Your questions, answered Do vaccines make the coronavirus more likely to mutate? No, the coronavirus mutates when the virus is able to adapt to its surroundings, which occurs among populations with low rates of vaccination. In such communities and countries, the virus is able to replicate faster because it spreads through hosts who do not have the ability to fight the virus (something that a vaccine provides). This increases the likelihood of a mutation — leading to new variants and strains. "While some might wish to claim that vaccine-induced immunity could exert a sort of selective pressure to promote new variants, the reality appears to be the opposite," Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, told The Washington Post in an email. The variant dominant in the United States is highly transmissible omicron. It was identified in southern Africa in November 2021 and emerged from a largely under-vaccinated population where only 6 percent of the population received a coronavirus vaccine by July 2021; a year later, that number had risen to 22 percent. Experts are concerned that low vaccination rates and an overall waning immunity could lead to a surge in coronavirus variants. "On that basis, I would say our inability or loss of interest in ensuring global vaccine equity means new variants of concern might continue to spin off and haunt us," Hotez said. The best way to combat the arrival of a new variant is to increase the number of vaccinated people. | 
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