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“Vaccinated people are ‘shedding’ onto others.”

Photo: Jim Watson/AFP
Photo: Jim Watson/AFP (Getty Images)

This is a claim that confuses various types of vaccines. Some vaccines are made using weakened versions of the target germ or a related microbe. Sometimes, as with the oral polio vaccine, people given this type of inoculation can develop a milder version of the infection (often without illness) that can make them contagious to others. This is a well-known risk of live but weakened vaccines, but it’s not a risk seen with any of the covid-19 vaccines available in the U.S. There is simply no danger, not even theoretically, that could come from being near a vaccinated person.