COVID-19: The Unvaccinated Pose a Risk to the Vaccinated

Q: How do people who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 pose a risk to people who have been vaccinated?

A: An unvaccinated person who is infected with COVID-19 poses a much greater risk to others who are also unvaccinated. But vaccines are not 100% effective, so there is a chance that an unvaccinated person could infect a vaccinated person — particularly the vulnerable, such as elderly and immunocompromised individuals.

FULL QUESTION

How can the unvaccinated possibly pose a threat to the vaccinated? How does that work? What is the risk exactly?

FULL ANSWER

The question above was not asked by a SciCheck reader; it was posed by Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show on Sept. 13.

At the time, Carlson was discussing the Sept. 9 speech in which President Joe Biden announced that he had directed the Labor Department to develop a temporary emergency rule for businesses with 100 or more employees that would require workers to be fully vaccinated or be tested for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus at least once a week.

“The bottom line: We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers,” Biden said. “We’re going to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by increasing the share of the workforce that is vaccinated in businesses all across America.”

Carlson argued that Biden’s proposal was about controlling Americans — not about public health — and questioned