[savanu]

The different efficacy rates of the vaccines do not directly imply anything about spreading covid.

A vaccinated person can have no symptoms of covid and still be spreading (This may or may not be true).

Folks are still studying how effective the vaccines are at preventing spread.

[cactus2093]

> A vaccinated person can have no symptoms of covid and still be spreading

Aren't the efficacy numbers from the phase 3 trials based on giving periodic PCR tests to everyone that was participating in the trials? And not just based on people self-reporting symptoms?

It would be very surprising if there were a new kind of asymptomatic carrier that emerged only for people having taken certain vaccines in which they would never test positive on a PCR test but could still spread covid. The odds that this is how the vaccines work seems very small, relative to the number of times this argument that "we don't know yet" is getting repeated.

It just seems strange to me that so many people are hung up on pointing out that this small possibility is still a possibility. It seems more likely that this will drive more people to skip the vaccine, since they're being told they can't even go back to normal once vaccinated, than anything else.

[savanu]

I don't think the fact that you might be still spreading covid when vaccinated is enough of a reason to continue lockdown. As long we are continually getting people vaccinated, we should be fine for returning to normal.

[xiii1408]

Depends on the particular trial, but the clinical trial data used to get FDA approval usually measures symptomatic cases, which is a combination of coronavirus symptoms and positive PCR test.

There's some additional data which indicates Pfizer and Moderna are likely to limit transmission, but from my understanding it's not as ironclad as the symptomatic cases data.

[DiogenesKynikos]

> Aren't the efficacy numbers from the phase 3 trials based on giving periodic PCR tests to everyone that was participating in the trials?

For most trials, no. You have to look at each individual study, but most commonly, they only test after people show specific symptoms.

[kazinator]

Keep in mind that a door handle is completely immune to Covid and can be spreading it.

[dheera]

Only for a few hours though, not 2 weeks+, and viruses don't mutate on a doorknob. Someone who got vaccine and falls in the ineffective category will likely not die but will be a spreader for a few weeks, with some nonzero probability of mutation, and that times 1/3 of the population that got the vaccine would give the virus a lot of opportunity to mutate.

[kazinator]

According to some experts, Covid-19 can endure on certain surfaces for as long as six days.

[dheera]

Okay, but until they're done studying, maybe let's just make more of the 94% vaccine using J&J's facilities?

[ghaff]

You do realize that different manufacturing facilities are not interchangeable? They're not a rack of x86 servers.