The Delta Coronavirus variant is coming in hard, and reports show those who are unvaccinated could be hit the hardest.
There are currently 140 million people in the U.S. who have yet to get vaccinated. During a Tuesday White House briefing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said people as young as 12 could get the vaccine.
“COVID-19 vaccines are available for everyone ages 12 and up. They are nearly 100 percent effective against severe disease and death — meaning nearly every death due to COVID-19 is particularly tragic, because nearly every death, especially among adults … is at this point entirely preventable,” said Walensky.
While everyone has a choice, experts say the new variant, Delta, is a whole lot worse. And some experts say unvaccinated folks should be concerned. Yahoo! News reports that even in places where many are vaccinated, hospitalization numbers are increasing. That’s the case for the U.K.; it has more immunity than the U.S., but Delta has already made a rest stop there, the news outlet reports. In the past two weeks, its COVID cases have shot up 86 percent, and it’s because of the Delta variant.
“In several weeks to a month or so, [Delta]’s going to be quite dominant [in the U.S.],” White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday. “That’s the sobering news.”
According to a recent poll by Morning Consult, Americans are the most vaccine-hesitant in the developed world, which is the number of people getting vaccinated is starting to flatline. Forty-five percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, while 55 percent are not.
