Dr Anthony Fauci receiving what appears to be a vaccine
 

Why shouldn't he? He believes in vaccines. It's a pity so many people don't.

The point was to try to convince the anti-vaxxers that they should get it. Or at least the people who are undecided. Religious anti-vaxxers will never be convinced, but the more vaccinations, the less chance of continued outbreaks.

That is a correct. As a practicing physician he would be in the first phase for a getting a vaccination.

He received the Moderna vaccine and as posted the video was an attempt to convince people that it is safe.

Dr Anthony Fauci receiving what appears to be a vaccine
 

"what appears" to be a vaccine. What, he's not good enough for Bill's mind control serum???

Haha.

This man is one of the world's leading immunologists. Perhaps he deserves a little more respect. And perhaps you should stop listening to bulldust from Facebook.

Except that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may not prevent transmission. Which means that unless we maintain social distancing and mask wearing after being vaccinated the rate of transmission may accelerate (because infected spreaders will be asymptomatic and so be unlikely to be tested) and people who can't be vaccinated will be at higher risk than now.

Until a vaccine that prevents transmission becomes available we won't be heading towards herd immunity no matter how many people receive the vaccines.

Don't prevent transmission? How is the virus transmitted if the person isn't infected? Certainly the current precautions need to be in place until after the second vaccination, without a doubt. And since it's difficult, if not impossible to tell if someone has been vaccinated, those who have been should practice the same precautions. Herd immunity is a nebulous term which shouldn't be used. Those who refuse vaccination will continue to be a problem with those who also refuse it. Darwin's theory will take care of them eventually.

Vaccines don't prevent the introduction of a virus or bacterium into a vaccinated individual; that is, they don't prevent infection. The Pfizer vaccine seems to prevent the infected individual developing the disease but it might not (Pfizer admits this - full testing hasn't been completed yet) prevent the viral load in the infected person reaching the level where that individual further transmits the virus.

The problem may well be that vaccinated individuals can still come into contact with the virus and then pass it on. So yes, those precautions should continue even after the second vaccination until either the Pfizer (and Moderna) vaccine is shown to prevent transmission or another vaccine which does is available and in widespread use.

"Herd immunity" just means that there are enough individuals in the population who do not pass on their infections that unvaccinated individuals have a small probability of being infected. This may need well over 90% of the population receiving a suitable vaccine.

I'm quite happy for Darwin to sort out those who refuse vaccination for no good reason. But there will be people who won't be able to receive a vaccine for medical reasons.

The problem here appears to be that covid can be spread by asymptomatic individuals. I don't know of any other viral disease which spreads like that. In flu for instance, if you are infected, you develop symptoms. So we can be sure that vaccinated individuals (who don't develop any symptoms when they come into contact with the disease) don't have it and can't spread it.

With covid, we can't yet be sure. We know that the three leading vaccines prevent the development of symptoms, but it is just possible that these people have the disease asymptomatically. It's not very likely because, to be infectious, you need to have viral multiplication going on inside you, and a vaccine should prevent that. But it will take a little longer to be sure.

This is how it was presented to me, too.
However, I don't see this as an argument to avoid vaccination.
This is an important question, I'd like to see more material about it.
All I found were short, US American articles that, more or less, use this exact sentence.

I agree. Once again, it tries to simplify a more complex problem. It's almost become some sort of dogwhistle term.


Nice...
I'll have to remember that term for forums moderated by people with a predominantly US American mindset.

I really hope I didn't come across as being even a little against vaccination. My sleeve is figuratively already rolled up waiting for March when the Australian rollout is predicted.

Or perhaps we just haven't really tracked asymptomatic influenza transmission until relatively recently?

https://www.influenza.org.nz/sites/d...2020170421.pdf

https://www.clinicaladvisor.com/home...-asymptomatic/

I stand corrected. You learn something every day.

Asymptomatic carriers occur in many diseases — remember Typhoid Mary?