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Will a vaccine totally prevent us from catching COVID19?
Vaccines are currently being tested for their ability to induce antibody that can inhibit viral infection. Like all vaccines, they are never 100% effective and the antibody levels in people differ from person to person. Without more clinical trials and larger numbers of patients being given the different vaccines, we won’t know how effective each vaccine is, and which works the best at protecting people from being infected. These trials are ongoing now around the world.
An effective vaccine does not have to totally prevent COVID-19 infection. A highly useful vaccine could decrease the chance of infection by 50% and still be considered a “winner”. Furthermore, a highly useful vaccine can be valuable if it is able to significantly prevent severe illness with COVID-19 infection. For example, I would argue that a highly useful vaccine might not prevent infections but instead prevent older adults from experiencing severe hospitalizations (avoiding ventilator use) and deaths and instead result in mild, but temporary fevers and aches (mild and self-limited illness)—that would be a “winner”.
