Pat Furr: Difference between preventing infection and preventing disease

To The Daily Sun,

In response to Steve Earle’s Feb. 23 letter, I did get a bit of a chuckle when I read that your desire to communicate on the matter of the effectiveness of the COVID vaccines would be best done so in the abstract. It seems that you have hit your mark. I would like for you to consider some facts as opposed to abstract opinion.

A very important distinction is the difference between preventing infection and preventing disease. The vast majority of vaccines developed to date do not prevent infection. To prevent infection the vaccine would need to provide a sterilizing immunity. This type of immunity would indeed stop the virus from gaining entry to the host organism which it needs to survive and replicate. Most all vaccines do not provide sterilizing immunity, but instead provide a degree protection from the disease process associated with the virus. The level of immunity in protecting someone from disease varies from individual to individual due to many factors. Factors such as the type of vaccine, the underlying immune system response of the individual, the initial viral load exposure, and many other factors which all determine the level of protection.

The current COVID vaccines are a breakthrough as they are the first widely used vaccines to use messenger RNA to arm the immune system to fight the COVID virus. The immune system is now able to either prevent the disease and/or significantly inhibit the replication of the virus within the host. By inhibiting the replication of the virus through an augmented immune response, the viral load is reduced to the point where two very important things among many happen. The severity of symptoms is significantly reduced which saves lives and reduces the case load in our overwhelmed hospitals. More importantly, the reduction of the viral load in our exhaled breaths reduces the potential for infecting others. Reducing the airborne viral load through vaccination and vector control (masks) combined with protecting individuals through vaccination, from that reduced viral load present in our breathing spaces is key to controlling any respiratory virus. Fact, not abstract opinion.

The successes of the COVID vaccines are easily demonstrated with concrete data as opposed to abstract opinion. The data is still being compiled, but as a snapshot, for the period of October-November of 2021 unvaccinated individuals had a COVID mortality rate between 14 and 53 times higher than those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. The difference between those who were vaccinated but not boosted compared to those unvaccinated saw the unvaccinated experience a COVID mortality rate of 4-13 times higher than vaccinated individuals.

We are not through COVID yet. But despite of all the disinformation that has been propagated throughout this pandemic, we have made great strides in controlling COVID-19. This is due in very large part to those individuals who took the steps to help us get where we are now. By wearing masks, social distancing, and getting vaccinated, these people made the sacrifice necessary to beat this virus.

Pat Furr

Laconia