A Facebook post, which has been shared hundreds of times since January 15, claims that the COVID-19 vaccine does not prevent the transmission of the disease, meaning that vaccinated people will effectively become ‘silent spreaders’. It uses it as an argument against the introduction of health gateways. However, this claim lacks evidence.
The report reads: “What is the point in ‘health gateways’ of the vaccine if the vaccines do not even stop the transmission? The vaccinated will therefore be the ‘silent distributors’ who endanger the unvaccinated. # quarantine vaccinated. ”(Here).
There have been various reports in the British media about the possibility of vaccine passports and the development of technology that makes this possible (www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55143484, here, here). However, the UK’s COVID vaccine vaccine minister, Nadhim Zahawi, wrote on Twitter on January 12: “We do not intend to introduce vaccine passports”. He added: “Nobody got and will not need a vaccine passport” (here).
Meanwhile, there is currently no conclusive evidence to claim that the COVID-19 vaccine stops people spreading the virus that causes the disease. Early findings from Oxford / AstraZeneca revealed that the vaccine may have an effect on virus transmission (here), while similar results have also been reported by Pfizer / BioNTech (here).
Scientists do not yet know whether COVID-19 vaccinations will reduce transmission because they have not been tested in trials (here, here). Instead, they found that candidate vaccines could prevent symptomatic and serious consequences of COVID-19 (here), meaning that future research will have to take it further (here). For example, it will have to take a deeper look at how the vaccine works in the body – whether it prevents someone from becoming completely infected, or that it simply prevents someone from getting sick. With the latter, it could mean that the virus is still recurring in the nose and throat and can still spread (here).
Due to this lack of information, governments and experts have openly emphasized the need to follow social distancing and masking requirements, even after they have been fully vaccinated (here, here, here).
VERDICT
Missing context. There is no conclusive evidence that COVID-19 vaccines claim that humans do not spread the disease. Scientists are not yet sure how the vaccine affects the transmission – and it is currently being investigated. People still have to follow restrictions after vaccination to offset this uncertainty.
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