Post the coronavirus outbreak, the United States has been one of the most affected nations due to the pandemic. However, over the past few weeks, the number of Covid cases in the country has started plummeting; all credit goes to the vaccination program which is progressing steadily. And now, a top medical expert in the country has warned that the Covid scare in the country is not over yet, as the Delta variant, initially detected in India could emerge as the dominant strain in the country.
Dire warning issued by virus expert
The warning has been issued by Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist, Regents Professor, and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. In a recent interaction with CNN, Osterholm revealed that the Delta variant is more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which means it could infect more people in the coming days.
"This has real significant implications for increased transmission in our communities. We've been able to show that this virus is 50 to 60% more infectious than was the B117 or Alpha variant—the one we were worried about before, which was much more infectious than the previous strains. So this one really is the king of the pile in terms of the transmission issues," said Osterholm.
Vaccination holds the key
Osterholm also added that vaccinating the people with two shots of the coronavirus vaccine could be the only option to protect the public from the pandemic. He also claimed that the Delta variant could easily invade the immunity offered by the virus when compared to other variants of Covid.
"t does have the ability to evade part of the immune protection from either vaccines or previous infections if you have only had one dose—so the mRNA vaccines, either Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccine only works about 30% of the time or actually preventing you from getting sick. That's in comparison to 70 to 80% with one dose, with the other strains, you need both to get fully vaccinated, and then you can get better protection. So it's even more of a reason why we want everyone to get vaccinated," added Osterholm.
