“In reality, the spectrum of protection might best be framed as the extent to which vaccination prevents…

“In reality, the spectrum of protection might best be framed as the extent to which vaccination prevents transmission of the wild-type virus or bacteria.” Immunity doesn’t end epidemics or pandemics. You have to stop transmission, immunity is only one means to that end. /1 https://t.co/h6jgPBd4yd

The team sports of this pandemic created an idiot fake battle between vaccination, and controls on disease transmission (NPIs). But vaccination also ends epidemics by restricting transmission. By lowering viral load so that a host is much less likely to transmit infection. /2

It’s possible that no vaccine is ‘sterilising’. But that’s also likely not how vaccines stop disease outbreaks, by making individuals super-immune, to resist infection. But rather by dropping the viral load in the *infected* just enough to prevent them infecting many others. /3

Meaning everything is about transmission, not immunity. Immunity, usually only partial, plays the role of reducing viral load, thus slowing transmission to others. Not of setting up some sort of barrier to infection of individuals (though it does that as well). /4

Vaccines absolutely do protect individuals, from disease and sometimes even infection. But that’s not the main way they prevent spread i.e. epidemics and pandemics. They do that by targeting transmission. The vaccination/control spread battle is fake and ridiculous. /5

Epidemics and pandemics are stopped by preventing or slowing transmission. There’s no binary here. NPIs and vaccines both target that same essential requirement. Using vaccines alone won’t do it. We need everything that can slow transmission. /end