Might be worthy differentiating between anti-vaxxers (as was the term
@Recruiter10 used), and 'unvaxxed', which you are using to describe yourself.
I have nothing against unvaxxed people - although I might be more inclined to respect some reasons for it than others.
I do get annoyed with anti-vaxxers because their militant approach, often accompanied with misinformation, is not helpful for the public health situation.
The reality is that vaccines do reduce infections as well as reduce the severity of infections: which is actually one and the same statement. When one is exposed to the virus, how much of a foothold it gains within the body can fall under the broad term of severity of infection, and at the lower end, we're talking about a failure to meaningfully replicate within the body to the degree that one becomes infectious. The vaccines increase significantly the immune response's ability both to halt the infection in those early hours after exposure, and to mount a successful response to a wider infection.
Beyond this basic and important means of reducing transmission (less infections that reach the point of being infectious = less transmission), the peak viral load period is shorter in vaccinated people than in unvaccinated people. If you are infectious for even just one day less, that means anyone exposed to you that day is no longer in danger of becoming infected and starting new transmission chains of their own.
You are welcome to your personal choices, but these facts are important and the truth should not fall prey to our own need to justify our choices.
One thing I think we can all agree upon is that covid19 is going to be a problem for humanity for a good while to come, and vaccines are only part of the tool kit to deal with it. Before catching covid, and developing long covid, I did not have the intimate experience of inflammation that I now have. I'm really looking forward to progress updates re IHL-675a.
