House passes massive $858 billion defense bill that would scrap military Covid vaccine mandate ...

[Tom Rinaldo]

40. This view may be controversial

But to start off, to be clear, I support the vaccine mandate and think it is poor policy to remove it. Having said that, the importance of a decision by an individual not to be vaccinated is somewhat less important now than it previously was. Early variants of Covid-19 were far more likely to be stopped in their tracks upon encountering a vaccinated person, and therefor every person vaccinated became unlikely to pass the virus on. Covid has mutated to the point where vaccinations are becoming significantly less effective at preventing transmission. The current primary advantage of vaccination, and it of course is huge, is the effectiveness of the vaccine in sharply reducing negative consequences of a Covid infection among those vaccinated. That is a major advantage to the individual, and dramatically lessons pressure on our health system in general, but the days when we hoped that we could shut down Covid by achieving "herd immunity" via vaccinations are over, unless some much more effective vaccines emerge.