Dr. Vivek Murthy: I am concerned about the unvaccinated 0:45
(CNN) -
The news about the covid is contradictory.
The country is more open every day and returns to normality.
People who want a vaccine should already have it.
Sports stadiums are full.
The airlines are full.
Restaurants are reserved.
But as the US surpasses 600,000 confirmed deaths from covid, there are also warnings about the rise of a new strain of covid, the delta variant, taking over the country.
It's hard to understand how worried to be.
I went with the CNN Health team, who have been writing about this nonstop, and this is what came out of me.
Everything shown below comes from their reports.
What is the "delta variant"?
Officially, variant B.1.617.2, was first detected in India in February and has now spread across the world.
Some fear it could overwhelm health care systems and reverse reopening plans before vaccinations take place.
It is likely to be behind a deadly COVID wave this spring in India.
Delta-variant Covid-19 Cases "Rising Rapidly" in US, Expert Says
Why is it called a delta variant?
It's like naming storms.
All variants have scientific names, for example, B.1.617.2.
But those numbers and letters are not easy to pronounce, which is why for some time they were also known from their countries of origin.
The UK and South African variants, for example.
The delta variant would have been the Indian variant.
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In an effort to destigmatize countries associated with the variants, the World Health Organization in May changed its designations to the Greek alphabet.
The UK variant became the alpha variant.
In addition to the four variants of interest, there are six variants of interest to WHO, all of which have Greek letters.
How does the delta variant compare to other variants?
It is more contagious, perhaps 60% more contagious than the alpha variant, which was responsible for a surge in Michigan this spring.
How concerned is the US government?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have labeled the delta variant a "variant of concern," meaning that scientists believe it is more communicable or may cause a more severe version of the disease.
The WHO made a similar determination in May, when the delta variant was sweeping India.
What is the prevalence of the delta variant in the US?
It accounted for 9.9% of cases in the United States as of June 5, according to the CDC.
By Sunday, it accounted for 10.3% of cases, according to website outbreak.info, which tracks variants.
The delta variant could be the dominant strain in the US within a month.
Do vaccines work against the delta variant?
Yes, but there is a catch.
People who are fully vaccinated appear to have good protection against this disease.
But people who have received only one dose of a two-dose vaccine have not.
How many Americans are vaccinated? C
so 45% of Americans are fully vaccinated.
It seems increasingly unlikely that the US will meet President Joe Biden's goal of vaccinating 70% of eligible Americans by July 4.
What used to be a divide has turned into a gulf between states with high vaccination rates (Vermont has more than 63% complete vaccination) and those with low vaccination rates (Mississippi is less than 30%).
You have to have both doses of the vaccine to protect yourself against the delta variant, says US Health Director-General.
There is great variation within states.
California Bay Area counties are near or over 60% vaccinated.
Many Central Valley counties are well below 40%.
Miami-Dade County in Florida has 50% complete vaccinations.
Many Panhandle counties in the northern part of the state have less than 30%.
See where your state and county are here.
We are living a vaccination experiment.
Vaccines stop the spread.
This Wednesday report from the CNN Health team is the most obvious thing in the world and also worth doing to combat vaccine ambivalence:
A CNN analysis found that states that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents tend to have lower average case rates trending downward, while states that have vaccinated less than half of its residents have higher average case rates ...
Among states that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents, the average case rate was about 24% lower, about 20 cases per 100,000 people. But among states that have vaccinated less than 35% of their residents, the average was about 41 new cases per 100,000 people, about 1.6 times higher than the U.S. rate and more than twice the rate. average rate among states that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents.
What worries about the delta variant, according to a specialist 0:39
Exceptions to the rule.
Not all states follow this trend.
Washington state has fully vaccinated more than half of its adult population, but it still has one of the highest case rates in the United States in the past week.
Tennessee has one of the lowest case rates despite nearly a third of residents being fully vaccinated.
Dangerous variant of the rising new coronavirus could cause outbreaks in U.S. states with lower vaccination rates, expert says
One looming issue is vaccinating children under 12 years of age.
Vaccine advisers at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) debated the pros and cons last week.
There is concern about very few reports of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, in fewer than 1 in 1 million vaccinated youth.
People over 12 years old should get vaccinated.
But because of those reports and the sensitive nature of vaccinating children, there is disagreement among FDA advisers on how quickly the emergency use authorization for the covid vaccine in children under 12 will be granted.
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