Here is the abstract:
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/a ... io.1002198Could some vaccines drive the evolution of more virulent pathogens? Conventional wisdom is that natural selection will remove highly lethal pathogens if host death greatly reduces transmission. Vaccines that keep hosts alive but still allow transmission could thus allow very virulent strains to circulate in a population. Here we show experimentally that immunization of chickens against Marek's disease virus enhances the fitness of more virulent strains, making it possible for hyperpathogenic strains to transmit. Immunity elicited by direct vaccination or by maternal vaccination prolongs host survival but does not prevent infection, viral replication or transmission, thus extending the infectious periods of strains otherwise too lethal to persist. Our data show that anti-disease vaccines that do not prevent transmission can create conditions that promote the emergence of pathogen strains that cause more severe disease in unvaccinated hosts.
Wow, talk about a study that was written for the near future. This sounds like exactly what we're dealing with with the Covid vaccine - a high percentage of the population is getting vaccinated, but they're apparently still spreading the disease in large numbers. Look at Florida. Nearly 60 percent of the population is vaccinated (nearly 50 percent fully), yet, their daily case numbers are just as high as during their peak when nearly nobody was vaccinated. Sure looks to me like the vaccine isn't stopping the spread there worth a diddly squat. And per the above referenced study, that is just a breeding ground for variants. And not only that, but it is the UNVACCINATED people who are being put at a higher risk of a deadly outcome (see the last sentence in the above quoted abstract) BY VACCINATED PEOPLE.
So I'm tiring real fast of being lectured by the pro-vaccine crowd (even including some conservatives) who insist that the science here is settled. I don't think we're far enough along yet to conclude that there won't be LONG-TERM problems caused directly by our current vaccination efforts.
It has long been my opinion that only about 20-25% of the population should actually be getting vaccinated - mostly older people who test negative for antibodies and a handful of younger people who have severe underlying conditions. And studies like this only further back up my position.
I just hope that the pro-vaccination hysteria doesn't come with a big price to pay down the road.
