As long as we don’t know if the vaccine stops people from being infectiuous to others and only have data on how it stops severe cases, it makes most sense to get the vaccine to people with the highest risk first.
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Like I said above, that’s fine as long as we know the virus inhibits the viruses ability to transmit. I’m not sure we do.
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Gotta say, he’s looking very good, considering.
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But should they be giving a vaccine to someone that is 450 years old?
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Now we know what James Milner will look like at the end of this 70 game season.!
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I think the talk about this in recent weeks is likely over stated. None of the studies have shown that it reduces transmission, and so some people have been careful to point that out. But this is due to the studies not being designed to observe that rather than because they’ve looked at haven’t been able to see it (because those studies are harder and would take too long).
It is still far more likely that a virus that stops you getting sick from the virus also stops you being contagious, because both are based on limiting the reproduction of the virus. But until we have good data on that it is appropriate public health policy to not assume it is true.
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This is interesting to me, maybe you can explain it to me. Where is the difference between an infected person being asymptomatic but still contagious and someone getting vaccinated (and afterwards not showing severe symptoms)?
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Yeah, that’s a great question and it’s not at all clear. However, both getting to the point of being contagious and become sick require the virus to infect a cell, replicate and then shed. Why some people don’t get sick after the shedding is not clear, but the mechanism of the virus is to work upstream of that point (before it happens) so shouldn’t result in the modal case of the vaccine producing personally protected by contagious people.
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Cheers.
I sort of half understood your last sentence.
Leaving aside the vaccine for a moment - I kinda understand how presymptomatic cases can be contagious, but I struggle to understand asymptomatic transmission. Sorry for being such a nuisance, but this is the type of stuff I have trouble with as a layman.
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If you feel you cannot understand it it is because science is not able to explain it. This is just one of a few unusual behaviors this virus has that leave virologists a confused by it. Another is that it seems to continue produce RNA for weeks after it has “died”. Usually symptoms and contiguousness do go hand in hand, and are both the result of the virus having been able to replicate inside your cells to a threshold level. In this case, presymptomatic people are those who have built up a good enough viral load and are starting down the path of developing symptoms. Asymptomatic cases have been shown to have the same viral load as symptomatic cases, and so what is stopping them getting sick is not at all clear.
What I meant by that is the normal variability in response means we can expect outliers. Some people may get vaccinated and continue to be asymptomatic carriers, but it you think about it like a bell curve, the vast majority of patients for whom it is effective we’d still expect to be both personally protected and unable to be contagious.
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Cheers again.
I guess I just don’t understand why that expectation is there, what the basis for it is.
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Just the mechanism of action of vaccines. They work by enabling a rapid response after being exposed to the virus so that is not able to replicate and shed. If it cannot do that then it is not going to be able to make you sick or infect anyone else.
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That’s the answer I was looking and kinda hoping for 
Hope this was at least somewhat enlightning to others as well.
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I thought everyone knew this stuff… 
No, it’s been a really good read!
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Glad you could learn something at last
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At last! Next I’ll have to give being wrong a try 
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Apparently the Biontech dude expects their vaccine to halve transmission/infectiousness to others. Which would still be good, I guess, but maybe not fantastic.
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Dont. I did it once and it was AWFUL.
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