"If everyone was vaccinated, that would stop new variants from forming"...

[The Tradition]

I hear this sort of crap a lot.

Is there any scientific foundation for this claim?

Are there any studies showing that SARS-CoV-2 cannot evolve and mutate in a vaccinated host?

I think this is all just wishful thinking but I'd be interested in hearing any real science behind this idea. Especially as it relates to the Omicron variant which clearly evades the vaccines.

 

[QChawks]

everyone is a disease expert these days

 

[BioHawk]

Well, if the virus has no one to infect, it can't replicate itself, and mutations never have the chance to form. However this only works with a vaccine that prevents infection. Something we had a year ago, but we do not have anymore because the virus mutated.

To be fair, I'm not sure we have the infrastructure to get enough people vaccinated fast enough to prevent variants from forming, and that's assuming that half the population doesn't flat out refuse to take it. We might be able to do it here in the US, but to get all of the countries? Much of Africa? India? That's a hard ask. Even when a new vaccine that accounts for the variants is released, and even if the initial release includes enough supply for the entire planet, I bet it will be even harder to get people to take the vaccine again. Especially when the media portrays people who face a consequence for not doing it as poor, down trodden people who couldn't help their situation at all.

 

[z_ape]

I think we're pretty sure Omicron came from an immunocompromised individual that may not have done well with a vaccine anyway. No, I don't think it works that way.

I guess if a vaccine is likely to hasten the body in clearing the disease, then you could say that would help.

 

[red/green hawk]

Natural immunity remembers the entire surface of the virus. Covid mRNA shot builds for a sequence of proteins on the surface of the virus. Which scenario would be easier for a virus to mutate?