Home » Vaccine Fact Check » Some Vaccines Don’t Stop Infection and Transmission of Disease

Some Vaccines Don’t Stop Infection and Transmission of Disease

By / / Aaron Siri, carrier, contagious, disease, eradicated diseases, herd immunity, infections, IPV, meningococcal disease, pre-vaccine era, spreading disease, transmission

Believe it or not, but some vaccines don’t actually stop infections and transmission of disease.

Each vaccine, whether or not it can stop infection or transmission, can decrease your risk of getting sick and dying from these diseases.
The Oral polio vaccine did such a good job of stopping infections, disease, and transmission of polio that we can now use the IPV vaccine in most countries as we work to finally eradicate polio.

This isn’t the bombshell news that some folks think it is though…

Some Vaccines Don’t Stop Infection and Transmission of Disease

While an ideal vaccine would both keep you from getting sick and dying and also prevent others from getting sick, unfortunately, some just keep you from getting sick and dying.

Each vaccine, whether or not it can stop infection or transmission, can decrease your risk of getting sick and dying from these diseases.
Folks like Aaron Siri post things like this to make you think that vaccines don’t work. They neglect to tell you that these vaccines still work very well to prevent the disease in the person who was vaccinated and in the case of the meningococcal vaccines, can keep them from dying or losing fingers, toes, arms, or legs…

And in most cases, that’s good enough!

“Vaccines reduce disease by direct protection of vaccinees and by indirect protection of nonimmune persons. Indirect protection depends on a reduction in infection transmission, and hence on protection (immunity) against infection, not just against disease. If a vaccine were to protect only against disease, and not at all against infection, then it would have no influence on infection transmission in the community and there would be no indirect protection (vaccination of one person would have no influence on any others in the community). It would be possible to reduce disease with such a vaccine but not to eradicate the infection.”

Plotkin’s Vaccines

It’s especially good enough when you consider the alternative, which is pretty easy to do.

Just think back to the pre-vaccine era when many more people were dying of diseases like tetanus, Hib, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, and meningococcal disease, etc.

“Vaccination programs have also led to herd immunity through reduced Hib transmission, as shown by declines in the prevalence of oropharyngeal Hib colonization among vaccinated children and unvaccinated children and adults.”

Modeling Insights into Haemophilus influenzae Type b Disease, Transmission, and Vaccine Programs

Vaccines, whether or not they prevent transmission, have worked to decrease the number of people getting sick with these conditions and the number dying.

What’s the Difference Between an Infection and a Disease?

At this point, you might be wondering, but how can a vaccine stop a disease, but not an infection?

Aren’t they the same thing?

“Infection occurs when viruses, bacteria, or other microbes enter your body and begin to multiply. Disease, which typically happens in a small proportion of infected people, occurs when the cells in your body are damaged as a result of infection, and signs and symptoms of an illness appear.”

What You Need to Know About Infectious Disease

Although many people use both words as if they mean the same thing, they are very different.

When you have an infection, technically, the bacteria or viruses are just hanging out in your body and aren’t doing any damage. They might be there temporarily or you might be what’s called a chronic carrier.

Once they start doing some damage to your body, causing signs and symptoms of an illness, then that infection becomes a disease.

Now, while some vaccines might not keep the viruses or bacteria from causing an infection, they will likely prevent them from becoming a disease!

The good news/bad news part of this is that some carriers can be contagious, even though they don’t have symptoms.

That’s why it probably isn’t possible to fully eradicate a condition if a vaccine can’t prevent infections.

Again though, getting vaccinated, even if that vaccine doesn’t prevent an infection, is better than the alternative – getting an disease!

Each vaccine, whether or not it can stop infection or transmission, can decrease your risk of getting sick and dying from these diseases.
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” Lawyers and judges trying to redefine the meaning of the word vaccines doesn’t change the fact that vaccines are safe, necessary, and work well. And anyway, most mandated vaccines do indeed reduce transmission.

So get vaccinated and protect yourself and help prevent the spread of these diseases.

More on Vaccines

Last Updated on June 15, 2024