Should we prepare for the Delta variant?
I tend to be very liberal politically and socially, but very conservative in terms of risk taking. Which has made the pandemic a very stressful time for me, as well as for my family and friends who are less risk-averse than I am.
Fortunately, I don’t know anyone who’s died from covid, although I do know three people who got mild cases. Right now in the Memphis area, where I live, the situation with covid is the best it’s been since March 2020.
At the same time, how did we get here? 600,000 people in the US alone have died, with many millions getting covid here in the US after delayed or weak restrictions.
So I’m worried a lot of politicians, businesses, the media, and people are declaring premature victory over covid, especially considering what’s happening in England right now.
For more than a week, cases have been going *up* in England, not down. Significantly up. And the variant that’s spiking in England — the Delta variant ‚ appears to be spreading to other countries in Europe now as well. it’s due to a new, more virulent strain of covid-19. From NPR today:
A worrying spike of coronavirus infections in Europe is being driven by the delta variant, according to global health leaders, even as immunization rates in some countries are on the way up.
Originally, the UK was going to end their covid-19 restrictions today. Instead, they took the unpopular step of delaying the lifting of restrictions, extending some restrictions to July 19 — almost a month more.
In the US, the CDC did comment on the Delta variant last week, saying the Delta strain is “a variant of concern," but as far as I can tell, there’s been no change in guidance in terms of social distancing, masking, travel….
So let’s see:
I’ve read several articles in the mainstream press with experts saying that 10,000s or even 100,000s of covid deaths could have been prevented in the US if we had taken concrete, aggressive steps early on, before it had spread nationwide and it was too late to.
The Delta variant came from India, which spread to millions of people and killed over 300,000 people because the government didn’t adequately prepare for a pandemic that had been going on for a year — partly (but not solely) because Western countries wouldn’t share the technology, vaccines, permission to use patented vaccines, and materials to make and store them.
Now, even though the Delta variant is already in the US, the media are barely talking about it, focusing on how great it is that this summer, we can go back to (almost) normal — even though we’re not anywhere near herd immunity.
We’re not taking any meaningful preventive steps to stop a new strain from taking hold here, such as new guidance saying masks are needed in the cases that were recently lifted, or telling people to be cautious.
I’m very worried that due to a lack of a pro-active response this time around, yet again — some of it likely based on political and economic calculations — that we’re running the risk of following England and having covid cases going up to even more dangerous levels.
And give the current social, political, journalistic, and economic climate in the US, I don’t think there’s anything that can realistically be done to stop it.
Oh, by the way, happy Monday! /s
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