Delta has outperformed all previous variants of COVID-19 and is currently dominant (File)
Washington:
The latest wave of coronavirus in the United States driven by the Delta variant could reach a maximum soon, but experts warn against complacency and expect the virus to be part of everyday life for years to come.
The seven-day average of daily cases on Monday was 172,000, its highest level, even as the growth rate slows and cases shrink in most states, according to data collected by the tracker. Covid Act Now.
But more than 1,800 people continue to die every day and more than 100,000 remain hospitalized with a severe Covid, a smile reminiscent of the challenges authorities have faced in vaccinating enough Americans in the face of misinformation and polarized political climate.
Bhakti Hansoti, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University and a critical care expert at Covid, told AFP he saw the US following a similar trajectory in India.
Western European countries have also seen similar falls in their Delta rises.
But as Hansoti breathed a sigh of relief when the spring wave ended, “this time I have a little doubt,” he admitted.
The possible emergence of new variants of concern and the emergence of a colder climate that leads to greater socialization in the interior could lead to a rebound, “unless we learn from the lessons of the fourth wave.”
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, added that she was not sure the fourth wave would end.
“If we look at the fall-winter wave, there were periods when there was a sharp exponential increase, and then it seemed to fall, and then there would be another increase.”
To ensure that profits are maintained, it is vital to rapidly increase the number of people vaccinated. Currently, 63.1 percent of the eligible population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated, or 54 percent of the total population.
This places the United States well behind world leaders such as Portugal and the United Arab Emirates (81 and 79 percent fully vaccinated), despite its abundance of shots.
President Joe Biden’s administration last week announced a number of new measures to increase the vaccination campaign, including new vaccination requirements in companies with more than 100 employees, but the impact has yet to be seen.
Two Americas
Beyond vaccinations, experts want other interventions to continue.
Thomas Tsai, a surgeon and health policy researcher at Harvard, said the hotspots should continue to be masked, adding that the United States should also look at other countries that have adopted widespread rapid testing for schools and businesses.
These tests are available for free or at a very nominal cost in Germany, Britain and Canada, but remain around $ 25 for a pack of two in the US, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce costs through a agreement with retailers.
Of course, the impact of all measures depends on their adoption, and in this sense a clear and coherent pattern has emerged from two Americas: liberal-leaning regions are far more complete than conservative ones.
Prior to the Delta wave, some experts stated that between the percentage of people vaccinated and those who had gained immunity from natural infection, the country was approaching the point of herd immunity.
Rasmussen said these predictions had proved incorrect and it was too early to say when that threshold would be reached.
“There are still parts of the country where the adult vaccination rate is less than 50%,” he noted.
It is endemic
Although Delta has surpassed all previous variants and is currently dominant, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve rapidly and virologists fear that more dangerous variants may emerge.
“I don’t want to be a final judge, but I also want to have some humility, because I think we don’t know much about the basic function of many of these mutations,” Rasmussen said.
Still, experts expect vaccines to continue to worsen the worst outcomes for most people and expect their approval in children under 12 in the coming months.
It is hoped that certain populations such as the elderly and those with weakened immune systems may need boosters, as well as high rates of community vaccination to protect them.
Rather than eradication, the goal has been to target the domestication of the virus for vaccinated people so that, in rare cases of advanced infections, the disease is more like the flu.
However, uncertainties remain: for example, people with advanced covid infections may become long-lived covid.
Greg Poland, an infectious disease expert at the Mayo Clinic, predicted that humanity would deal with Covid “beyond the lifespan of future generations.”
“We are still immunizing ourselves against aspects of the 1918 flu virus,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)