COVID-19 vaccines are hurriedly being administered to the public, with many nations putting in the effort to increase vaccination capacities and ensure herd immunity. However, despite all efforts and expert warnings, many choose not to get their COVID-19 vaccine jabs. Health experts now say that those who have not gotten their vaccines against COVID-19 aren't just risking their personal health but are also "variant factories."
What we Know about COVID-19 Variants
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, viruses constantly change via mutation, with new variants of the virus expected to occur. Sometimes, these new variants emerge from the blue and disappear without a trace. However, there are times when the new variants persist. Today, multiple variations of SAWS-CoV-2 that cause COVID-19 have been documented across the United States and throughout the globe during the pandemic.
Viruses are at a constant rate of change and, in the process, become more and more diverse. Scientists and health experts monitor the changes, including spikes on the surface of the virus. By carefully scrutinizing and analyzing the virus, experts learn how changes in the construction of the virus can affect how it spreads, how people get sick from it, and whether vaccines continue to work against it.
According to recent reports by the CDC, despite the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants circulating in the US, B.1.1.7 or the Alpha variant remains the most dominant variant in the country.
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Variant Factories and Non-Vaccinated Individuals
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infe4ctions Diseases, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, tells CNN in an interview that unvaccinated people are potentially becoming variant factories.
He adds that with more unvaccinated people, the more opportunities the virus has to multiply and evolve. Stating that variants evolve within the body of a person that has been infected with the coronavirus. When it evolves, it mutates and could throw variant mutations that are far more serious down the road.
When it spreads to other persons, the mutation replicates and spreads; the success of its spread leads to it becoming a variant. Experts warn that unvaccinated people provide the right opportunity for the mutations to continue replication.
Public health experts have a growing concern for the risks of the Delta variant on individuals who are vaccinated and not. While vaccines are found to be effective against many of the variants, there is a possibility that it isn't as effective for some. Insider reports that two doses of the PfizerBioNTech vaccines are 88% effective in preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant.
Experts are worried that the recent variants can spread in the country and cause breakthrough cases, especially in communities that have low vaccination rates. Emphasizing that with fewer people getting and completing their vaccines, the more chances the virus has to hop and mutate from one person to another.
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