“you don't know that infection is measured with symptomatic numbers and you don't know that a subsymptomatic viral load isn't transmissible”
That is mentioned in the article, but right now there isn’t really any evidence suggesting the vaccine doesn’t actually stop infection in at least some cases. PCR tests can discover asymptomatic infections for instance and some workplaces had mandatory testing regimes. The initial moderna trial tested everyone even without symptoms on reception of the 2nd dose and found that just one dose of the vaccine had greatly reduced PCR + compared to the placebo group, there seems no evidence that behavior of the vaccines isn’t generalizable.
“ you don't know that it isn't strategically better to have vaccinated, low risk people get breakthrough infections and get immunity to omicron proper”
How do you you see this as an alternative while still suggesting the vaccine wouldn’t work or provide immunity?
If the vaccine makes a specific person immune to Omicron infection, they don’t need breakthrough immunity because they already have it. If it fails to make that person immune to Omicron infection, they’ll still “strategically” get sick by being in the community and being infected.
Unless you are suggesting an alternative of young vaccinated people specifically exposing themselves to Omicron positive cases en masse in an attempt to have a breakthrough case and boost their immunity I don’t see how your comparison makes sense.
Deploying an omicron-specific vaccine without any safety trials or testing seems likely to be safer than variolation using live omicron virus to intentionally infect millions (moreover, expecting those millions to actually self isolate is unrealistic - a significant percentage of them would go out to stores or social events and spread the virus more rapidly to seniors)
Our health authorities are too scared of making mistakes to do either though, so it seems purely hypothetical either way.
That is mentioned in the article, but right now there isn’t really any evidence suggesting the vaccine doesn’t actually stop infection in at least some cases. PCR tests can discover asymptomatic infections for instance and some workplaces had mandatory testing regimes. The initial moderna trial tested everyone even without symptoms on reception of the 2nd dose and found that just one dose of the vaccine had greatly reduced PCR + compared to the placebo group, there seems no evidence that behavior of the vaccines isn’t generalizable.
“ you don't know that it isn't strategically better to have vaccinated, low risk people get breakthrough infections and get immunity to omicron proper”
How do you you see this as an alternative while still suggesting the vaccine wouldn’t work or provide immunity?
If the vaccine makes a specific person immune to Omicron infection, they don’t need breakthrough immunity because they already have it. If it fails to make that person immune to Omicron infection, they’ll still “strategically” get sick by being in the community and being infected.
Unless you are suggesting an alternative of young vaccinated people specifically exposing themselves to Omicron positive cases en masse in an attempt to have a breakthrough case and boost their immunity I don’t see how your comparison makes sense.