[firmnoodle]

Agreed. But I don't hear anyone talking about making a old style COVID vaccine that prevents infection, disease or transmission. That's what's different in this case. We don't currently have what we many of us used to think of as a vaccine.

[dragontamer]

The vaccines are 90% effective against the original strain and Alpha to transmission / infection.

Efficacy dropped to 60% vs Delta, and drops again to 30% vs Omicron. Boosters seem to rise back up to 90% vs Delta and 75% vs Omicron.

That's why so many people are talking about boosters: it has a measurable impact on transmission for Omicron (and Delta).

[rsfern]

We are lucky we have vaccines at all; it was never a sure thing.

Also, IIRC Sinovac’s Coronavirus vaccine is an “old style” inactivated virus vaccine, and the J&J one is an adenovirus vector vaccine. They are not as effective as the mRNA vaccines.