Eric Topol: “Russia and Indonesia have their worst death rates with the Delta variant”

“Russia and Indonesia, with 90% of the Delta variant in circulation and limited vaccination, are experiencing some of their worst death rates from the pandemic.», Warned this Sunday the prestigious North American researcher, geneticist and cardiologist Eric Topol, current editor-in-chief of Medscape.

The worrying figures come from the UK statistics tracker Our world in data, which explains an exponential increase in deaths from COVID-19 in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian nation made up of thousands of volcanic islands, and Russia, the largest country in the world in terms of territory with 144 million inhabitants.

According to the renowned scientist, behind this increase in the number of deaths lies the Delta variant and the limited vaccination campaigns.

What do we know about this variant from India? Supercontagious strain of coronavirus called Delta is now responsible for one in five cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and its prevalence has doubled in the past two weeks, health officials reported on Tuesday.

First identified in India, the Delta is one of the “disturbing variants” referred to by the Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention (CDC for its acronym) from the United States and by the World Health Organization (WHO). It spread quickly across India and the UK.

Its appearance in the United States is not surprising. And with the increase in vaccinations and the drop in the number of COVID-19 cases, it’s unclear how many problems it will cause here.. However, its rapid progress has raised fears that it will jeopardize the country’s progress in the fight against the pandemic.

“Delta variant is currently the biggest threat in the United States to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19“Said at Tuesday’s meeting the doctor Antoine Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist. The good news, he said, is that vaccines licensed in the United States work against the variant. “We have the tools,” he said. “So let’s use them and crush the shoot.”

Why are people concerned about the Delta variant? This strain, formerly known as B.1.617.2, is believed to is the most transferable variant to date, and that it spreads more easily than the original strain of the virus and the Alpha variant, first identified in the UK. Public health officials in that country have said that Delta variant could be 50% more contagious than Alpha, although the precise calculations of its contagion capacity vary.

Other evidence suggests that the variant may be able to partially escape antibodies produced by the body as a result of coronavirus infection or vaccination. It can also make some monoclonal antibody treatments less effective., notes the CDC.

The Delta variant can also cause more serious illness. A recent Scottish study, for example, showed that people infected with the Delta variant were about twice as likely to be hospitalized as those infected with the Alpha variant. However, scientists say there are still doubts.

“I believe that the question of the severity of the disease is the only one that still has no answer“, He said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Policy and Research at the University of Minnesota.

Russia, first country in the world to register a vaccine against the coronavirus, posted 619 deaths from COVID-19 this Saturday, a new record since the start of the year, according to local authorities. For the first time, The country’s second city, St. Petersburg, added more deaths from the coronavirus, 107, than the capital, which did not reach the hundred, when it had 96.

In addition, the positives at the national level stood at 21,665, including 8,457 in Moscow, epicenter of the pandemic since March 2021.

The number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus has steadily increased since June 8.

Russia is already adding 5,430,753 positives, the fifth country in the world in this category after the United States, India, Brazil and France, Yes 132,683 deaths by COVID-19, although independent sources are multiplying the official figures by two and three.

For this reason Russian authorities yesterday announced the reinstatement of teleworking for a third of the workforce of companies in Moscow From Monday, when the Ministry of Health authorized the vaccination of pregnant women.

Last week the city council has already decreed compulsory vaccination for at least 60% of employees in the tertiary sector and he announced that from June 28, gastronomic establishments will only serve people “protected” against the coronavirus. In turn, the Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko announced the authorization of vaccination of pregnant women with the Russian preparation Sputnik V.

According to Murachko, more than 21 million Russians have already received the first dose of the vaccineFigures far lower than in other countries, as polls insist a majority of Russians are still reluctant to get vaccinated. In all, Russia has administered 38.1 million doses and 11.5% of its population is fully vaccinated.

At Indonesia, the situation is just as worrying. So far, the archipelago has recorded more than 2.1 million cases of COVID-19 and 57,138 deaths since the start of the pandemic. But the real figure would be much higher because of the low diagnostic detection rates.

The Southeast Asian nation administered 39.1 million doses, with 13 million people fully vaccinated, 4.8% of its total population, and Sinopharm (BIBP), CoronaVac and Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines apply.

The number of new infections and deaths in Indonesia has skyrocketed in recent weeks after millions of people traveled at the end of Radaman’s Muslim fasting month in May, and after authorities identify the presence of the Delta variant and other highly infectious strains.

At the same time, Fears grow that Indonesia’s precarious healthcare system could collapse and some reports indicate that some overwhelmed hospitals are already being forced to turn away new patients.

The country aims to vaccinate more than 180 million of its 270 million inhabitants by early 2022, but until now only less than 5% of the population has been vaccinated.

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