Since experts are saying that we will still have to wear masks and social distance after getting the vaccine, please tell me what the vaccine is supposed to do.
Good question. We know it does NOT prevent you from getting the bug. You can still get it and transmit it (asymptomatically), but, according to the Pfizer trials, your chances of getting hospitalized go from 9-in-21,600 to 1-in-21,600.
Preventing you from getting the bug at all was outside the scope of these studies, due to the timeframe.
Useless masks for years.
The vaccine prevents you from getting sick with 95% confidence (better than most vaccines). It’s going to wipe out the disease. The people pushing for masks and social distancing after you have been vaccinated are being overly cautious because there hasn’t been specific testing about whether you could still spread COVID-19 after an exposure post-vaccination. The testing was whether the vaccines are safe and whether they prevent people from getting sick. They may also prevent people from spreading COVID-19 (which would be normal and expected), but it hasn’t been tested yet.
So take that whole “wear a mask and social distance after getting vaccinated” thing with a grain of salt. It’s unlikely that would be necessary and definitely not necessary at all once enough people are vaccinated that the disease is wiped out.
So to answer your question about what the vaccine is supposed to do: it’s supposed to wipe COVID-19 off the face of the Earth, same as we’ve done with smallpox, same as we’re doing with polio.