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You know all the people who are out there repeating over and over that "the vaccine doesn't prevent you from transmitting it to other people"? They're almost certainly full of shit. #scicomm https://nyti.ms/3oWGPY7
Can we pleeeeeease speak accurately about this?
Exaggerating scientific uncertainty in an attempt to control people's behavior should itself be seen as unethical. It is utterly beyond me why this isn't a foundational value.
People are pointing out below that, while all COVID vaccines are effective at preventing symptomatic infection, some are better than others at preventing asymptomatic infection, or "non-sterilizing immunity". Which is true. https://twitter.com/nafshordi/status/1351177473757745156
This is true of many influenza vaccines as well: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7296151/
However, even vaccines like influenza vaccine can reduce community transmission to the extent that herd immunity is achieved: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22414740/
This is well-studied with other viruses. Even non-sterilizing immunity is likely to make you less infectious, and prevents population spread. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccines-need-not-completely-stop-covid-transmission-to-curb-the-pandemic/
The transmission rate of COVID among vaccinated populations is not, known, but it is known that COVID spreads via asymptomatic infections, at a substantially reduced rate relative to symptomatic infections: https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4851
Bottom line: The vaccine almost certainly *does* prevent you from transmitting COVID to other people. It does not do so perfectly, and some vaccines are better than others.
