No vaccine is 100%, there is always possibility that:

Components of the vaccine are ineffective due to manufacturing defect.

Improper storage rendered the vaccine ineffective.

The recipient was unable to mount an appropriate response due to immune system issues including medical/disease suppression or advanced age.

Nothing to get excited about.

I find that interesting and worrisome. It can also explain why there has been lower numbers of infections listed on various sites. Worrisome because people who are not vaccinated will look at the lower number of infections and if they were considering receiving the shots decide that the number of cases are low enough not to bother. Very few people ever go to the publishing site to read announcements and news sources want to give happy news.

Our state has published the experience rate and for us the vaccines have been 99.9% effective. Yes!

Feels good to be part of the herd! I'm 16 days out from my second Pfizer jab.

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Not a bit!!

They never claimed the vaccine will prevent 100% of recipients from *getting* Covid. They said it would do that for the vast majority, but would 'only' prevent the few who did contract it from DYING of it.

I suppose my question was wrong for this post since it disappeared from my topics until I deleted it. I apologize.

Our governor (KY) has said they will adjust the mask mandates according to the new CDC guidelines. I see a lot of people trying to lie about being vaccinated now and cases going up again. I told my daughter what I had read and she said "time to get vaccinated". She's been busy with work and has been sick twice in the last month with some other virus. She's currently sick now. Hopefully she'll get better soon and can get it.

if vaccinated persons continue to wear masks inside offices, stores, or venues including church, even if not required, are they going to be ridiculed as fearful, or extremel or something? Will it be a year ago all over again?

A news story earlier this evening mentioned 8 New York Yankees tested positive. They are said to have been vaccinated. The question I have were they actually vaccinated but just purchased proof of vaccination like some do. Or if they did have the vaccine is it a different variant. Link to story: New York Yankees say 8 vaccinated members tested positive for Covid-19. Here's how that could happen - CNN

If you have the vaccine you have a very minute chance of catching *19. It's been like that for months now. The CDC could not be emphatic about it until they had the data. The data takes TIME...People follow the SCIENCE. Not only is there a SAFE and EFFECTIVE vaccine there is a treatment for those SMALL percent who still get ill or who have not had the vaccine. #2DD works in the lab that created the treatment. She told us from DAY ONE the vaccine would cover the variants and guess what the CDC is now saying it has the TIME proof: IT DOES cover the Variants! All this fear mongering as to STOP. I have no more chance of getting COVID than I do of polio/whooping cough/ Mumps/rubella. If you still wear a mask will you be "ridiculed"? WHO CARES!! If you need a mask to feel safe--have at it but the shaming on this site of those who KNOW facts and follow science and did not live in a cave last year also has to stop. You haven't helped people sleep well at night!! And guess what YOU WERE WRONG!!!!

Ridicule away. It's not going to stop me. I haven't had as much as a sore throat for over a year now.

Considering the recklessness of so many people around here - incuding our governor - I feel a lot safer continuing to mask up indoors and around strangers.

Apparently 8 NY Yankees have tested positive and only one has symptoms. This is after having been fully vaccinated with J&J.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/eight-yankees-test-positive-covid-post-vaccine-breakthrough-cases-n1267332

So the good news is that, once vaccinated, if you get the disease, you most likely won't get sick, and it's highly unlikely that you'll die.

I'm going to ramp down slowly too. In my area at least, vaccinations haven't been available to the under-16's for very long so that's still a lot of potential "hosts" for the covid virus. Maybe I need a button: "vaccinated but not hasty" for my masks!

I learned a long time ago to follow my gut and that little voice is telling me to wait to see how it goes first before jumping in. The target for herd immunity has always been a 70% vaccination rate, we’re only at 60%. Why the change? What about new mutations? How do we know the vaccines will work against those? How long are the vaccines fully effective for before a booster is needed? What about people with compromised or weak immune systems? What should they do? I also don’t trust that everyone who’s unvaccinated will do the right thing by wearing their masks. It all seems to be moving too quick for me. Last week there was a strong push to keep the masks on, this week it’s weeee! you’ve been so good you can now take them off.? Ummm...no thanks.

Well, yesterday the CDC head said something about the unvaccinated should still wear a mask to protect themselves...but the whole point of masks was others' masking protected us and our masking protected them. So I would think public masking would still be necessary in populated indoor spaces. The only thing to contradict that is that those of us who are vaccinated do not seem to be carriers any more, even if infected.

