Recently the delta variant of covid 19 aka b16172 has been spreading across the globe is
it more contagious will the vaccines work against it is it a deadlier disease with worse symptoms
i'm going to get to these questions in a little bit but first a quick update on covid the us has over
33 million confirmed cases and more than
601 000 deaths worldwide that's about 180 million cases and close to 4
million deaths according to the CDC
almost 150 million Americans have been
fully vaccinated that's about 45 percent of the population the delta
variant first emerged in India and then
it made its way to England to become the dominant strain there is the delta
variant more pathogenic meaning is it more likely to cause worse disease? yes in a study done in Scotland which was published
in the lancet researchers showed that
the risk of being hospitalized with the delta variant is double that of the
alpha variant recently the delta variant has made its way to the U.S where
already constitutes 10 percent of covid
cases however that figure is doubling every two weeks and it's only a matter of
time before it becomes a dominant strain
right now in the Midwest it makes up about 25 percent of cases in Colorado Montana north and south Dakota Utah
and Wyoming now in a study done in the UK from May 20th to June 7th the
researchers led by Stephen riley they looked at their data which suggested that the delta variant is
about 60 more transmissible than the alpha
which was the variant that was first identified in the UK which was more
contagious than the original strain that
was originally emerging from Wuhan the research team showed that with the
delta variant there was a doubling time
of 11 days in an estimated r or reproductive number of 1.44 and those younger than age 50 were two and a half
times more likely to be infected compared
to older people another study looked at whether vaccines monoclonal
antibodies or antibodies derived from
covid 19 survivors could neutralize the delta variants here are some of the
takeaways from that study for one the
data showed that the delta's variant affinity for the ace2 receptor was slightly better compared with the
original Wuhan strain one of the delta's mutations is in its receptor binding domain and that's
what allows for this this virus uses spike protein to bind to the ace2 receptor in the body it's
the key in the lock analogy the virus then fuses with the cell membrane this process relies on
cleavage meaning enzymes on the cell membranes
that cut that spike protein at two different sites which triggers the
cell to then engulf this virus it's the
turning of the deadbolt if you will well guess what the delta variant is also
better at doing there's a second delta
mutation at one of the cleavage sites better cleavage better reproduction another takeaway from the study
is that the authors concluded that neutralization of both viruses is reduced when compared with
the original Wuhan strain but there's no
evidence of widespread antibody escape they said the data did suggest that
those previously infected with covid may
be more susceptible to re-infection by the new delta variant also it looks like monoclonal antibody
treatments are ineffective at treating the delta variant the big concern is
vaccine escape meaning that the current vaccines will become far less
effective as the virus evolves so far it
hasn't happened but eventually we'll need new vaccines for the variants likely a yearly thing the good news
is that these vaccines are still protective against the delta variant according to research released
by public health england for the pfizer vaccine
after both doses it was 88 effective in preventing symptomatic disease
and 96 effective at preventing hospitalization
for the oxford AstraZeneca vaccine if they had both shots it was 92 effective at preventing hospitalization if
you only get one shot of either one of these vaccines the effectiveness is pretty low it's around 30
to 40 percent so more studies will soon be
available when it comes to the modern and the Johnson and Johnson vaccines
there's also talk about this delta
variant having new symptoms and possibly more severe symptoms so Tim Spector who's a professor of genetic epidemiology at king's
college in london he runs the zoea covet
symptoms study this is an ongoing uk-based study where people can enter
their symptoms on an app which then gets
analyzed by the researchers from this study he noted that covid is now
acting differently it's more like a bad
cold especially in the younger population the number one symptom being headache and then other symptoms
including sore throat runny nose and fever.
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