It's close to a silver bullet. Yes they don't completely stop transmission but who cares about that? All we should care about are severe cases and deaths.
Add the new therapeutics on top and we actually do have the silver bullet. Vaccine + Paxlovid, if widely distributed enough, ends the pandemic, barring some new, more severe variant.
My point was not so much about the vaccine itself but the fact that almost all conversation and chatter about the pandemic is centered around the vaccine and having to get it in order to get anything done (job, travel, etc). People act as if there is literally no other way for life to function like it did pre-2020 without vaccines.
Personally, I don't think there has been a good faith dialog by our media and politicians about risk assessment, at-risk staying home (instead of everybody), therapeutics, treatment, or voluntary vaccinations. And maybe there has been some but the mRNA vaccines have completely dominated mindshare to a such a degree that leaves a bad taste in my mouth and has made me very cynical.
Add the new therapeutics on top and we actually do have the silver bullet. Vaccine + Paxlovid, if widely distributed enough, ends the pandemic, barring some new, more severe variant.