Effectiveness against current variants doesn't guarantee effectiveness against future variants. "Just" reducing symptoms keeps people out of hospitals and graves.

> Secondly, no vaccine in history has come with a disclaimer that it doesn't work unless 100% of the population is vaccinated.

Straw man.

> Vaccines give individual protection.

And herd immunity when enough people get them.

> Thirdly, governments were saying very clearly that estimates of herd immunity were in the 60-70% range - very far from everyone. Why are people now claiming that this was wrong?

I very clearly heard up to 90% of the population. And we wouldn't know until people got vaccinated. Governments then set lower targets like 70% of adults. Probably they decided they couldn't persuade 90% of the population. Those weren't herd immunity estimates though.

Some estimates have gone up because the delta variant is more transmissible. Moreover most countries are under 60% vaccinated.

Every link I see on page 1 of results quotes 60-70% as the original herd immunity figure, which is what I recall hearing consistently back before the facts got upgraded.

No one made that argument. Even implicitly. Google wouldn't have an exception process if they thought even 1 person unvaccinated is dangerous. And basically it's the same policy many schools have for other vaccinations.

> Your herd immunity numbers are just made up. I saw many estimates last year and none were even close to 90%.

Last July the US GAO said 70 to 90% for most viruses. Their chart implied up to about 86% for COVID-19.[1]

Fauci in December: "We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent."[2]

WHO in December: "The proportion of the population that must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to begin inducing herd immunity is not known." But about 95% and 80% for 2 other viruses.[3]

[1] https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-646sp

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/health/herd-immunity-covi...

[3] https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/herd-immunity-lockd...