3 ms·
Is that true? Intuitively, the more virus exists (in absolute numbers, even), the more virus may potentially mutate into worse variants. More infected people ->
by anyfoo 5y ago
Is that true? Intuitively, the more virus exists (in absolute numbers, even), the more virus may potentially mutate into worse variants. More infected people -> more individual virus instances, each with a given chance to mutate, and more time for that mutation to occur (because expired virus is replenished with fresh virus in available hosts; though you can probably fold this into higher virus numbers instead with the same result).
I'm gladly corrected if I missed something!
- totony 5y agoVariant that achieve immune escape from vaccine-induced immunity are bound to propagate at a faster rate if most people are vaccinated. Even if that variant is more lethal (from which you might expect a smaller R0), it might be prevalent because of an augmentation in R0 from vaccination (which might be lesser had people developed a more complete natural immunity).