"'Herd immunity', also known as 'population immunity', is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection"
- World Health Organisation
Unvaccinated people can't build specific antibodies against a disease unless they have come into direct contact with infectious disease particles
Are unvaccinated people who have developed COVID-19 antibodies just asymptomatic and gained their protection through exposure to:
A) Infectious surfaces
(direct contact/contamination)
B) An asymptomatic person
(Aerosolised infectious particles)
C) A vaccinated person
(Aerosolised infectious particles)
OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS
Do vaccines protect against COVID-19?
Correlates of protection are based on efficacy. There has been observed "correlation" between vaccines and reduced disease, however, no evidence exists that scientifically prove vaccines reduce or protect against disease
What immune response is required to stop/prevent disease?
Not yet known.
What constitutes a good immunological response to COVID-19 (not in trials)?
Not yet known.
If vaccines work by eliciting an immune response, but the required response to fight the disease is not known, how can anyone be considered immune to the disease?
???
How do Government agencies determine herd immunity targets for COVID-19 if herd immunity wasn't part of any trials?
???
If a disease has already spread through a population and is dying out due to natural herd immunity, won't introducing a vaccine at the tail-end of a pandemic/epidemic wrongly associate the reduction in disease with the vaccine?
Israel is already being used as the 'poster child' for disease reduction due to COVID-19 vaccination. However, the key facts are being overlooked:
10% of Israel's population has been confirmed positive of COVID-19
28% of Israel's population is under 14 years old, which we know, handle COVID-19 quite well and are most likely to be asymptomatic
Given facts 1 and 2, the positive COVID-19 cases is likely underestimated due to the youth of the population being asymptomatic
Since the vaccine, COVID-19 case numbers went up for 2 months before starting decline
Israel is the best example of natural herd immunity for the wild disease, not vaccination herd immunity which has not yet been proven to exist.
Do inactivated or attenuation or RNA vaccines are activated through human processes and can shed infectious disease particles? (not in trials)
If attenuated or inactivated or RNA vaccines are activated in the body, the possibility to infect the vulnerable unvaccinated will exist.
Do vaccines increase viral load compared to unvaccinated? (not in trials)
If vaccines are proven to increase viral load when compared to unvaccinated people, the vaccinated will pose a higher risk to vulnerable groups than the unvaccinated
Are vaccines associated with enhanced disease or enhanced respiratory disease (VAERD / VAED)? (not in trials)
If Covid-19 vaccines (like other vaccines incl. RSV, TB, FLU, MMRV) are proven to enhance disease, the vaccinated will pose a higher risk to vulnerable groups than unvaccinated!
If the COVID-19 vaccine is proven to provide protection against the disease, how long does the protection last? I.e. 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years? (not in trial)
If vaccines are proven to provide protection, but only for a short period of time, there will be significant global impacts (logistics, cost, disease burden,.procurement)
Disease prevalence and number of asymptomatic people, as well as recovered covid-positive people in the community? (already have antibodies naturally, not from being in contact with vaccinated)
Wont this mean undetected covid-positive and asymptomatic people existing prior to vaccination will be represented, statistically counted toward positive/ increased vaccine efficacy?
If Vaccine Associated Enhanced Diseases affect vaccinated people who are exposed to the wild virus and experience increased viral load and worse symptoms, wouldnt that increase risk of infecting vulnerable people? unvaccinated getting infected as.opposed to reduce it?
Meta-analysis of influenza vaccine herd immunity
