The obvious answer is that vaccination is proven to reduce illness & death. Vaccination also likely mitigates immune responses that trigger Long COVID. Another under-recognized variable is that transmission between vaxx'd people is likely different than between unvaxx'd people
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1483466780538515461
To be clear, here: I'm making a general point about the prevention of community harm induced by vaccination & corresponding immunity. Vaccinated individuals absolutely can spread Omicron & infect other vaccinated people. Everyone should follow guidelines closely.
When we're thinking about the power of vaccination, we need to think on the community level. Data from the Delta period indicate that the probability of breakthroughs goes UP if community vaccination is low. Every vaccinated person attenuates the spread.
Virus expelled by a vaccinated person has already come into contact with their immune system. There are empirical & theoretical reasons to believe that those viral particles are different than those expelled by unvaxxed people w/out an established immune response.
If you are vaxx'd and you come into contact w/ COVID from an *unvaxx'd* person, you are getting a full blast of the virus. If you come into contact w/ a *vaxx'd* breakthrough infection, the host's immune system has likely already done some good battle against the viral particles.
This should NOT affect your own behavior. If you are vaxx'd & get a breakthrough, you can still spread the virus to other vaxx'd people. Follow guidelines. However, we should also acknowledge the power of vaccination.
The vaccine protects the host of the breakthru. It also likely changes the virus they expel. They send that hindered virus onto you. Then your immune response kicks in. This creates a cycle of relative protection on the community level. Every vaccinated person attenuates the path
The caveat here is that most of the data we have on this is from DELTA, which was less vaccine evasive than Omicron. Omicron could be different. However, in general, the theory still applies. Virus from a vaccinated host is likely not the same as virus from an unvaccinated host.
Again, I don't say this to influence your personal behavior. Vaxx'd people DO spread COVID to other vaxx'd people. Follow guidelines & be careful. But, when dealing w/ anti-vaxxers, we need to stress that mass immunity weakens the viral path. Every human body has a role to play.
I don't care about Tim Pool. I care about giving people the info they need to talk to other vaccine hesitant/resistant people.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
