> From what I know, the COVID-19 vaccine is only effective in reducing symptoms for those who get inoculated. Is it accurate to say this vaccine does not prevent infection or help develop an immunity?
These statements are not accurate, but I think that there may be a misunderstanding with the discussion of whether the vaccine prevents symptomatic spreading.
First, to the second part of your statement, no vaccine really "prevents" infection. A vaccine primes the immune system to fight an infection, but the immune system typically only recognizes the attack once at least some cells have been infected and start producing more viruses.
However, being vaccinated typically means that your body will wipe out the virus before it has a chance to take hold and make you sick. But this doesn't mean it is just "reducing symptoms" the way, say, Sudafed reduces nasal congestion without attacking the cold -- being vaccinated really does mean that your body's defenses are armed to fight and destroy the virus the moment it invades. So it's completely wrong to say it simply "reduces symptoms."
What I think you're confusing this with is that scientists are saying that there is still a chance that you can become infected and become an asymptomatic spreader, even if you don't get sick.
The scientists aren't quite sure if this is the case or not, because it wasn't measured in the large vaccine trials. It's very likely that the vaccine at least reduces your ability to spread the virus, if not completely eliminates it, because that's the way most vaccines work. However, the reason the question is still unknown because certain respiratory diseases can still be spread after vaccination, because those viruses can sometimes replicate within the mucosal tissues in the nose, "hiding" from the body's main immune system.