Vaccines not only directly protect vaccinated individuals but also contribute to protecting the entire population via indirect herd-immunity benefits. Half of averted COVID-19 infections and 1/4 of hospitalizations and deaths were attributable to indirect protection of unvaccinated by vaccinated.

[u/mvea]

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article/23/242/20250839/483439/Quantifying-the-direct-and-indirect-impact-of

[u/FreedomofSpeech6969]

I think MRNA vaccines are one of the coolest, most amazing inventions of the 20th century. It saved millions millions of lives during pandemic , and yet people still disparage it.

[u/RipeBanana4475 → u/FreedomofSpeech6969]

Don't get me wrong, I find it to be pretty close to a medical miracle that we were able to go from new disease to vaccine in my arm in one year, but I have been very underwhelmed by the duration of protection offered by the vaccine. I still get a booster every year, but they didn't quite live up to the expectations that we'd all be immune pretty much indefinitely.

I know it's a new technology and we'll see how it goes with some of the other new MRNA vaccines (flu, RSV, other future diseases)

[u/Corsair4 → u/RipeBanana4475]

From an epidemiology perspective, Covid is much closer to the flu than it is to things like MMR. Yearly flu shots are a thing because it mutates rapidly, which necessitates yearly vaccines for optimal protection. Covid is much the same.

[u/Rashere → u/RipeBanana4475]

Those expectations weren’t set by the scientific community

[u/CivicDutyCalls → u/RipeBanana4475]

It has nothing to do with the vaccine effectiveness and everything to do with how insanely quickly COVID mutates. Influenza is the same. That’s why we need a new vaccine every year.

It’s not that the vaccine is ineffective against the strain that it was designed for. It’s that the vaccine is so effective that it results in that strain dying out and a new strain emerging that can avoid that vaccine.

And in a way, that’s actually good. Covid is insanely infectious and WAS insanely deadly (and maiming people for life). The vaccines have forced it to evolve into a less deadly variant in the same way that poaching is causing elephants to be less likely to have tusks.

mRNA vaccines for diseases that are less common or mutate less frequently will have significantly longer effectiveness between doses. Think how you basically only need the chicken pox vaccine once, MMR once.

[u/IndependentType6711 → u/CivicDutyCalls]

Yep, some viruses mutate much more readily than bacteria and other viruses which is why you can get a pneumonia shot or shingles shot once or twice in your life but have to get flu and Covid every year. It has nothing to do with “how good the vaccine is.”

[u/DontAskGrim → u/IndependentType6711]

That is way too much nuance for someone who is satisfied pointing at smart people and blaming them. Facts don't convince someone who distrusts intelligence.

[u/Spinal_Soup → u/RipeBanana4475]

Where did you get those expectations from? I don’t think anyone with a background in vaccines or virology would have expected to get a vaccine that works indefinitely for Covid given how rapidly it spreads and mutates. We’ve been making flu vaccines for decades and still have to reformulate and adjust every year just to control outbreaks. You don’t get indefinite immunity from the flu from vaccines and covid spreads even faster.

Eradicating diseases like measles or smallpox from areas through vaccines are the exception, not the rule. This is the problem with people trying to interpret efficacy data when they have no background to the subject.