[lloydgrossman]

...? The vaccine isn't a panacea that eradicates the virus. Vaccine means your viral load is going to be lower than the alternative and less likely to spread. You can be vaccinated and still spread the virus, but getting the hogs to stop running around so we can try and achieve herd immunity for those that aren't able to get the vaccine is a pretty obvious goal.

[beervirus]

It reduces your risk of serious illness to the point of irrelevance. If you’re vaccinated, you’re not quite at zero risk, but you’re close enough that the pandemic is over for you.

And delta is so transmissible that herd immunity is no longer achievable even with 100% vaccinated.

[hanniabu]

> It reduces your risk of serious illness to the point of irrelevance.

For the most part, and if you're healthy. Unfortunately in a hospital you're working with people that are vulnerable.

Why is this such a controversial thing anyways? In the past we've made vaccines mandatory.

[beerandt]

Because you're still allowing people who can transmit the disease around these "vulnerable" patients.

And the line drawn isn't even an arbitrary number, but an arbitrary policy with an assumed improvement.

An improvement that we know isn't good enough to prevent spread in populations with near 100% vaccination rates.

[jjwiseman]

It's a free, safe vaccine that significantly reduces the spread of the virus that has caused a global pandemic over the last 18 months or so. If you're a health care worker and you won't get vaccinated, you probably should find a new line of work.

It doesn't need to be 100% effective at stopping spread to be an excellent idea.

[dkdk8283]

The vaccine isn’t without side effects, and there is still a debate about whether natural immunity is sufficient.

[beervirus]

The he side effects are trivial. Just get the vaccine and stop deluding yourself.

[dkdk8283]

No. You’re just assuming that it’s by choice.

[woodruffw]

> And delta is so transmissible that herd immunity is no longer achievable even with 100% vaccinated.

There is ample evidence that suggests the exact opposite[1].

[1]: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2106757

[beervirus]

That article isn’t about herd immunity.

[munk-a]

It doesn't reduce risk to irrelevance - there can still be some serious consequences - and the more unvaccinated people we've got around the more likely we're going to see even more variants which may bypass the efficacy of the vaccine and force us back into full lock downs.