Let’s discuss SARS-CoV-2 variants, selective pressure, and mutations. In the face of variants, our best protection is to get more people vaccinated. Vaccination will not automatically select for vaccine-resistant variants, especially if we can reduce transmission. Here’s why.

First, it is important to realize these vaccines will not drive the emergence of new variants and compel this virus to mutate in novel ways (OR create some scary super mutant so throw that idea out the window). I think this where a lot of the confusion lies- it’s not possible.

The specific mutations we are currently witnessing focus on altering the fitness of this virus by improving its rate of transmission with some signs of immune evasion. Mutation is a fairly constant process to begin with. It occurs randomly when a virus replicates and trust me,

this virus has had PLENTY of opportunities as well as time to replicate. Note: this is the only way a virus can mutate, not through the use of a vaccine. Okay? Got it? Good! With this said, the immune status (how many people are vaccinated or semi- immune via natural infection)

of a population can be an evolutionary selection pressure. HOWEVER, for this to happen, enough replication has to occur for certain mutations to be under positive selection; this is what selective pressure relies on. Positive selection refers to a mutation that allows a virus

to gain an advantage depending on the circumstances such as increased transmission or evading immunity (which is our current issue). Note: selective pressure DOES NOT increase mutation or make a virus mutate differently. So what does this mean then? It means the only way we may

see variants emerge better fitted for immune escape are through widespread community transmission with a very slow vaccine uptake. Yes, that’s it. The only other way would be if these current vaccines provided no protection whatsoever against infection (which we know isn’t valid

because data shows us they all have some degree of protection especially against severe disease) and transmission continued to be out of control- we know we aren’t up against this one. In short, we really need to ramp up our mass vaccination efforts and knock down transmission.

Why? Due to the fact transmission is so high right now it grants the virus many more opportunities to mutate. If transmission stays unchecked, growing population immunity exerting selective pressure will then result in more chances for the virus to mutate. So naturally how do we

stop it from being able to do that? Imagine it’s like a race. We have to take a shortcut and head it off at the pass before it outruns us. If we double down on efforts to reduce transmission while simultaneously ramping up mass vaccination efforts, we succeed in outrunning it.

This way it can no longer mutate and evade our efforts. So this comes down to us. The issue I found was a lot of convoluted messages were circulating in the last few weeks that could easily deter people from getting vaccinated because this wasn’t being explained clearly. Some

came off as if vaccination was pointless when actually that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It goes like this: we get vaccinated and wear our masks we stop the transmission/spread we stop the infection we stop the mutations we stop the occurrence of variants & WIN

I hope this explains things clearer. It’s difficult when headlines or others highlight “scary” variants or say “watch out this summer” or something of the like. This is all based off assumptions to keep you viewing but then don’t explain why this is or the fact we can stop it.

But we can. We can control this.
“The higher the proportion of a population vaccinated, the lower the number of susceptible individuals, and the fewer opportunities SARS-CoV-2 will have to spread and mutate."
If you’re interested in reading more:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(21)00075-8/fulltext