fighting it off.

Haiyaa · 12/04/2021 16:00

If it makes you feel any better OP, I had my first vaccine a month after having Covid and felt awful. Had my second yesterday and just have a sore arm.

It does reduce transmission as well as serious infection/death, but also - and it will probably get me flamed, if there are “vaccine passports” then it is your ticket to relative freedom. I would think of it more as your civic duty rather than purely looking at risk/benefit to yourself though.

Original poster
Alittlenonsensenowandthen · 12/04/2021 16:03

Thanks y'all, probably needed a kick up my big girl pants! A lollipop might've helped though Wink my entire outlook has been really negative at the moment so think that's clouding my thoughts too!

OP posts:
Tealightsandd · 12/04/2021 16:06

I like my sticker but was quite disappointed there were no lollipops 🍭
Hope you feel better soon OP. I felt rotten for a few days but it didn't last.

JeanGabin · 12/04/2021 16:12

I found this thread useful - essentially it's about herd immunity and reaching the threshold required to reduce the r rate to below 1. In other countries, like the USA where vaccine programmes were started later but now ahead of us they are seeing growth in covid. In the uk we are doing better because other methods of limiting spread are still being used.

Terracotta9 · 12/04/2021 16:23

I’m in the same boat as you OP. I already had covid and it was just a cold for me.

Hence, I won’t get a vaccine. Yes, I might catch a variant, but that is a theoretical risk and the risk is also there for the vaccinated, so it’s much of a muchness.

I will only take a vaccine if forced, and even then only after there is long term safety data and the phase 4 trials have finished in a couple of years.

MarshaBradyo · 12/04/2021 16:27

@Alittlenonsensenowandthen

Thanks for replies guys. I have been reading various articles from harvard, Oxford, bbc etc and my reading of it was that it was still at "may reduce" transmission. Fair point that this was due to lack of data yet. I'm not claiming vaccine doesn't work at all. Just from a selfish perspective whether it was worth it for me personally to have it. If it genuinely means that i won't infect others then yes of course that's worth it.
Ok it’s good you’ve recognised this as data has updated

But why do you think if you get it again it will surely be milder?

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