https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vaccines-highly-effective...
> the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant 2 weeks after the second dose, compared to 93% effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 variant
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/p0514-covid-19-vacci...
> mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) reduced the risk of getting sick with COVID-19 by 94% among HCP who were fully vaccinated
...
Some of us also remember the health authorities promising herd immunity (and end of lockdowns) after X% get vaccinated.
Herd immunity was a key argument of the anti lockdown folks; the people responsible for the Great Barrington Declaration regularly claimed it was almost here. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02948-4
"Despite widespread critique, the idea keeps popping up among politicians and policymakers in numerous countries, including Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. US President Donald Trump spoke positively about it in September, using the malapropism “herd mentality”. And even a few scientists have pushed the agenda. In early October, a libertarian think tank and a small group of scientists released a document called the Great Barrington Declaration. In it, they call for a return to normal life for people at lower risk of severe COVID-19, to allow SARS-CoV-2 to spread to a sufficient level to give herd immunity."
Fauci and others openly noted they didn’t know the exact amount of immunization needed to reach it - numbers given were openly stated to be an estimate - and we never hit the 80-90% numbers often speculatively thrown around. Variants then made things worse.
As I said... health authorities threw out numbers, making people believe, that as we reach <whatever number>, we'll be able to stop the lockdowns... so get vaccinated, you won't get sick (atleast with 90%+ chance), you won't transmit it to others and you'll "save grandma", and we'll be able to reopen soon.
They gave estimates - stated as such - based on existing knowledge about disease and vaccines.
Some were wrong, like discouraging masking. Others were correct. Getting them all correct would've required a time machine.
IT folks should understand this pretty well. "Reboot your computer, it might help" is a recommendation based on weak knowledge, made with a wealth of experience behind it.
The CDC, the FDA, Biden, Harris, Fauci, Walensky, every pharmaceutical company, and every mainstream media channel claimed the vaccines prevented transmission.
To claim otherwise is just gaslighting.
Many of them went so far as to say it was 100% effective at preventing transmission, and those video clips are still out there if you believe otherwise.
Here, I'll link to what Fauci was saying; "might slow", "looming question", "early studies": https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/looming-question-...
No experts were giving statements that this was a sterilizing vaccine. The strongest claims on this front made were that the vaccines appeared in studies to reduce transmission of the original strain, by a hard-to-determine amount.
The 90-95% number was always for preventing severe disease. No one listened to the details, it seems.