COVID Vaccines and Transmissibility – What You Need to Know

I am not a medical professional so if you're leaning into this article for some medical advice you're leaning in the wrong direction. I am, a concerned citizen of Louisiana and in my feeble mind the solution to our coronavirus issue comes down to solving two problems.

One is making ourselves immune to the deadly symptoms that the virus creates when it ravages the body. The second is making sure that we do not become innocent carriers of the virus that could infect others.

Based on current knowledge I'd say science is well on its way to solving problem one with not one, not two, but three different vaccines which have proven to be very effective in helping our bodies ward off the coronavirus and its symptoms.

The second issue still needs some study but based on limited evidence and common sense, we might be a lot closer to quelling the spread of the virus with these vaccines as well. While the vaccines have not been proven to reduce transmissibility there is reasonable circumstantial evidence that they will.

Ochsner System Medical Director of Hospital Quality Dr. Sandra Kemmerly explained the scenario to the Louisiana Radio Network this way, If you're vaccinated then your body immediately starts to fight off the virus when you come in contact with it.

As so if I am able to neutralize that virus and that virus is not able to reproduce in my body and my cells then I am not able to transmit that virus asymptomatically

Kemmerly went on to explain why the vaccine manufacturers have not been speaking so glowingly about transmissibility at this stage.

The reason is simple, they just don't know. They don't have enough scientific evidence that can be offered as proof. Transmissibility is a very difficult metric to measure in clinical trials, so they are using data from those who have been vaccinated to bolster or disprove those assumptions.

According to researchers at Johnson and Johnson, they believe their vaccine limits asymptomatic disease by 74%. Which would be a great thing. Should this be true, the combination of a vaccinated populace combined with limited transmissibility will bring this pandemic to an end. Dr. Kemmerly again,

I would suspect, and it is our hope, that all of these (vaccines) will diminish the spread and contagiousness from one person to another especially after they have been vaccinated

I mean we will still have the coronavirus to deal with but it won't be as big of a monster as it was a year or so ago. In fact, it will become what many politicians wanted it to be in the first place, just another version of the flu. Which it was and is not.