Why anti-vaxxers might be creating a world of more dangerous viruses

In science fiction, we see all kinds of nightmare viruses that evolve immunity to vaccinations. The scary part? It could actually happen in real life, especially if anti-vaxxers encourage people not to get vaccinated. Populations with pockets of non-vaccinators are more likely to evolve vaccine-resistant viruses than populations where everybody gets a vaccination. Viruses are still around because, like everything else that wants to stay alive, they’re always changing. As our bodies come up with new immune responses, they mutate and keep coming at us. These slight mutations are called antigenic drift, and they’re the reason why we have to keep getting new flu vaccinations every year. The flu virus gets into the body and uses its protein configurations to bind to receptor sites, generally on lung cells — unless a person’s existing antibodies can stop them. When the flu mutates, the existing antibodies won’t work anymore, and so we develop...