LogFAQs > #961344763

SunWuKung420 posted...

Just like antibiotic resistant strains didn't come about due to people who didn't take antibiotics, since it happened from over use of antibiotics, vaccine resistant strains didn't come about due to those that didn't get the vaccine. Stop spreading incorrect information.

Resistant strains aren't created by the things they resist. They mutate randomly, then end up with a competitive advantage because the non-resistant strains are selected against. A basic understanding of probability tells us that the more cases exist, the more likely it becomes that one of them ends up randomly evolving resistance. That means we can blame the emergence of resistant strains on those that are keeping case rates high. In Omicron's case, it was then transported by the vaccinated, as they were the only ones travelling, but it remains true that being unvaccinated, refusing to wear a mask, refusing to distance, or otherwise being unwilling to participate in the fight against Covid increases the risk of variants emerging in the first place by increasing overall case rates.

It's also worth noting that, unlike antibiotics, immunity from vaccines provides no greater selective pressure in favour of resistance than immunity from a natural infection. Antibiotics are specific compounds that interfere with the growth of bacteria, which the bacteria would not otherwise be facing if the patient weren't taking them. Vaccines provide mostly the same antibodies as a natural infection, though, so if you're taking the position that vaccination has created a vaccine-resistant virus, you must also hold the position that naturally-acquired herd immunity would have presented the same risk.