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We’re only Now Starting To See This Critical Piece of Coronavirus Vaccine Data
Do they reduce asymptomatic infection?
No one talked about it much, but public health professionals were all aware of a potential nightmare scenario when COVID vaccinations started up in bulk. No, not a slew of severe adverse events — the clinical trials made it clear that these were fairly safe interventions. The nightmare scenario — discussed in small groups online and on campus, was this: What if the vaccines reduce the severity of COVID-19, but not the transmissibility? In other words, what if the vaccine takes someone who would have been sick with COVID-19, isolating, at home, and converts them into an asymptomatic carrier — out in the world, spreading virus like millions of Typhoid Mary’s.
It’s not a crazy proposition. Remember that the vaccine trials were designed to see if the vaccine prevented symptomatic COVID-19, not total infections. And I need to point out that this is fine — reducing symptoms is hugely important. This picture was published in 1901.
Two sisters, both exposed to smallpox from the same source. The woman on top, aged 21, was vaccinated as an…
