First, I didn't say I agreed with it just that it is an "antithesis" being floated out there. The delta variant appeared to originate in India and vaccination rates were relatively low at the time. I would say it is a good chance that the delta variant originated in an unvaccinated individual but prior to large distribution of vaccines in that region.Asmodeanreborn wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 3:18 pmDude, you are so close, yet so far. The mutant strains are FAR more likely to crop up because of people who aren't vaccinated as these are the people who are way more likely to spread the disease in the first place.ragtimejoe1 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 9:46 am The other interesting "antithesis" to all of this is the vaccinated are giving rise to more dangerous variants. I'm not sure I agree with this, but I'm not so politically ingrained to ignore it either. Since we now know that the vaccinated can contract COVID and can spread COVID, it is certainly plausible that mutant strains are likely propagated in that population (anytime there is an active viral infection, mutants can form). The theory is that the mutants more able to evade antibodies are more readily propagated in the vaccinated crowd.
Yes, vaccine-resistant strains can happen, but the fact we have Delta to begin with are the people who weren't careful.
What you say is certainly the dogma. Unvaccinated people are more likely to contract an active infection of COVID thus more likely to propagate a mutated form of the virus.
However, it does us no good to ignore all viewpoints. There are numerous viruses in humans and animals that we've spent decades and billions of dollars developing vaccines but have yet to curb the infection rate and it has little to do with adoption of vaccinations. To put this on the antibiotic resistant bacteria "equivalency" a significant number antibiotic resistant bacteria arise from people who do not sufficiently finish their antibiotic regime. Some bacteria that showed some level resistance weren't fully killed thus able to propagate and perhaps mutate into even more resistant strains.
The theory is the same for the COVID vaccines. Yes, they elicit an antibody response and generate immunological memory but with biology there is always variation. Do we know that the vaccines stimulate a strong enough immunological memory in 100% of the recipients to quickly knock down a COVID infection? No. It is impossible to know one way or the other at this point. We are starting to see breakthrough rates of 25% or so which means they have an active infection. Assuming the vaccine has some effect on these individuals, they should mount an antibody response fairly quickly. What if the response is insufficient? Just like there are antibiotic resistant bacteria, is the stage set for antibody resistant (or worse) COVID mutants? Again, no way to say one way or the other but it is plausible. The liberal media, politicians, and health care professionals will undoubtedly blame future variants (there will be future variants) on the unvaccinated when the truth is that we won't know for sure especially as the variants develop antibody resistance more quickly. Again, I didn't say I necessarily agree or disagree with that viewpoint just that it is something to consider as the situation evolves.