You got played, but not by scientists. You got played by pundits who turned evolving data into a culture-war slogan. Early messaging about herd immunity was based on what vaccines normally do: reduce spread enough that outbreaks die out. That worked against measles or polio, where the virus barely mutates. SARS-CoV-2 wasn’t like that. It evolved too fast, so the realistic goal shifted from elimination to control.
The definition of “vaccine” never secretly changed. It was clarified to include immune responses that reduce severe disease and transmission rather than guarantee sterilizing immunity. That’s immunology, not conspiracy. Every major vaccine like flu, pertussis, rotavirus all have that same property.
mRNA COVID vaccines still saved tens of millions of lives worldwide and sharply cut hospitalization rates, even after variants eroded transmission blocking. Boosters are needed because immunity wanes and variants keep changing, just like flu shots.
So yes: “trust, but verify” is good advice. But the verification process already happened through global trials, regulatory review, and post-marketing data. The people misleading you are the ones pretending scientific self-correction is the same as deceit.
> SARS-CoV-2 wasn’t like that. It evolved too fast, so the realistic goal shifted from elimination to control.
That's not what happened here though. These vaccines never stopped transmission, they suppressed symptoms and people just hoped/assumed they stopped transmission.
In late 2020 this was an open question people were talking about, because in development and safety testing they never even looked at transmission, only symptoms. Pfizer's announcement in particular was very careful to distinguish SARS-CoV-2 from COVID-19, intentionally not saying anything about infection/transmission. So they were being rolled out before we had any answers there. It became clear only a couple months later - well before any major "new variants" - that people were still getting infected at the same rates as before vaccination.
Right, because real science never updates. Once an idea gets said out loud, it’s locked in forever like when doctors insisted ulcers were caused by stress and spicy food, and we definitely didn’t discover Helicobacter pylori decades later living rent-free in stomachs.
Fauci’s “herd immunity” comments came before Delta and Omicron turned one virus into a family reunion. Updating that view wasn’t deceit. It was responding to evidence, something the “verify, don’t trust” crowd supposedly likes, except when the verification disagrees with their memes.
You have reached a different conclusion than I, viz that Fauci had no way of knowing his comments about herd immunity were potentially misleading, and that the variants were a complete surprise to him and that the unlikely goal of herd immunity was not really part of the definition of vaccines as we have come to know them. You and I will have to live in our different worlds. If you want to give your infant thrice yearly Covid boosters in perpetuity I totally support your right to do that. Hopefully you support my right to disagree and base my own decisions on my own reading of the literature (which isn’t as suppressed for many decades to come)?
But.....we agree that Covid exists, right? And that vaccines against it, just like vaccines against flu, do generally help by increasing your resistance to the ilness itself and its side effects.
If we agree on it....why wouldn't you take it? I got the impression from your post that you generally aren't going to?
Or more simply....who cares what Fauci said? I literally had to look up who that is.
Covid exists and there are claims which I suspect are at least directionally correct that getting regular vaccines (within 3 months of exposure iirc) can reduce some symptoms and prevent what seem to be rare complications. But, my doctor and my insurance company are not suggesting I get these boosters?/vaccines?, and they have a vested interest and better ability to weigh the evidence and make decisions about what pharmaceuticals they recommend as that’s their profession and making mistakes about it poses an existential risk for them. But I’m in a very low risk area and reasonably low risk so ymmv. Even the frail elderly people I know aren’t being vaccinated despite their thirst for it and fear of Covid. Personally, I worry a lot more about candida auris than I worry about covid.
Both my doctor and insurance company in the US recommend getting COVID vaccinations. I am a healthy adult. They make the same recommendations for my children.
