Most people not vaccinated will contract the Delta variant unless previously infected with COVID-19, health experts say

 

 


Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Most people who have not been vaccinated or previously infected with  COVID-19 will contract the strain of COVID dubbed the Delta- plus coronavirus variant, health experts said on Sunday.

"Most people will either get vaccinated, or have been previously infected, or they will get this Delta variant," Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration during the Trump administration,  Gottlieb said that "for most people who get this Delta variant, it's going to be the most serious virus that they get in their lifetime in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital." 

And this new strain is more transmissible, more dangerous, and at least 60 percent more contagious, data show.

Gottlieb has said that  the Delta variant will likely target southern communities and that communities with lower vaccination rates and lower rates of prior infection,  poor and minority communities in particular. 

About 49 percent of the  country's population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19,  according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana, Mississippi, Wyoming and Arkansas are among the states with the lowest vaccination rates and are states where less than 35 percent of their population is fully vaccinated.

That data also show that African -Americans and the Latino-Hispanic populations have higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19.

The Delta variant is a  version of the coronavirus that has been found in more than 80 countries since it was first detected in India. It got its name from the World Health Organization, which names notable variants after letters of the Greek alphabet.  

Statistics relative to the coronavirus pandemic that hit the nation with a vengeance in March of 2020 are bad enough, experts say, not to mention the damage the Delta Variant can bring. Currently there have been some 35 million regular coronavirus cases since March of 2020 in the US, and nearly 625,000 deaths. Worldwide data is worse with roughly 191 million regular coronavirus cases and some four million people dead from the vicious disease. 

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.