Relax, America: The Vaccines Are Still Working

As Delta surges across the country, many fully vaccinated Americans are wondering how much their shots still protect them.

There’s reason to be confused. Pfizer says its vaccine becomes less effective with time. Moderna says its doesn’t. And Johnson & Johnson says its vaccine holds up against the Delta variant, but not everyone agrees.

For anyone perplexed by what this all means for your own safety, the main takeaway hasn’t changed: The vaccines are still miraculous. And they’re still doing exactly what we need them to do.

[Read: Vaccines are great. Masks make them better.]

This wasn’t the message many took away from last in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where vaccinated people made up 74 percent of the 469 cases, the CDC warned that fully vaccinated people infected with the coronavirus harbor as much virus as unvaccinated people.