CDC: Delta variant accounts for 93 percent of all infections

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The delta variant accounts for at least 93 percent of all sequenced coronavirus in the U.S., according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

For the two-week period ending July 31, all the different lineages of the delta variant made up about 93 percent of cases that were sequenced.

In some parts of the country with low vaccination rates, especially the Midwest region that includes Kansas, Iowa and Missouri, the percentages are even higher.

Vaccination rates have been uneven across states, and only about half of all eligible people nationwide are fully vaccinated.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cdc-delta-variant-accounts-for-93-percent-of-all-infections/ar-AAMW2AE

[bluewater]

1. It's an entirely different ballgame now with the delta variant

The data from the UK's recent delta variant surge shows this:

The UK experienced their delta variant surge before us and the breakthrough infection rate was 12% of vaccinated people exposed getting infected.

In the United Kingdom, which is collecting the best information on infections caused by variants, the estimated effectiveness of the vaccines to prevent an illness that causes symptoms dropped by about 10 points against Delta compared with Alpha (or B.1.1.7).

After two doses, vaccines prevent symptomatic infection about 79% of the time against Delta, according to data compiled by Public Health England. They are still highly effective at preventing hospitalization, 96% after two doses.

Out of 229,218 COVID infections in the United Kingdom between February and July 19, 28,773 — or about 12.5% — were in fully vaccinated people. Of those breakthrough infections, 1,101, or 3.8%, required a visit to an emergency room, according to Public Health England. Just 474, or 2.9%, of fully vaccinated people required hospital admission, and 229, or less than 1%, died.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210726/breakthrough-cases-rising-with-delta-heres-what-that-means

Vaccines were very effective in reducing the cases of serious illness when exposed to the delta variant, but cases requiring medical attention and hospitalization reached roughly 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively. That's about a 100 times greater than the rate for the earlier variants.

So, if the risk of requiring medical attention is about 0.5% to 1%, that's significant enough for me as an older person (65+) to resume mask wearing not only indoors, but also in close proximity to strangers outdoors. Also, the experts say that the delta variant is much more contagious, about the same as chickenpox, and that exposures to infected people as short as seconds could be enough to transmit the disease.

My personal risk assessment is that we are all safer now than before vaccines were available, but not quite safe enough to ignore masking and increased social distancing. I mean, I wouldn't keep taking repeated "1 out of a hundred" chances of a bad outcome; it just makes sense to reduce opportunities for those bad outcomes.

[Roland99]

2. Explains more of the "breakthrough" cases we're seeing, too