Back Pedaling

As you may have seen, there's a replacement for Satchel Paige on the front page, and reflects what was apparent from the beginning, that not all vaccines halt infectiousness as well as infection. And, as wannaBePresident Huey Long 2024 claimed, I'm immune and don't need to mask or distance or hand wash (not). The whole idea of Herd Mentality is that those vaccinated, if a sufficient proportion of the population is vaccinated/recovered, are the barrier to transmission. And that's not necessarily so.

Yes, one hopes, they won't get sick (again) if exposed to Covid, but do they not transmit if exposed? Aye, matey, thar's the rub. Sterilizing vaccines do that, to a greater or lesser extent, but the evidence so far is that neither the recovered nor the vaccinated never harbor Covid virus and thus can't transmit. If that apparent truth is totally factual, how is Herd Mentality achieved?

A few days ago 'Scientific American' gave an assessment.

The question of whether immunization prevents recipients from becoming ill and from infecting others is not unique to the current pandemic.

For example:

The two main categories of inoculations against polioviruses confer different types of immunity. The inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) protects against systemic infection and consequent paralysis but does not stop viral replication in the gut, so it offers no indirect protection to unvaccinated individuals. The oral polio vaccine (OPV) generates localized intestinal immunity, preventing infection and protecting against disease and transmission.

So, after you get that first shot and after you get the second shot and after the innoculation period has past
- mask
- distance
- wash those filthy hands

Until CDC/WHO tells us that Covid is history. Which is likely to be measured in months, not weeks, and perhaps a year or more after the 75^th percentile person is innoculated.