Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2021 Breaking News

[Riemann]

@Melbourne

Mr Morrison said there was not yet “considerable clinical evidence that tells us transmission is preventable” after the jab.

That’s we don’t know yet. So your post was another instance of the common misrepresentation that I noted in the other thread, in bold below.

@Riemann

This has consistently been very poorly reported in the press.

It is (obviously, when you think about it) much more difficult to study relative rates of transmission from people who have been vaccinated, than to study whether vaccinated people are getting sick themselves. So we don’t know to what extent vaccination reduces transmission, especially with new strains circulating. But it is certainly likely that a vaccine that is so successful at preventing disease will also reduce transmission significantly.

Careful scientists prudently saying we don’t know if X is true is consistently poorly reported to imply that it means we know X is false .

So your conclusion is right - it’s prudent for vaccinated people to keep wearing a mask for the time being. But that’s not because we have any reason to believe than vaccination is ineffective at reducing transmission. We just don’t have firm data yet.

CDC:

Science Brief: Background Rationale and Evidence for Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People.

A growing body of evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and potentially less likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to others. However, further investigation is ongoing.

The data we have are limited and mostly indirect at this point, but there are no data that I have seen to indicate the converse. It would be very much contrary to expectation that a vaccine that is highly effective at preventing disease would not also be effective at significantly reducing transmission.