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In anticipation of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, states and cities across the United States have taken advantage of the reopening of once-closed communities for business, recreation, summer festivities and travel as life has returned to normal.
However, health officials remain on high alert given a lingering hurdle to ending Covid-19: large swathes of unvaccinated people in America who could allow the virus to mutate further and potentially generate more variants. transmissible and increasingly fatal.
This means that unvaccinated people are not only more at risk for Covid-19 themselves, but could also potentially undermine the entire deployment of the vaccine in the United States if a future variant emerging in the United States were significantly resistant to the vaccine. vaccines.
“Unvaccinated people are basically the cannon fodder of the virus. The virus needs people to infect in order to replicate and the more people it has vulnerable or susceptible to infection, the more likely it is to mutate, ”said Dr Michael Saag, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Forty-six U.S. states recorded an increase of at least 10% in new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, according to CNN. Travel advisories have been declared for several states, including Nevada and Florida, due to the increase in Covid-19 cases, warning aspiring vacationers to stay away.
Against the backdrop of an almost nationwide increase in Covid-19 cases, the focus is once again on vaccine deployment. After narrowly missing the July 4 deadline to get at least 70% of American adults their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the Biden administration – working with federal, state and local health officials – is encouraging people, especially young adults, to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.
But, even amid the most aggressive attempts to increase vaccination rates, several states, many of them concentrated in the south, are lagging behind. As of July 5, Arkansas, which has fully vaccinated less than 35% of its adult population, contracted new cases of Covid-19 at a rate five times the national average. Likewise, Oklahoma, where only 39% of adults are fully vaccinated, has seen a similar increase in Covid-19 cases. Those who remain unvaccinated risk infection as well as an increased risk of hospitalization or death from Covid.
“The challenge we face in the public health response… is that we have ‘easy’ people in terms of vaccination. Those who were looking forward to it, who were looking forward to getting it, “said Dr Susan Hassig, associate professor of epidemiology at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
But, in addition to experiencing the worst form of Covid-19, unvaccinated people present additional opportunities for the Covid-19 virus to mutate. The Delta variant of Covid-19, a more contagious and aggressive mutation of the virus that is now the dominant strain, is a direct result of the coronavirus mutation in infected people. Viruses mutate once they are in the body of a person who has been infected. Some viral mutations can weaken a virus, while others, as seen with the Delta variant, make the virus more harmful.
As a result, groups of unvaccinated people are not only at risk of spreading the virus to others, but at the risk of spreading a stronger, more contagious version of Covid.
“Unvaccinated populations, regardless of their size, are the breeding ground where the virus will eventually generate some form of mutation that will likely be a problem for us,” Hassig said.
Although epidemiologists remain uncertain about the likelihood of a need for boosters or revaccinations in the face of new strains, mutations in Covid-19 could call into question the immunity provided by existing vaccines.
“This has always been the concern. We’ve been talking about it from the start and as expected several variants have emerged… these viruses are just going to continue to emerge and it’s just a matter of chance and a matter of time, if any of the variants will be resistant, to a certain extent. measure, to the existing immunity provided by vaccination, ”Saag said.
With the prevalence of the Delta variant, the increase in the number of cases and the discrepancies in vaccination rates amid ongoing trips, public health officials are urging the maintenance of preventative measures such as social distancing and wearing mask to limit the risk of infection.
But, as Hassig and Saag agreed, the most effective protection against future viral mutations and current strains is to get the vaccine completely.
“What we can do about it is get everyone vaccinated. This protects us from infection in the first place and if the virus is not able to infect it will not replicate… and a new variant will not emerge, ”Saag said.
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