The delta, first found in India, has become increasingly dominant wherever it has landed, including in the US.
It is by far the most contagious coronavirus mutant in the pandemic, but vaccines for COVID-19 still provide strong protection against it. Almost all hospitalizations and deaths are among non-vaccinated people. Still, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited Delta’s surge for its updated advice that fully vaccinated people return wearing masks indoors to areas of high transmission.
This change is based on recent research suggesting that people who are infected with the delta variant can spread it to others, even if vaccinated does not make the seriously ill.
The new guidance helps protect children who are not eligible for vaccination, and others who are at high risk for serious illness if infected.
A few successful cases with mild or no symptoms were always expected, as vaccines were designed to prevent severe disease.
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The CDC no longer publicly counts those modest success cases, but the Kaiser Family Foundation has analyzed data from states that maintains a tally that they make up a small proportion of all COVID-19 infections. .
It is not yet clear whether the delta variant makes people sick. But experts say it spreads more easily because of mutations that make it better able to capture cells in our bodies.
The delta, first found in India, has become increasingly dominant wherever it has landed, including in the US.
Viruses mutate constantly, and most changes are not related. But there is concern that uncontrolled proliferation could promote mutations and produce a variant that is even more infectious, causes more severe disease or evades the protection provided by the vaccine.
That’s why experts say making vaccines accessible globally is so important. And they thoroughly note the importance of vaccination; Receiving just one dose of two-dose vaccines is not as protective against Delta.
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