5 ms·

Vaccines reduce the chance of a new variant by reducing the number of copies of the virus made in society. Every copy is a chance to mutate. Vaccines don’t cre

Vaccines reduce the chance of a new variant by reducing the number of copies of the virus made in society. Every copy is a chance to mutate. Vaccines don’t create more mutations, any more than a person with zero immune response will produce fewer. They will produce more, because the virus will replicate more.

mewpmewp2 5y ago
Could you explain the high amount of alpha/delta mutations as vaccines started to roll out and as they became available to everyone? https://nextstrain.org/ncov/open/global https://nextstrain.org/ncov/open/global If virus's infection rate becomes too low, new mutations and variants with ability to get through defenses have that much higher chances of becoming the new dominant variant/mutation. Essentially it is kind of king of the hill battle with variants where when you push down one, another will appear, with maybe completely different symptoms.
- pfisherman 5y ago
  The delta variant took over because it is much more infectious than the alpha variant, period. Its emergence in India was not because of high rates of vaccination. In fact, quite the opposite. Also, I think you are misinterpreting the plots on next strain. Look at the distributions of variants in different countries on the world map. Vaccination timelines in the US/UK/EU did not coincide with most other parts of the world. In many of those places there is still not widespread access to vaccines. Taken all together one can infer that (1) countries with widespread vaccine availability are less impacted by the delta variant. And (2) the rise in the proportion of delta variant cases is being driven by infections outside of countries with widespread access to vaccines.
  - mewpmewp2 5y ago
    This could be it, as well. I think I have spent too much time now on this and must move on, I am not sure what the truth is at this point. Let future show if vaccines will help us to normalcy at any level at all.

mewpmewp2 5y ago

Could you explain the high amount of alpha/delta mutations as vaccines started to roll out and as they became available to everyone? https://nextstrain.org/ncov/open/global https://nextstrain.org/ncov/open/global If virus's infection rate becomes too low, new mutations and variants with ability to get through defenses have that much higher chances of becoming the new dominant variant/mutation. Essentially it is kind of king of the hill battle with variants where when you push down one, another will appear, with maybe completely different symptoms.

pfisherman 5y ago
The delta variant took over because it is much more infectious than the alpha variant, period. Its emergence in India was not because of high rates of vaccination. In fact, quite the opposite. Also, I think you are misinterpreting the plots on next strain. Look at the distributions of variants in different countries on the world map. Vaccination timelines in the US/UK/EU did not coincide with most other parts of the world. In many of those places there is still not widespread access to vaccines. Taken all together one can infer that (1) countries with widespread vaccine availability are less impacted by the delta variant. And (2) the rise in the proportion of delta variant cases is being driven by infections outside of countries with widespread access to vaccines.
- mewpmewp2 5y ago
  This could be it, as well. I think I have spent too much time now on this and must move on, I am not sure what the truth is at this point. Let future show if vaccines will help us to normalcy at any level at all.