Misbah Ali

An internal presentation circulated within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mentioned that COVID-19’s delta variant is much more contagious and is likely to breakthrough the protections provided by the vaccines.

The delta variant may cause more severe disease than all other known versions of the virus, it added.

Earlier, the director of CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky confirmed that vaccinated people carry just as much virus in their nose and throat as unvaccinated people, and may spread it just as readily, if less often.

But the internal document lays out an inclusive and worrying view of the variant.

As per the document, the variant is more transmissible than the viruses that resulted in MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu, and smallpox, and it is as contagious as chickenpox.

The document said that the immediate next step for the agency is to “acknowledge the war has changed,” as reported by the US media house.

A federal official who has seen the research described in the document informed that the document’s tone indicates alarm among CDC researchers about the spread of delta variants across the country.

“The CDC is very concerned with the data coming in that the Delta is a very serious threat that requires action now,” the official said.

As of July 29, 2021, the United States witnessed 71,000 new cases per day on average. The vaccinated people are spreading the virus and contributing to those numbers — although probably to a far lesser degree than the unvaccinated, suggested the new data.

Dr. Walensky described the transmission by vaccinated people as a rare event, but other researchers have suggested it might be more common than once thought.

Recent guidelines by the agency that urged the vaccinated people to wear masks indoors in public settings where the risk of the virus transmission is high, were based on the information noted in the document.

“Given higher transmissibility and current vaccine coverage, universal masking is essential,” the document said.

As per the agency’s data, people who have weak immunity should wear masks even in the areas where the risk of the virus transmission is not high; as should all vaccinated people who come in contact with children, the elderly, or otherwise vulnerable people.

The data collected by the CDC as of July 24 that was cited in the internal presentation said that among 162 million vaccinated Americans there are roughly 35,000 symptomatic infections per week.

It was noted in the document that the Delta variant produces tenfold higher levels of virus in the airways than the Alpha variant, which is also very contagious.

According to a recent study, the amount of virus found in Delta infected people is a thousandfold more than what is being noted in people infected with the original version of the virus.

The document added that delta variant infection may be more likely to lead to severe illness.

Studies done in Canada and Scotland deciphered that people infected with the variant are more likely to be hospitalised, while Singapore's research reflected that they are more likely to require oxygen.

“Overall, delta is the troubling variant we already knew it was. But the sky isn’t falling and vaccination still protects strongly against the worst outcomes,” said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.