Internal CDC document guarantees Delta variant of coronavirus is as contagious as chickenpox

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States considers that the variant Delta the coronavirus is as contagious as chickenpox and it could cause serious illness, according to an internal CDC document published by US newspapers.

The variant is also more likely to overcome the protections offered by vaccines, according to the report, adding that Reverse from the agency on Tuesday on recommendations for the use of masks or masks for all, even for fully vaccinated Americans, he relied on this document.

However, Figures from the CDC indicate that vaccines are very effective in preventing serious illness, hospitalizations and death in those vaccinated, according to the report, citing experts. New research has shown that vaccinated people infected with the delta variant carried huge amounts of the virus in their nose and throat, CDC director Rochelle Walensky told The Times.

The delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Ebola, colds, seasonal flu and smallpox, according to the report. The immediate next step for the agency is to “recognize that the war has changed,” the report said, citing the document, which was actually an internal CDC slideshow showing the struggle of the country’s main public health agency to persuade the public to adopt vaccination and prevention measures, including wearing masks, as they increase cases in the USA.

“Infection by the Delta variant produces ten times higher amounts of virus in the respiratory tract than those seen in people infected with the Alpha variant, which is also very contagious ”, the report continues, noting that the amount of virus in a person infected with Delta is 1000 times more than what is observed in people infected with the original version of the virus. The CDC’s paper is based on data from several studies, including an analysis of a recent outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which began after the city’s festivities on July 4. By Thursday, that group had grown to 882 cases. About 74% have been vaccinated, local health officials said.

The document includes an urgent footnote, emphasizing that the agency knows it needs to renew its public message to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it almost acts like a different new virus, jump from one target to another faster than Ebola or the common cold virus. To do this, he cites a combination of recently obtained and as yet unpublished data from outbreak surveys and external studies showing that vaccinated individuals infected with Delta can transmit the virus just as easily as those who are not vaccinated. . Vaccinated people infected with Delta have measurable viral loads similar to those who are not vaccinated and are infected with the variant.

“I finished reading it much more worried than at the beginningRobert Wachter, president of the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, wrote in an email. Scientists from The CDC was so alarmed by the new research that the agency earlier this week significantly changed the guidelines for those vaccinated even before releasing the new data that played a key role in the renewed recommendations. requiring everyone, vaccinated or not, to wear masks indoors in public places under certain circumstances.

One of the slides indicates that there is a higher risk of hospitalization and death among older age groups compared to younger people, whatever the vaccination status. Another estimated that there are 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million Americans vaccinated.

The paper describes the “communication challenges” fueled by the cases among those vaccinated, including concerns from local health departments about whether coronavirus vaccines are still working and a “public convinced that vaccines no longer work / are necessary as a booster dose “. It also makes it clear that vaccination offers substantial protection against the virus. But it also says the CDC needs to “improve communications about individual risk among those vaccinated” because that risk depends on a number of factors, including age and whether someone has a compromised immune system.

The paper includes CDC data from studies showing that vaccines are not as effective in immunocompromised patients and nursing home residents, This increases the risk that some people at risk will need an extra dose of the vaccine. The presentation highlights the arduous task that lies ahead of the CDC. You must continue to focus on the proven effectiveness of vaccines in preventing serious illness and death, while recognizing that more mild emerging infections may not be so rare after all, and that vaccinated people transmit the virus. The agency must move the goalposts of success into public view.

“Although rare, we believe that on an individual level, people who have been vaccinated can transmit the virus, which is why we have updated our recommendation. Waiting even days to release the data could lead to unnecessary suffering and, as public health professionals, we cannot accept that, ”according to a federal health official, who requested anonymity because they did not. were not allowed to do so in public. The presentation came two days after Walensky announced the change in the recommendation on the use of masks or masks in people who have been vaccinated.

On May 13, people learned that they no longer needed to wear masks indoors or outdoors if they had been vaccinated. But now, the new guide reflects a strategic change in the face of the arrival of the Delta variant. Even those who have been vaccinated should wear masks indoors in communities where the viral spread is significant or in the presence of people particularly vulnerable to infection and disease, the CDC said this week.

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