system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is the Delta variant a result of COVID evolving against the vaccine or would we still have the Delta variant if we never created the vaccine?
gpt
Delta arose in India when vaccination levels there were extremely low. Delta has only slightly increased vaccine resistance relative to the earlier strains of SARS-CoV-2. And delta has greatly increased transmission capacity. 

So delta arose in the absence of vaccination, doesn’t do much to avoid immunization, and has obvious selective advantages unrelated to vaccination. So yes, the delta variant would still be here if there was no vaccination. In fact, if vaccination had been rolled out fast enough, delta (and other variants) would have been prevented, because the simplest way to reduce variation is to reduce the pool from which variants can be selected - that is, vaccinate to make far fewer viruses, making fewer variants. 

For all the huge push anti-vax liars are currently making for the meme that vaccination drives mutation, it’s obviously not true, just from common sense. A moment’s thought will tell you that this isn’t the first vaccine that’s been made - we have hundreds of years experience with vaccination — and vaccines haven’t driven mutations in the past. Measles vaccination is over 50 years old, and measles didn’t evolve vaccine resistance. Polio vaccination is around 60 years old, no vaccine resistance. Yellow fever vaccine has been used for over 90 years, no vaccine-induced mutations. Mumps, rubella, smallpox. No vaccine driven mutations.