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number1dork OP t1_jdit9md wrote

Reply to comment by Alwayssunnyinarizona in What happened to the old COVID variants, like Delta? Could they come back? by number1dork

That's one aspect I was curious about... if the variants have to compete with each other in the same ecological niche. I would think there's enough unvaccinated people in the world that there would still be room for a new Delta infection. But does the presence of the newer, more contagious variants prevent it?

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Alwayssunnyinarizona t1_jdivhuu wrote

The viruses are racing to find people who are susceptible enough to infect. It would be like Jesse Owens trying to keep up with Usain Bolt. Jesse was fast for his time, but Usain is going to beat him to the finish line e: 99.9999% of the time - enough that if you weren't paying very very close attention, you'd never see that one time Jesse beat him. .

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florinandrei t1_jdix80n wrote

Yes. The newer variants have won the Darwinian struggle against the old variants. The old variants have been outcompeted.

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