“We know a lot about the Delta variant, which is worrying,” says Dr. Horney. “It is highly transmissible and there is evidence of an increased risk of hospitalization.”

The Delta variant arose during a recent surge in India, where only 3.3 percent of the population are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, underscoring the need for increased vaccination rates worldwide.

Currently, the Delta variant has been reported in 60 countries and accounts for less than 6 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States. Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and senior medical advisor to President Joe Biden, underscores the need for vaccination and says we must do everything we can to prevent the Delta variant from becoming the dominant one Variant in the US “When you have had your first dose make sure you get that second dose,” he said during a briefing Tuesday with the White House pandemic response team. “And those who have not yet been vaccinated, please get vaccinated.”

“Variants occur when the virus is transmitted from person to person. The virus mutates easily, that’s normal, that’s what we expect, ”says Dr. Horney. “The more it is transmitted from person to person, the more chance it has to mutate, so we need to use the vaccines to stop that transmission.”

Listen to a biochemist explain how vaccines work:

Are the vaccines against the Delta variant effective?

Pre-print research published May 25 on MedRxiv found that both Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines against the Delta variant are effective, but not as effective, “especially when people are in time before they are considered ‘fully’ vaccinated. less than two weeks after their second dose, ”says Dr. Horney.

After the second dose, the Pfizer vaccine is 88 percent effective against symptomatic disorders of the Delta variant, compared to 93 percent against the Alpha variant. After the second dose, the AstraZeneca vaccine is 60 percent effective against symptomatic diseases of the Delta variant, compared to 66 percent against the Alpha variant. Three weeks after a dose, both vaccines were only 33 percent effective against symptomatic diseases of the delta variant, compared to about 50 percent against the alpha variant, underscoring the risks of skipping the second dose.

There is no current data to show whether the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are effective against the Delta variant. Dr. However, Fauci expressed his assurance that the effectiveness of the Moderna Delta variant would be similar to that of Pfizer, since both are mRNA vaccines. And current research results that are in. were published nature shows the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is effective against the COVID-19 variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Epsilon, suggesting that similar results can be expected for the Delta variant.

Who is most at risk from the Delta variant?

In the UK, peak transmission of the Delta variant occurs in people aged 12 to 20.

“Since teenagers [age] 12 to 15 have been eligible since May 12th, this population needs to be fully vaccinated quickly in order to be protected against the Delta variant, ”says Dr. Horney. “While [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has said that vaccinated people can take off their masks if they are in one place with children under 12 then they are connected to people who are not vaccinated and so we should keep them on. We have to be careful when we are outside our household or with people who cannot be vaccinated yet. “

Not specifically for the Delta variant, the rate of COVID-19 cases in the US among unvaccinated people is currently very high, says Dr. Horney. And while the total number of COVID-19 case numbers is falling, the case rate among the unvaccinated remains, according to a. higher Washington Post Analysis.

“The problem is that COVID-19 cases are still reported using the entire population in the denominator and not just the unvaccinated,” says Dr. Horney. “We are actually seeing infection and hospitalization rates in many states that are similar to those seen in the January-February spike. A virus will find people who are not vaccinated and keep spreading. ”And as it spreads, it will keep mutating.

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