Johnbisonbear said "for your thoughtful answer abbysmum.
But as you say about the HCW and their PPE, the same should go for the HCW who chose to not vaccinate shouldn't it? I can understand their frustration by this decision to test them every 2 days. They have been working all along before the shots were offered right?
Unless the workplace has become more toxic because of the forced testing? "
Adam has already provided a lot of this, but just to expand. Just because vaccinated people CAN spread the illness, the chances of them doing so is significantly less. They are less likely to get sick (somewhere between 5 and 8 times based on what I've read), and even if they do get sick, they are sick for less time so there's less time for them to infect others. They probably also shed less virus, as early research has suggested that infections in vaccinated people are not as systemic as unvaccinated, the theory being that the body is able to tamp down the infection quicker and giving the virus less opportunity to replicate.
That all together means that while the risk isn't nil, but lowered enough that vaccinated HCW's don't pose the same risk as unvaccinated HCW's. My comments above explains why I don't think the same applies necessarily to patients in the context you describe.
Also, if you're friend is getting intubated (which he might if they're having surgery), that poses a whole DIFFERENT level of risk because of the way droplets and aerosols work. I've been to the hospital for a surgery and for other things in the past 6 months. I had to be tested for surgery, but not for the other things.
We can't see the times vaccines work. That's just the nature of the beast. So we have to look for the times they fail to assess how well they work. But that also distorts our view of how effective they actually are.
This woman does an excellent job explaining things in her short video. She's a immuninologist too.
And yes, they have been working all along, but no one was vaccinated initially. The level of risk was the same for everyone, and we all acted accordingly.
With things opening up and life returning to normal, the level of risk has changed. Everyone who's vaccinated HAS less risk, and POSES less risk. Because that's the majority of the population, things are changing to accommodate them. The unvaccinated are basically being left behind as the rest of us approach normalcy. It's not punishment, but risk management.