The Delta Variant

 [As of early August....]

If there's one thing we ought to be getting used to, given the pace of things the past 18 months or so, it's change.  Canada, along with many (most?) other countries, is in the grips of the Delta variant.  What's known about this genetic variation of the SARS-C0V-2 virus?

The Delta variant was first seen in India last December.  Within weeks it swept through India and Great Britain before arriving in the USA and North America in general.  By the end of July, the Delta variant made up 80% of new COVID cases in the US.  According to Yale Medicine, the Delta variant is 50% more contagious than the Alpha variant which was 50% more contagious than than original strain of the virus.

The CDC published a summary about this variant on August 6th, 2021.  It's short and can be seen here:

One podcast I follow regularly is Science Vs, from Gimlet Media.  Although it's on a summer hiatus, they put out a podcast specifically on the Delta variant, complete with citations for pretty much everything.  I'd recommend a listen; worth the 20 minutes.

The Delta Variant - How Bad Is It?

There is a full transcript which can be seen here, including the list of citations.

Some takeaways from this podcast:

• Viral load in people infected by Delta might be the same in vaccinated and unvaccinated people
• This means that vaccinated people could likely transmit the virus
• It's not known if vaccinated people transmit the virus as efficiently as unvaccinated people.
• Some recent studies show that viral loads seem to decrease more rapidly in vaccinated individuals.
• When vaccinated people get infected, they don't get nearly as sick and are very unlikely to die.
• This means, that although Delta is concerning for vaccinated people, it's downright scary for unvaccinated individuals.
• The mutation responsible for all this can be found in the spike protein.
• Infections in kids are rising in the US, but it seems kids aren't getting as sick as they were earlier.  But it's an area of concern.

The obvious recommendations?  Get vaccinated if you haven't so far.  Go back to wearing a mask in certain situations like inside around more people.  Pay attention to the good practices that we learned about in the earlier days of the pandemic.