weehingthong

But further, reducing infection *does* reduce transmission, no? Twice, in fact: once when I don’t get it and again when I don’t give the virus (that I haven’t got) to anyone else. Compared to this, I feel like reductions in transmission of breakthrough infections is a side show.

— Viki Male (@VikiLovesFACS) October 13, 2022

I'm so confused what today's talking point is even supposed to be. The vaccines reduced infections by 90-95% against alpha variant. Besides the fact that this would obviously reduce transmission, who lied? And about what? pic.twitter.com/R5XaoQH85y

— bad_stats 🕜💵🖨️🕣 (@thebadstats) October 12, 2022

A viral tweet is claiming to give bombshell news (🚨) that Pfizer is "admitting" they never tested whether the vaccine prevented transmission and therefore the concept of "get vaccinated for others" was a lie – this is wrong on basically every count. So, some facts.

— Rachel Schraer (@rachelschraer) October 12, 2022

By the way, neither Pfizer nor health agencies claimed they had. This Nature article gives a good flavour of the discussions around the time https://t.co/qx6FjTzbKu So…

— Rachel Schraer (@rachelschraer) October 12, 2022

3. Over time, stronger evidence *did* emerge they reduced transmission – of the variant at the time (this was before Delta). I wrote in March 2021 about how authorities were in fact being very cautious about confirming this https://t.co/WR46Zm7P1m

— Rachel Schraer (@rachelschraer) October 12, 2022

5. In the UK at least, soon after it became clear vaccinated people could now pass on the virus at similar rates to unvaccinated people, vaccine passports were quickly all but dropped. That's not to say there aren't valid discussions about…

— Rachel Schraer (@rachelschraer) October 12, 2022

Wow, just wow . https://t.co/PQRyB8eKGm

— Brighton Journal (@BrightonJournal) October 12, 2022

I *knew* vaccines were not tested in the trials for transmission, yet I also know they reduced transmission substantially pre-Delta.

How? Because people studied the effect of the vaccines in the real world, and did find they reduced transmission. E.g. https://t.co/Ql29hxqU68 pic.twitter.com/UnJISvT5fB

— Marco Piani 𝕏 (@Marco_Piani) October 12, 2022

This is why, already starting with the Delta wave you might have wanted to think of vaccines as providing personal protection first of all… https://t.co/kwmPYjpQ1Y

— Marco Piani 𝕏 (@Marco_Piani) October 12, 2022

… pressure on healthcare, so that both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients can receive better treatment, and healthcare workers are under less stress.

When I have taken the flu shot each year in the past several years my first motivation was that of, well, not getting the…

— Marco Piani 𝕏 (@Marco_Piani) August 5, 2021

… note that even just by providing personal protection, the vaccines have helped the community by reducing the burden on healthcare services and society in general (e.g., people less sick for less time and more able to attend to their duties, …

— Marco Piani 𝕏 (@Marco_Piani) October 12, 2022

PSA: The clinical trials never claimed to test transmission. Since then, several groups have tested this. They have all found that vaccines reduce viral load and thus reduce transmission. This is old news. https://t.co/RdcrYQsdRU https://t.co/QpsqYYrA5g

— Debunk the Funk (@Debunk_the_Funk) October 11, 2022