The effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines is a “complicated issue” because, contrary to initial claims, they did not prevent people from contracting the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday during a question-and-answer session before a select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic.
Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) questioned Dr. Fauci about the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of coronavirus vaccines, noting that they “did not stop the transmission of the virus.”
“Did the COVID vaccine stop the virus from spreading?” Wenstrup asked.
“This is a complicated issue because initially, the first vaccines worked, but they weren’t 100% effective, they weren’t highly effective,” Fauci acknowledged, but insisted the vaccines “prevented infection and clearly prevented transmission afterwards.”
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“But it’s important to point out that what we didn’t know initially, but which has become evidence over the months, is that while you have a relatively limited duration of protection against infection and therefore transmission, you have a much longer duration of protection against illness, hospitalization and death,” Fauci argued, asserting that “we didn’t know that initially.”
“Initially it was thought that it actually prevented infection and transmission, but over time we found that this effect was not sustained,” he concluded, acknowledging that the vaccine was not as effective as initially advertised.
When asked if the coronavirus vaccines are 100% effective, Fauci said, “I don’t think any vaccine is 100% effective.”
President Biden was among those spreading that misinformation, claiming that vaccinated people couldn’t catch the virus in 2021. A year later, Joe Biden, who had received two vaccine doses and two booster shots, contracted the disease after months of demonizing the unvaccinated.
In 2021, Biden also falsely claimed that vaccinated people cannot spread the disease.
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