I’m failing to understand the vaccine and how it will help... hear me out.
I'm assuming that the vaccine does what they say. If you believe the pandemic is fake or vaccines are a conspiracy of some sort then I don't think your answer will be useful on this occasion. I'm also assuming that enough people will have the vaccine.
And the things that I understand about covid-19 and the vaccines that are leading to my confusion:
The vaccine needs an amount of people to have it. I've seen maybe about 70% of people. Then herd immunity protects everyone.
The 1st dose gives up to a month's protection, but the 2nd gives ongoing protection. But you may need top up doses in the future.
The vaccine may be much less effective with each different mutation of the virus.
After getting the vaccine you can still get covid but it will, most likely, prevent it being too bad and will save hospitals getting overwhelmed.
You can still pass the virus onto other people, even after getting vaccinated.
So, what I don't get is some people can't or won't get the vaccine. Surely, even though people will generally get less ill, they will pass it onto unvaccinated people and those people will still get seriously ill (maybe more so, as some people who can't have the vaccine will be people who have poor immune systems to begin with) and die or be on ventilators etc in hospitals.
As people have a vaccine, and more people do, the government and shops will stop telling people to wear masks and these vulnerable people will be in even more danger than they are now. They can wear a mask themselves, but, as I understand, my mask protects you and provides only minimal protection for myself.
TL;DR Basically are we just throwing unvaccinated people under the bus?
p.s. surely in our super connected world the herd immunity will put poorer countries in danger as vaccines are likely to be less common. As we start opening up travel do people in 3rd world countries stand a chance?