What happens if you take an already contagious virus and make it 200% more transmissible and multiply its viral load by 1000?
The answer is that you would see rampant spread of this supercharged virus throughout a community, with it quickly finding those who lack immunity.
Welcome to the Delta variant, a much more contagious strain of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The good news? Our three vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson) are still very effective and safe — but only if you roll up your sleeve and get it.
The other good news? We have plenty of vaccines to go around.
The bad news? Vaccination rates have plateaued at a level that is too low to achieve community-protective herd immunity, so we are seeing rapid spread of the Delta variant.
If you are vaccinated, why does it matter if I am vaccinated?
Unvaccinated people often ask me why it matters if they get their vaccine — if I already had my own vaccine. This is a very important question, and the simple answer is that it affects our community immunity.
When more people in a community are vaccinated, we have less vulnerable hosts for a virus to infect. This creates a protective shield called “herd” or “community” immunity. High vaccine levels not only protect those who are vaccinated, but reduce the spread of virus to vulnerable children (who are too young to be vaccinated), the medically fragile with weakened immune systems, people on chemotherapy or with organ transplants, and people who did not get a robust response from their vaccine.
The more contagious a virus is, the more people who have to be vaccinated to achieve community immunity. Because the Delta variant is far more contagious than the original strain of the virus, we will need even more people to roll up their sleeves.
Even with a vaccine that is 95% effective, 5% of vaccinated people may still be susceptible. A more contagious variant, like Delta, is more likely to find the 1 in 20 vaccinated folks who did not have as strong of an immune response. This is called breakthrough infection.
What can we do until we achieve community immunity?
To slow the spread of Delta, while we work to build community immunity, we must reconsider the layered approach that we used in the beginning of the pandemic. This includes masking, distancing and avoiding large crowds.
We know that masks work very well to reduce the spread of respiratory infections such as coronaviruses, especially if they are multilayered and fit well around the mouth and nose.
Children are more susceptible to the Delta variant.
With increased transmissibility and much higher viral loads, children are much more vulnerable to catch and spread the Delta variant. Earlier strains appeared to be less likely to infect children, but Delta appears to be different. We are seeing more reports of children getting infected, requiring hospitalization and being able to transmit the Delta variant to others.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has again recommended that all children age 2 or older wear masks, especially when indoors. The hope is that masking will reduce the transmission of the Delta variant inside classrooms. If implemented correctly, masking also should help reduce the transmission of other respiratory viruses that may lead to missed days of school (and missed days of work for parents). Masking at school will help keep students and staff healthier and allow our schools to remain open.
Let’s stay masked while we get vaxed.
COVID-19 is now a vaccine preventable disease. Previous generations stepped up to control viruses such as polio, smallpox, chicken pox and measles. Now it is our turn to roll up our sleeves. If the rest of our eligible population (age 12 or older) went out to get vaccinated today, we could get control of this pandemic within a matter of weeks.
The COVID-19 vaccines that are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration are very safe and effective. The proof is in the numbers. An unvaccinated person is more than 20 times more likely to be hospitalized. Currently, 97% of the COVID-19 patients in the hospital and 99.5% of those who are dying from COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
If you already survived an earlier strain of COVID-19, getting a vaccine will give you even longer-lasting and broader protection against variants like Delta. Your “super-immunity” will go a long way to building lasting community immunity, while at the same time protecting yourself, our unvaccinated children and the medically fragile.
We all want our children to be healthy and safely back in school. They have endured so much already. We can make this happen if we can get our community vaccination numbers up significantly during the next couple of weeks.
If we resume the layered approach of masking indoors, distancing and avoiding large crowds while we wait for the rest of our neighbors to get vaccinated, then we have a real chance to keep Delta at bay.
So, if you are age 12 or older, don’t doubt the Delta variant. Please get vaccinated as soon as possible to protect yourself and our community.
— Dr. Dan Brennan is a board-certified pediatrician who hopes we will all work together to slow the spread of COVID-19 by being both MASKED AND MIGHTY and VAXED AND MIGHTY.
