This is madness. Expecting everyone to have a vaccine for a virus that does not present a risk for 90+% of the population, whilst simultaneously saying that we don't even know if the vaccine will stop you transmitting the virus.
I am all for vaccines where they clearly have benefits for the person taking them, but as it stands, these vaccines present next to zero benefit for ~90% of Australia's population who end up taking it.
from news.com.au
Not known if vaccines can stop transmission
Ally Foster
Authorities d
on't know how effective the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will be in stopping the transmission of COVID-19.
Former chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, said
both vaccines will be able to successfully prevent people from getting critically ill from the virus.
"We don't yet know how effective they are at preventing the transmission of the virus. Those arrange studies that were published, the phase 3 trials are based around prevention of clinical disease," he said.
"We will be progressively getting data over the coming months about the impact on transmission of the virus. It stands to reason that these vaccines will also prevent, to some degree, transmission of the virus but we don't know how effective they are at doing that."
Professor Murphy said it will be about three months before the impact of the vaccines on transmission can be seen.
"We will progressively re-evaluate the situation at the time. We think they will be effective," he said.
"The other thing we don't know is how long the immunity of these vaccines will last. It may be that people will need additional doses of vaccines, possibly annually. These things are completely unknown at the moment."