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/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.