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Comment by CryptoPunk | Hacker News Reader

COVID vaccines don't stop transmission, so this is not about protecting other people.

Exactly. In addition to that, this recurring argument that compares vaccine mandates to mandates prohibiting "bad" acts is odd.

Legally speaking, mandating the vaccine is forcing a person to act (get jabbed) through no act of their own. Mandating abortion bans is prohibiting an act (getting an abortion). So the two scenarios aren't comparable.

> Mandating abortion bans is prohibiting an act (getting an abortion).

Banning abortion means de facto forcing someone to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.

For variants other than Delta they greatly reduce transmission, with Delta they still reduce it, but not nearly as much.

they reduce it by a nonzero amount, which I believe to be an appropriate threshold, given the lack of common, significant side effects

you probably have a different threshold, which is okay, but it is likely one you will have to persuade the majority to adopt, if you want to get your way

It doesn't reduce it enough to provide herd immunity, meaning the virus will continue to propagate until every one has been exposed. See Iceland's experience:

https://twitter.com/eliaseythorsson/status/14240115421950238...

The Oxford Vaccine Group says herd immunity through vaccination is infeasible now:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/10/delta-variant-...

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