"As well as being more transmissible, the delta variant seems to lead to more severe disease. On the basis of lab experiments, America's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention suspects that both problems could be linked to the delta variant's ability to circumvent antibody defences, regardless of whether antibodies were induced by past infection or vaccination. PHE reported that the risk of hospitalisation from the delta variant increases by between 32% and 289% compared with alpha. That may make it more deadly, too.
The vaccine findings were less alarming. Compared with the alpha mutation, delta lowered protection from symptomatic infection from 50% to 33% after one dose of Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca, but only from 88% to 80% after the second, with vaccine protection expected to increase further over time. That inoculation still works so well highlights the urgency of administering jabs, particularly in the poor world. Lower protection afforded by past infections--be it from SARS-CoV-2 or other coronaviruses--is terrible news for countries such as Afghanistan, where about a third of the population was infected by August last year, according to antibody surveys. Hospitals in Afghanistan are currently overrun with covid-19 patients, with delta as the suspected cause. That makes it essential to jab more people more quickly. Without widespread vaccination, it could only be a matter of time before a mutation that is more resistant to vaccination develops." [1]
1.
The delta variant is the most dangerous SARS-CoV-2 mutation yet; Daily chart.
Citation metadata
Date: June 16, 2021
From: The Economist
Publisher: Economist Intelligence Unit N.A. Incorporated
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