when they contract the virus because they are more infectious, due to the virus replicating more in their system which results in higher viral loads (i.e. copies of virus in the system).

This higher viral load is why unvacc'd people are more likely to transmit COVID to others (whether vacc'd or unvacc'd) and are more likely to become much sicker or die as a result of infection (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19057-5). But it also provides the breeding conditions for new COVID mutations because of the heightened level of replication. Some infectious disease experts explain better in this article: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/03/health/unvaccinated-variant-factories/index.html

Now what's interesting is they're starting to see that "breakthrough" delta variant covid in vacc'd people results in similar viral loads as delta variant in unvacc'd people (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-delta-variant-infections-carry-same-virus-load-unvaccinated/), which was not the case with previous variants. But this just further supports the case for getting vaccinated. Bc even with a similarly high viral load, vaccinated ppl are able to fight back the infection better (i.e. survive it and/or show little symptoms) and are less likely to transmit it (tho they still can, and to guess who? most likely the unvacc'd). But the delta variant was only able to develop into a more powerful coronavirus, worse for everybody, because so many people were still unvaccinated in the first place. .

So, in one sense you're right that COVID will likely always be a problem and that there will always be crazy ass variants - but the incubation of those crazy variants and the resulting deaths they cause will be borne disproportionately by the unvaccinated.


*note: there's prob also an environmentalist argument for why we should try and vaccinate against the virus v. rely on masks long-term too but I suppose that's slightly off-topic


>blame unvaxxed for mutations.
>