‘There’s been positive news about how effective the vaccines might be in preventing transmission—but as several experts note, some studies that have been made public so far are inconclusive. Until we have a better answer on transmission, social distancing, hand hygiene, testing, and mask wearing will remain important in the fight to limit and eventually end the pandemic.
‘A recent, unpublished Israeli study showed a nearly 90 percent reduction in infections among the vaccinated population. Wired magazine writer Megan Molteni noted that the media framing of the study may have been overly optimistic. While the headlines about this unpublished study were wildly enthusiastic, the reality is more nuanced. “Israel finds BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine reduced virus transmission,” read one headline. But Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, told Wired he was skeptical about drawing any conclusions about the extent to which the Pfizer vaccine cut transmission rates. He told the magazine that to accurately study asymptomatic transmission, both vaccinated and unvaccinated people should be regularly tested. “The testing rates were such a hodgepodge, I don’t know you can make any conclusions about how much the vaccine cut transmission in Israel, let alone assigning a number as concrete as 89.4 percent,” he told Molteni.’
Read here (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 9, 2021)