The adult people who are not vaccinated and do not wear masks are only endangering themselves and others who are unvaccinated. Those who are fully (2 shots or J&J plus two weeks) are not in danger of catching it or spreading it.

I have no sympathy for those who refuse, without exceptional reason, to be vaccinated.

I hope that studies will soon show that it is safe and effective to vaccinate small children.

Those who are fully (2 shots or J&J plus two weeks) are not in danger of catching it or spreading it.

Alas, that's not true. While not common, you can still get a mild or asymptomatic case after being fully vaccinated, and therefore spread it to others. So even for the vaccinated, wearing a mask in certain situations is still a good idea.

I agree with Bookwoman, to wit the article I posted above about the NY Yankees players. It is unlikely that fully vaccinated people will catch or spread it, but it can and does happen. Our state has had 3 people die of covid after having been fully vaccinated.

But what about new strains or mutations moving forward? India is a mess because of the strain developed there. I‘ve heard on more than one occassion that there is concern that a new mutation will come along that the vaccine won’t detect. We have several cases of the India strain now too...I think it was found in 5 different states.

I'll never understand why there are so many people who get off with conduct that flaunts (and flouts) those with more common sense. Is it too much testosterone (though a female problem too) ? Same attitude on display with those who think there's something macho about having guns.

I've always been prone to viewing my fellow citizens with some measure of guarded apprehension and contempt because of how many make poor decisions and do so many stupid things others have the sense to avoid. But never more so than with those who got off with expressing ignorant bravado and resistance to matters concerning the pandemic that most found sensible and well founded.

And a person could die in a car crash on the way to get a shot, right? Probably better odds than getting a breakthrough case. How small are the odds? See my original post

One more piece of anecdata:

HBO has scrapped this week’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher after the comedian tested positive for Covid-19. Maher, who is vaccinated and asymptomatic, tested positive during the premium cable network’s weekly PCR testing ahead of the show.

https://deadline.com/2021/05/real-time-with-bill-maher-cancelled-this-week-tests-positive-covid-19-1234755973/amp/

The target for herd immunity has always been a 70% vaccination rate, we’re only at 60%.

Better way to look at it is the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated PLUS the % of population with acquired immunity. Confirmed cases plus who knows how many unconfirmed. Don't rely on just the vaccination #'s.

Four members of my family were confirmed cases long before they were eligible for the vax and none of the four have had the vax as of yet.

Those that are immuno-suppressed such as those on chemo have been advised to wear masks in public for decades, nothing new about that.

But to expect those that have been vaccinated to continue to wear masks tells people that the vaccines are ineffective. Israel has proven that they are effective, they have closed all their covid wards due to lack of patients. To continue punishing and inconveniencing those fully vaccinated with unnecessary requirements will reduce the rate of vaccination.

We don't know what level of herd immunity is required to end new infections but we must be close due to the rapid drop in numbers. Funny, last year most posters here vehemently denied that herd immunity was a solution. The numbers from "experts" for achieving herd immunity are going to be overly cautious and much higher than necessary, the CYA mentality.

Hmm, as I recall last year, most people on the KT believed that achieving herd immunity by allowing the free and rapid and totally uncontrolled spread of Covid would result in many more deaths and "long haul" consequences, than containing the spread until a vaccine could be developed. "Herd immunity" through vaccination, not unnecessary suffering.

Not that it matters all that much. Except that word choice gives an insight into the person speaking.

Funny, last year most posters here vehemently denied that herd immunity was a solution.

I don't think that was the case. Rather it was achieving herd immunity without a vaccine by just letting everyone get sick...like the old days of chicken pox before vaccines. That was a terrible idea.

But with vaccines, herd immunity is possible without a concomitant increase in deaths.

Raye, do you honestly believe that only those who are vaccinated will remove their masks? That's the problem with dropping mandates. So many people believe the rules don't apply to them. I think what's going to happen is that no one will be wearing masks anymore and the virus will mutate among those not vaccinated. And I worry about those who can't be who will have to stay home again.

"Funny, last year most posters here vehemently denied that herd immunity was a solution."

I have a different recollection. In the past, people pushed back on many unsupported crypto-political comments you made on this topic including one, which if I recall correctly, suggested the problem would go away once enough people had gotten sick.