In previous waves, there was a neat, linear relationship between the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. Fortunately, those patterns do not hold for the Delta variant, because a large proportion of people at the highest risk now have been inoculated. The AstraZeneca vaccine dispensed in Britain appears to be less effective at preventing infections with Delta than the mRNA vaccines in wider use in the United States. That, too, could give the United States an advantage over the variant. That raised a horrifying prospect: a surge in long-term illness throughout unvaccinated regions.

Source: International New York Times July 14, 2021 17:52 UTC