Firstly, I'm not an anti-vaxxer and I think you should apologise. You've gone overboard in every comment and now you've landed on personal attacks. If you can't make a persuasive and well-reasoned argument don't look at anyone but yourself.
> No, it's a description of both sterilising and non-
sterilising immunity.
I know, that's why I wrote "You can't have a whole point where half of it is not true." The sterilising part isn't correct, the vaccines do not act to produce neutralising antibodies, they work to produce acquired immunity. That is why we have this[1] via the CDC:
> "High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC's director, said in a statement Friday.
and this[2] from Public Health England (PHE):
> The Technical Briefing also includes some initial findings which indicate that levels of virus in those who become infected with Delta but have already been vaccinated may be similar to levels found in unvaccinated people. This may have implications for people’s infectiousness, whether they have been vaccinated or not. However, this is early exploratory analysis and further targeted studies are needed to confirm whether this is the case.
So your statement:
> The vaccines significantly reduce your chances of both.
is factually wrong.
The vaccines *do not* provide sterilising immunity. Rates of transmission are not the same thing, sterilising immunity is a type of immune response[3], transmission can be lowered by any part of the immune response simply because it shortens the period that a carrier is infectious to others, they are not synonyms, so stating "The rates of severe disease and death are orders of magnitude higher for unvaccinated people" - which is to compare efficacy and severity with infectiousness is beside the point and only goes to show your lack of understanding or ability to hold a good faith argument.
> “The Delta variant will still infect people who have been vaccinated. And that does mean that anyone who’s still unvaccinated at some point will meet the virus … and we don’t have anything that will [completely] stop that transmission.”
Those are the words[4] of professor Andrew Pollard[5], an immunologist, and Chief Investigator on the University of Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine (ChAdOx-1 n-CoV-19) trials.
Again:
> “The Delta variant will still infect people who have been vaccinated”
That is not the case with sterilising immunity. Is he anti-vaxx? Do behave.
As to the second half of your comment:
> Are you seriously suggesting that the science isn't settled on whether getting vaccinated is preferable to contracting SARS-CoV-2 as an unvaccinated person?
If it's settled then why are experts saying things like this[6], from last week:
> “It appears that natural immunity is better against the Delta variant. When you get infected with COVID, your body’s immune system develops antibodies to the entire surface of the virus,” Makary said. “Not just the slight protein that the vaccines gives you, but the entire surface. And so you get a more diverse antibody portfolio in your system.”
That is from, as the article points out, "Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at John Hopkins School of Medicine", but he has a Wikipedia page too[7] where you can check out his credentials, long list of awards, and try to find some kind of controversy section (or even start one).
He's quoting evidence from Israel's health ministry (via a news report[8], if you finally overcome your aversion to challenging information then you might find me the data from the ministry itself, I'd appreciate that):
> With a total of 835,792 Israelis known to have recovered from the virus, the 72 instances of reinfection amount to 0.0086% of people who were already infected with COVID.
>By contrast, Israelis who were vaccinated were 6.72 times more likely to get infected after the shot than after natural infection, with over 3,000 of the 5,193,499, or 0.0578%, of Israelis who were vaccinated getting infected in the latest wave.
and he's not anti-vaccine either:
> Makary has still encouraged those who are not vaccinated and not immune to get the vaccine.
and I remind you of the end of the quote above by PHE:
> However, this is early exploratory analysis and further targeted studies are needed to confirm whether this is the case
When was it published? 6th of August, 2021.
And at the end of that Israeli news report:
> According to a report by Channel 13, the disparity has confounded – and divided – Health Ministry experts, with some saying the data proves the higher level of immunity provided by natural infection versus vaccination, while others remained unconvinced.
When was it published? July the 13th, 2021. That is not settled science.
On the other hand - and as I am so very anti-vaxx I don't know why I'd share this - this is from PHE's technical briefing[9]:
> - sera from vaccinees shows decreased ability to neutralize B.1.621 compared to first wave virus and Alpha, with a magnitude of change similar to Beta
- sera from individuals who have been infected with Delta does not have strong neutralising activity against either Beta or B.1.621
- sera from individuals who have been vaccinated and have had subsequent recent Delta infection have a high level of neutralising activity against all variants tested (including beta and B.1.621)
So it looks like those who have been vaccinated and were subsequently infected (where were those neutralising antibodies?;) are then given some neutralising immunity.
As professor Makary stresses wherever he seems to be quoted, the different populations to be considered should be the immune and the not-immune, not the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Those without immunity who are at risk should get vaccinated - this is my view. Is that an anti-vaxx message? Again, behave.
Take it down a notch, read more widely and with much more attention, please.
[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/0...
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/confirmed-cases-of-covid-...
[3] https://www.accessscience.com/content/neutralizing-antibody/...
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/10/delta-variant-...
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Pollard_(biologist)
[6] https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/dr-makary-says-natu...
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Makary
[8] https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309762
[9] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...