Misinformation about Vaccines Causing Variants

Claim: Vaccines cause variants

Mutations occur every time the virus replicates. This occurs in the bodies of infected individuals.

Usually, mutations are unhelpful to the virus, but ocasionally a benefit arises that provides a selection advantage.

Individuals who have prior immunity–whether it was induced by vaccination or disease–mount a faster and stronger immune response, hindering the virus's ability to replicate, and reducing the probability of creating a variant.

Prior to Omicron, the predominant variant was Delta. Delta arose in October 2020, before vaccination campaigns had begun.

The best thing we can do to prevent variants is to get vaccined, and to get boosted when recommended, to keep our protection high and limit the ability for the virus to reproduce.

Claim: Vaccines cause variants

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