5 Things You Need to Know About the Delta Variant

5 Things You Need to Know About the Delta Variant

5 Things You Need to Know About the, Delta Variant.

At the beginning of the summer, people were feeling optimistic about the state of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Unfortunately, a new worrisome strain of COVID-19 has emerged: the Delta variant.

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Here are five things you need to know about the Delta variant.

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1.

The Delta variant is extremely contagious.

In an internal memo obtained by the 'New York Times,' the CDC called the variant as contagious as chickenpox.

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Even “breakthrough cases” seem to carry a large amount of virus in their noses and throats.

This means vaccinated people are able to spread Delta.

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2.

Unvaccinated individuals are most at risk when it comes to the Delta variant.

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This includes immunocompromised people who are unable to get the vaccine and children under 12 years old, for whom a vaccine has yet to be approved.

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3.

Delta could lead to the formation of drastic “hotspots” around the country.

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This means that if a poorly-vaccinated area is surrounded by regions with high vaccination rates, COVID-19 could become trapped within its borders.

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This could lead to local health care systems becoming overwhelmed, which would result in more deaths.

4.

We have much more to learn about the Delta variant.

This includes what symptoms it causes and whether it makes people more severely sick than the original strain.

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A recent survey in the U.K. found that traditional COVID-19 symptoms, such as a cough and loss of smell, are not as common with the Delta variant.

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5.

Being fully vaccinated is the best protection you can possibly have against Delta.

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Pfizer has found its vaccine to be 88 percent effective against symptomatic disease and 96 percent effective against hospitalization from Delta.

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Moderna reports that its vaccine is effective against Delta with only a “modest reduction in neutralizing titers” observed in its studies.