You're correct about the language being misleading, in my opinion, but that shouldn't be confused with the importance and value of the vaccine in regards to being the best tool we have to use toward getting a grip on this thing. These initial studies were not modeled to determine if infection is actually prevented or if transmission to others is prevented, the model was only looking at preventing serious illness and symptoms, which will keep people out of the hospitals and overwhelming them as well as minimize the deaths resulting from infection. From what I understand, studies modeled to determine if the vaccines currently approved actually prevent infection or spread are in early stages. The language has been misleading to the general public from the first press release, which is why my biggest disappointment in this whole roll out is that we were saturated by the marketing departments sounds bites before the scientists weighed in on peer review and were better equipped to delineate the technical differences in language to be used in marketing/media releases. I imagine you're also correct in that we may see an uptick in cases due to people wrongly thinking they are immune and unable to spread to others, when we don't yet know that is the case. The only way that doesn't become a problem is if the public gets vaccinated, too.

I got to speak with the physician in charge of the covid vaccine test that I'm participating in. All the vaccines stimulate your body to produce antibodies to the covid-19 virus. The idea is: get those antibodies circulating in your system BEFORE you're infected.

Different people interpret this mechanism in different ways. Some people would say you're immune. Some may think it means you can't be a carrier. Others would disagree.

I fear you may be correct. In 1999 when I started HCV treatment, they were very careful to state that it was not a cure, but that if successful would put the disease in remission and you should followup with test for the virus every 2 years. When they announced a cure, I was amazed that the drug could cross the blood/brain barrier with an oral administration. It couldn't. Instead of a cure being the virus out of your body, a cure was now defined as having the virus undetectable in your blood 3 months post treatment. Be very leery until you read the entire report.

My understanding is that it is as yet unknown, so better to stay on the cautious side.

Yes, I suspect it is just an example of sloppy lazy writing. What they mean when they say 'prevent' Covid-19 is. 'After a week or two, you are less likely to develop the full range of symptoms usually associated with Covid-19.' Using the diseases name as shorthand to stand for the range of associated symptoms, it is a lazy practice but often done. In fact I would say that disease's names are more often use that way than not, in popular medical lit.

My friend who is 88 just had the vaccination in the UK, and after reading the leaflet, went off happily shopping. I pointed out that she would not get any immunity for ten days or so. "Oh I thought it was instant, she said." Well informed.

There is an almost exactly the same problem in biology. Where people will use the shorthand and say things 'evolved' when of course creatures do not evolve. When what they actually mean is something like. 'Changes in heritable traits that are passed from one generation to the next, and selected for by natural selection, causing alterations in the populations of genes, etc etc.' But they keep on using the shorthand saying things evolved, despite the fact that everyone knows that creationists will, often deliberately, misunderstand it.

The new variant of the coronavirus spreads more easily. This is what we have been told here in the UK. However, there is no explanation of how the new variant of the virus spreads more easily or how it has become 70% more transmissible.

It is claimed that the new variant of Covid-19 is not any more virulent and less likely to be resistant to existing drugs and the new vaccines.

It has always been my understanding that the reason for an annual flu vaccination is that the virus mutates. I'm not a scientist but something does not seem to add up here?

That's my understanding as well. I haven't read anything from a legitimate medical source that would indicate the vaccines will prevent Covid.

I would also have expected their law department to have advised against that claim, so I can only surmise that this is part of the misinformation campaign we've been fed from our government. I hope the other information is more accurate.