# The responsibility of the vaccinated to keep masking

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-responsibility-of-the-vaccinated-to-keep-masking/942196
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone
**Tags:** covid-quarantine
**Created:** [May 15, 2021, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-responsibility-of-the-vaccinated-to-keep-masking/942196 "2021-05-15T23:05:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 35

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### Author: ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2021, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-responsibility-of-the-vaccinated-to-keep-masking/942196/35 "2021-05-19T00:57:36Z")

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> [@nelliebly](#):
>
> If I doubt anyone, it’s not going to be an immunologist with his credentials and experience. If you read the quotation from my earlier post. I think it’s very clear he was specifically referencing variants, not earlier strains.

Appeal to authority doesn’t cut it. What matters is research data - if Fauci referenced some, please cite it. The Qatar paper presents very important data on efficacy against disease, but I’ve read through it and there’s nothing in it about _transmission_.

It’s much easier to study disease incidence in a vaccinated cohort than it is to study transmission _from_ that cohort to unknown other people. So most of the data we have so far on transmission is indirect. Over the past year, I’ve repeatedly corrected people at the _opposite_ extreme - who misunderstood cautious statements that we don’t yet have definitive data on transmission to mean that we have affirmative evidence of the opposite, people mistakenly thinking that we know vaccines _don’t_ prevent transmission. In fact I got [pitted](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riemann-is-making-up-stuff-in-the-quarantine-zone/941965/7) just a few days ago for one such correction! In fact, all the data we do have points in the right direction - I certainly agree that it’s _likely_, it would be strange and shocking if a vaccine that is so remarkably effective against disease did not have a substantial effect in reducing transmission. But it’s not yet so definitive as Fauci suggests in that quote, and the real answer almost certainly will not be black and white, it will be some quantitative reduction in transmission.

Here’s the CDC’s current correctly cautious statement (updated April 2nd), referencing the existing evidence:

> 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.

[https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/fully-vaccinated-people.html#:~:text=These%20findings%20suggest%20that%20any,vaccinated%20with%20an%20effective%20vaccine](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/fully-vaccinated-people.html#:~:text=These%20findings%20suggest%20that%20any,vaccinated%20with%20an%20effective%20vaccine)

And see here for one study currently underway that should give us some good direct data on transmission:

[https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/covid-prevention-news-releases/prevent-covid-university-study/](https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/covid-prevention-news-releases/prevent-covid-university-study/)

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