Will leaky Covid vaccines select for deadly variants like Marek’s vaccine did?
Chicken virus variant evolved and spread from the vaccinated, killing the unvaccinated within 10 days.
Covid vaccines could catastrophically recapitulate birds’ Marek’s disease vaccine.
“Chickens vaccinated against Marek’s disease rarely get sick. But the vaccine doesn’t prevent them from spreading Marek’s to unvaccinated birds,” each of which “dies within 10 days.”
“No human virus is that hot, [not even] Ebola. Rather than stop fowl from spreading the virus, the vaccine allows the disease to spread faster and longer than normally, a new study finds. Scientists now believe the vaccine helped this chicken virus become uniquely virulent.”
Vaccines for Covid and Marek’s disease are nonsterilizing, or “leaky,” meaning they limit illness, at least right after they’re first introduced, but not infection or transmission of their respective viruses. This allows evolution only in the vaccinated of unique vaccinal antibody-escape variants, fitter when more infectious, even if they mutate also to kill their hosts after transmission.
El Gato Malo article:
“Leaky vaccines pose a serious danger to populations, and mistaking their benefit for that of a ‘perfect’ vaccine (like measles, polio, smallpox) is like mistaking hemlock for gatorade. They are societally devastating, spread more rapidly, and breed for deadlier disease.”
References:
Read et al.: Imperfect Vaccination Can Enhance the Transmission of Highly Virulent Pathogens
El Gato Malo: Leaky vaccines, super-spreads, and variant acceleration
Gandon et al: Imperfect vaccines and the evolution of pathogen virulence