Fauci on Whether the Vaccine Prevented Transmission of Covid: That Is a Complicated Issue

WENSTRUP: “Vaccines save millions of lives and I want to thank you for your support and engagement on that. However, despite statements to the contrary, it did not stop transmission of the virus. Did the Covid vaccine stop transmission of the virus?”
Fauci: “That is a complicated issue because in the beginning, the first iteration of the vaccines did have an effect, not 100 percent, not a high effect, they did prevent infection and — and — and subsequently, obviously transmission. However, it’s important to point out something that we did not know early on that became evident as the months went by is that the durability of protection against infection, and hence transmission was relatively limited, whereas the duration of protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and deaths was more prolonged. We did not know that in the beginning. In the beginning it was felt that, in fact, it did prevent infection and thus transmission but that was proven as time went by to not be a durable effect.”
WENSTRUP: “Definitely it had positive effect for many people, especially those that were vulnerable. But we knew from the trials that people that got vaccinated still were subject to getting Covid. So was the Covid vaccine 100 percent effective?”
Fauci: “I don’t believe any vaccine is 100 percent effective.”