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This isn't like antibiotics. The 66% is how many people are provided some level of immunity, just reducing the infectible population; it doesn't directly cause
by syntheticnature 6y ago
This isn't like antibiotics. The 66% is how many people are provided some level of immunity, just reducing the infectible population; it doesn't directly cause issues for the virus the way an antibiotic interferes with the functioning of a bacterium. It might culture a strain that's better at infecting folks for whom the vaccine doesn't prove effective, if there's a common factor there and the virus can use it.
It is not yet known if any of the vaccines completely prevent infection; there are concerns the vaccinated might still be able to be asymptomatic carriers.
- fattire 6y agoYeah I guess I was asking if having only partial-immunity effectively acts as a filter or creates pressure so that rarer mutated strains make it through and are given a pathway to infection/reproduction. From your response: "It might culture a strain that's better at infecting folks for whom the vaccine doesn't prove effective, if there's a common factor there and the virus can use it." it sounds like the answer is yes.
- syntheticnature 6y agoIt might make it through, but in that case it would be better adapted for those the vaccine didn't work on; this could actually make it less infectious for those the vaccine would work on, so it's questionable whether it would be any better or worse overall.