We had believed it was somehow safer to be in company of vaccinated people. In fact, if we waited long enough some thought they might not require jabs at all. The UK Guardian reported August 19, 2021 this may not be the case. That’s because vaccinated people may not offer protection, if we are to believe a new study by researchers at Oxford University England.
Fully Vaccinated Adults Can Harbor as Much Virus
The research has not been peer-reviewed, let alone published as far as we can make out. However, other respected media are also reporting it. And the University is a credible source with a reputation for thoroughness.
Sarah Walker is a professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at the university. She and her colleagues were investigating the effectiveness of vaccines against Delta, when they stumbled over the new information.
They obtained their data from 2.6 million nose-and-throat swabs from 384,500 adults between December 2020 and mid-May 2021. And compared these to 811,600 test results from 358,983 adults between mid-May and 1 August 2021 while Delta was dominant.
Vaccinated People Have Significant Protection for Themselves
The Oxford research confirmed COVID vaccines offer significant self-protection against hospitalizations and death. Although this effectiveness does wane over time, as we already know.
However, they also found infected, vaccinated people can carry similar coronavirus levels as unvaccinated ones. This means infected, vaccinated people may not offer any protection to the unvaccinated group. This could dispel the idea of vaccinations contributing to herd immunity too.
However, Sarah Walker points out ‘We don’t yet know how much transmission can happen from people who get Covid-19 after vaccination. For example, they may have high levels of virus for shorter periods of time. This means people who aren’t yet vaccinated, may not be as protected from the Delta variant as we hoped.’
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