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If the United States does not control the community spread of the COVID delta variant, the nation will continue to see more variants that escape vaccine protection, according to Dr.Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House.
“It will happen, George, if we don’t get good control over the spread of the community, which is why my colleagues and I keep saying it is very important to get as many people vaccinated as possible. “, Fauci told” GMA “presenter George Stephanopoulos on Thursday.
“People who say, ‘I don’t want to get the shot because it’s me and I’m going to worry about myself, I’m not impacting anybody else’, it just isn’t the case, ”Fauci said.
When the virus spreads through the unvaccinated population, as it now does rapidly in many states with low vaccination rates, it can mutate whether the person has mild symptoms or even no symptoms.
“And when you give it ample opportunity to mutate, you may sooner or later get another variant, and it’s possible that that variant is in some ways worse than the already very difficult variant we’re dealing with now, which is a major problem that is why you want to completely suppress the circulation of the virus in the community, ”Fauci said.
Over 70% of the US adult population has received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 60.7% of the US adult population is fully vaccinated. Of all eligible Americans, that is, all over the age of 12, 67.9% have received at least one dose and 58.3% are fully immunized. But in some states in the United States, the vaccination rate is well below the national average.
Nationally, there are still approximately 93 million eligible Americans who have not been vaccinated.
Fauci warned in an interview with McClatchy on Wednesday that he believed the spread of the virus could increase to the point that the United States is reporting 100,000 to 200,000 new cases per day if more people don’t mask themselves and themselves. vaccinate.
The delta variant, the most transmissible variant to have settled in the United States so far, accounted for 93% of U.S. cases in the last two weeks of July, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . In areas of the Midwest, it accounted for 98% of cases.
“What’s important is that the delta variant we’re dealing with is so capable of pushing back other variants, that we don’t expect it to take over. That said, we’re following it very closely. close, ”Fauci said.
Since the start of the initial delta variant, there has been a rapid increase in cases among children who are not yet vaccinated, which experts attribute to the faster spread of the virus.
Of the 58,000 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide, those aged 18 to 49 represent 41%, according to CDC data. Pediatric hospitalizations are 3.5 times higher than a month ago, and the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that cases of children under 17 nearly doubled in the last two weeks of July, from 39,000 per week to 72,000.
Some countries have released data showing that the delta variant also makes children sicker than previous variants, even though children have had a very low risk of hospitalization or death throughout the pandemic. US officials caution that the data is not strong enough to draw a firm conclusion.
While it is “indisputable” that the delta variant is more transmissible, it is “less clear” whether it “actually makes individuals more seriously ill,” Fauci said.
NIH Director Francis Collins said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that data from other countries “leaned in” showing a higher risk to children, but it is still inconclusive.
“I don’t want to overstate the confidence we have in whether the delta is more dangerous for children. The balance hasn’t been fully sorted out there, but it’s tilting in that direction,” Collins said.
But he also said more children are hospitalized because they are part of the unvaccinated population, which is much more likely to contract the virus than the elderly who have a much higher vaccination rate. Ninety percent of adults 65 and older have received at least one shot of the vaccine, according to CDC data.
“So now we may see in this spectrum of illnesses more emphasis on young people, including children,” Collins said.
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