Most people want to know if they can still get COVID-19 after vaccination

But there are others curious if they can spread the coronavirus after getting the jabs

Unfortunately, scientists know little if current vaccines can stop transmission

Since the vaccines weren't tested for that purpose, scientists couldn't say if the vaccines work against the spread

Matthew Woodruff, an immunologist at Emory University, said: "Mucosal immunology is ridiculously complicated"

Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, among others, are meant to trick the immune system

Expose the body as safe as possible to the coronavirus to trigger an immune response

The immune response should yield neutralizing antibodies for the wild coronavirus, including the new strains

Here's the problem: vaccines cannot exactly produce antibodies as a real infection can

Woodruff explained that COVID-19 vaccines elicit immunoglobulin G or IgG antibodies

These are quick responders to foreign matter, which refers to infection

Yet another class of antibodies is needed for stopping transmission – the IgA

These are antibodies that patrol the mucosal surfaces of the nose, lungs, and digestive tract

There is no evidence yet that current vaccines can excellently elicit IgA

According to Quartz, coronavirus-neutralizing IgA is more common in people who got sick and recovered from COVID-19

They naturally produced the antibodies along with IgG

Their IgA now occupies the parts of the respiratory tract involved in transmission, like coughing and sneezing

In theory, abundance in IgA can disable the majority of SARS-CoV-2 in the respiratory tract

The unknown is the math

How many IgA does it take to limit transmission?

What is the viral load level to determine that?

Because scientists don't know it yet, we can only assume that those who recovered aren't spreading the coronavirus

However, it may depend on how much of the virus a person was exposed to

Experts also have no idea if the IgG antibodies work similarly to IgA when inside the respiratory tract

And even if that's confirmed, they need to find out how much SARS-CoV-2 would it take to cause another infection

These are the reasons why no vaccine manufacturer or health expert said that COVID-19 vaccines could stop transmission

Scientifically confirming that a vaccine lowers transmission rate is a tall order

Plus, scientists cannot just conduct experiments about it

Remember, there is no cure or treatment for COVID-19, and no one wants to get the coronavirus in any trial