We Have an Information Problem

I'm reasonably well read. I don't say I see everything and I don't say I fully comprehend everything I do see but I'm pretty good. If I'm confused, then a lot of people are confused.

The data about vaccines and the coronavirus, particularly the Omicron variant strikes me as inconsistent. I've also noticed that different sources seem to be cherry picking data to make a point but I'm going to ignore that.

I have a simple question. Do the vaccines prevent infection by the Omicron variant? The data is really all over the map. Some studies seem to say no, some seem to say yes and others don't even address the question but rather talk about "asymptomatic cases." An "asymptomatic case" is still an infection that can be passed on to others.

Here's another question. What do people mean by "fully vaccinated?" Articles and studies really need to carefully define their terms. I know what "fully vaccinated" meant BEFORE boosters became a thing but what does it mean now?

Here's a third question. We know that immunity wanes. Are we keeping track of how quickly? At some point do people drop back in category of vaccination?

Maybe we should adopt some sort of system like this:

Category Zero - No vaccination

Category One - One shot or after x months in Category Two

Category Two - Two shots or after y months in Category Three.

Category Three - Two shots plus a booster.

I'm assuming that one would never get all the way back to Category Zero after some vaccination but maybe a time limit needs to be defined there as well.

I'm also ignoring previous infection. How does that play into this all? Is that equivalent to a shot? I know this is really complicated but I think we need some sort of yardstick to figure out how things are.

It would be nice if somebody were trying to come up with consistent terminology and ways to measure risk.