> Not really, the virus mutating into less aggressive strains did.

This didn't happen. There was no selection pressure on the virus to mutate to a "less aggressive" form. To think there was is to fundamentally misunderstand the science here.

The incubation period was plenty long enough for the virus to spread before incapacitating the host. All the selection pressure was for the virus to become more virulent - and that is precisely what happened. We saw multiple strains appear which were harder to deal with.

> Reducing counter-productive treatments (like ventilators) helped greatly too.

This had a negligible impact. Patients were only put on ventilation when they were already very sick and at a high chance of death. Worldwide only a tiny proportion of deaths came about in this way. Even rich countries only had ventilators in the tens of thousands. Compare that to the billions who received vaccinations.

▲

OCASMv2 4 days ago | parent [-]

> The incubation period was plenty long enough for the virus to spread before incapacitating the host. All the selection pressure was for the virus to become more virulent - and that is precisely what happened. We saw multiple strains appear which were harder to deal with.

Is Omicron equally as deadly as Delta? No.

> This had a negligible impact. Patients were only put on ventilation when they were already very sick and at a high chance of death. Worldwide only a tiny proportion of deaths came about in this way. Even rich countries only had ventilators in the tens of thousands. Compare that to the billions who received vaccinations.

That's just one example. Not using effective antivirals is another one. With time, treatments improved and so did the outcomes, regardless of vaccination status.

▲

chimprich 4 days ago | parent [-]

> Is Omicron equally as deadly as Delta? No.

It depends how you look at it. Omicron had a lower CFR, but higher transmissibility, so arguably worse.

There is no inherent selection pressure on viruses to mutate towards being less aggressive. Omicron had a transmission advantage that coincided with being a bit less lethal, but often being more transmissible correlates with being more lethal (e.g. delta variant).

We could have easily had a more lethal omicron variant emerge if it wasn't for vaccination effectively halting the pandemic.

Far more people were saved by vaccination than any luck on random mutation in the virus.

> With time, treatments improved

They did. Like the use of dextramethasone. Still a small improvement compared to the dramatic success of the vaccines.

> and so did the outcomes, regardless of vaccination status.

No. Vaccinated individuals were better off in pretty much every measurable statistic. By any reasonable measurement vaccination saved millions of lives.

▲

OCASMv2 3 days ago | parent [-]

> We could have easily had a more lethal omicron variant emerge if it wasn't for vaccination effectively halting the pandemic.

Vaccination didn't even prevent transmission.

▲

chimprich 3 days ago | parent [-]

What do you mean "prevent"? If you mean vaccines didn't completely prevent transmission, then yes. If you mean vaccines didn't prevent a proportion of transmission, then no. The vaccines did significantly reduce transmission in general.

Of course the main benefit of the vaccines was a dramatic reduction in severe disease, hospital admissions and deaths.

▲

OCASMv2 3 days ago | parent [-]

They didn't affect transmission at all. Symptom reduction is also debatable since it can also be explained by immunity from previous exposure, less damaging variants and better treatments as time went on.

	▲	chimprich 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		There's plenty of evidence that vaccines reduced transmission, especially in the earlier variants. The idea that vaccines didn't reduce severe illness is laughable. Multiple robust tudies across many nations and institutions have been carried out, showing that several different vaccines were highly effective.