Here’s the latest news from the global pandemic.
Our take on the latest developments
In this week's edition of the Covid Q&A, we look at vaccines and the delta variant. In hopes of making this very confusing time just a little less so, each week Bloomberg Prognosis is picking one question sent in by readers and putting it to experts in the field. This week's question comes to us from Hillary. With the delta variant on the rise, Hillary wonders how well vaccines protect against this new version of the virus. She asks:
How well does the AstraZeneca vaccine fare against the delta variant?
With the delta variant quickly spreading, this is truly the question of the hour. This mutation of the virus is highly contagious, and fast becoming dominant in many countries. In the U.S., new research from the genome-editing firm Helix suggests that already as many as 40% of new cases are delta. The good news is
vaccines appear to be quite effective against this variant.
”All the vaccines seem to work against the delta variant,” says Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease expert at University of California San Francisco. Gandhi says even among the rare cases where vaccinated people contract delta, the symptoms are typically mild.
“Vaccinated people do not need to worry about the delta variant,” she says.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is included in those that fare well, though Gandhi says two doses are necessary to get the maximum protection of a 92% efficacy rate against delta. The Pfizer vaccine performed even better.
“Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization with delta was similar to that seen with alpha,” she says, referring to the first major virus mutation seen around the world.
With delta, the biggest threat is to unvaccinated people, among whom the virus can spread even more aggressively that previous variants. For the vaccinated, the bigger concern is future variants of the virus that vaccines may not be as effective against.
The greater the number of unvaccinated people, the bigger the risk of incubating new, even more contagious forms of the virus. And around the world there are still vast numbers of unvaccinated people.
Even in the U.S., where two-thirds of adults have had at least one dose of a vaccine, there are many regional pockets where very few people have had a shot at all. In a Bloomberg analysis this week, we found that among the least vaccinated fifth of American counties, just 28% have received at least one shot, on average.
For the vaccinated, these pockets of under-vaccination are the bigger threat.
Thanks to all of you for writing in this week! Next Sunday, we'll be answering the best question we receive again. So if you have any, we want to hear from you. Write to us at CovidQs@bloomberg.net—Kristen V. Brown
Track the vaccines
More Than 3.17 Billion Shots Given
Enough doses have now been administered to fully vaccinate 20.7% of the global population—but the distribution has been lopsided. Countries and regions with the highest incomes are getting vaccinated more than 30 times faster than those with the lowest. We’ve updated our vaccine tracker to allow you to explore vaccine rates vs Covid cases in a number of countries. See the latest here.
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Will Your Vaccine Work Against Delta? - Bloomberg
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