In other words, it's 70-80% effective, which is pretty poor performance for a vaccine. So, can we please get an update that encodes the Omicron spike instead of trying to boost antibodies for a virus that's now extinct?
It’s a far cry from the apparently very popular myth that the vaccines no longer work at all.
The original target effectiveness was set low because anything to nudge the R value down was better than nothing.
We now know that we can do much better.
Preferably including Omicron data as well.
A) Once in every.. I dunno, 200 times (0.5%) it kicks you so hard that, without protection you're 100% going to die
B) Once every 10 times (10%) it kicks you so hard you're sent to the hospital
C) Just to spitball, let's say 3 out of 10 times it will kick you hard enough that you're out of commission for a couple days but able to recover without hospitalization
D) 3 out of 10 times it will lightly kick you where you hurt a bit but it's just a minor inconvenience
E) The rest of the time it will let you leave without being kicked.
Ok, so you're strapped into this machine. Now, before I turn it on, I offer you a cup (protection). 70%-80% of the time this cup will offer you complete protection against whatever the machine throws at you. But remember that it's still 100% effective when the machine does nothing, so we only need to look at the 70.5% of the time the machine will actually kick you.
So with 70%-80% protection call it 75% effective, we drop our percentages for each scenario:
A) 0.5% -> 0.125% B) 10% -> 2.5% C) 30% -> 7.5% D) 30% -> 7.5%
This is just doing the simple math. The vaccines drastically lower the chance of severe COVID compared to no vaccine at a higher rate than their overall effectiveness.
So again, you going in there wearing the cup or no? Because that's the choice you have when it comes to getting vaccinated.
There is also the "what will happen to the previous batches" question as no one will be willing to get the old vaccine.