Quote:
Originally Posted by mapuc
A statement made by myself
Though lesser people get vaccinated though weaker the virus get.
Though more people get vaccinated though tougher the virus get.
This is based on all I have read about the virus, mutation a.s.o.
Since I'm not an expert on this subject I most likely is wrong.
Markus
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What is meant by "weak" and "tough"? A virus is dangerous when it is highly contagious but only moderately deadly. If it is too deadly it will kill the infected person too quickly and thus reduces the chance of spreading itself. If it is less contagious it is much easier to control, isolate and exterminate the virus.
About your statements: At lower vaccination rates more variants have the ability to overcome the effects of vaccination, because weaker variants will still find hosts to infect. That, however, has no effect on the tougher mutations. Even worse: with more hosts the chances of creating a tougher mutation increases (more hosts --> more replications of the virus --> more mutations --> higher chance).
Important to remember: mutations are random. A virus doesn't mutate willingly with a certain goal in mind. A mutation prevails if it is better suited to the environment than another mutation.
Vaccinations make the environment the virus exists in more hostile. As for Covid: the current vaccinations basically destroyed the environment the alpha variant can exist in, so we practically got rid of the alpha variant. Delta is a little more resilient, but can still be fought effectively with the current vaccines. Omikron - well, we'll see. But these are just three variants of the virus, out of more than 56,000 that have been identified since the outbreak.