TAMPA, Fla. — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky says she expects the delta variant will become the most predominant in the United States. The delta variant, first detected in India, has become dominant in Britain.
USF Health’s Dr. Michael Teng says based on data, we could see the mutation take over by July.
10 Tampa Bay talked with Dr. Teng to get sharper insight into why not just scientists, but also the community, should pay attention to variants. He pointed to transmission.
He says the rapidly spreading delta variant is concerning, especially with less than half of the adult population in Florida vaccinated.
“The important part really with the delta variant and alpha variant is to just kind of reinforce that idea that not only is this a transmissible disease, but it's getting more transmissible. So the risk of getting infected is going up if you're unvaccinated. Because we're allowing this thing to transmit, it's getting better at transmitting, because it goes from human to human and figures out how better to infect,” he said.
The CDC director and medical experts all say that vaccines have been proven effective in protecting against this variant.
“We really want to know that our vaccines are still working. Part of it, we do through the epidemiology, because now we have a number of countries that have pretty high vaccination rates. And we can see how well the vaccine works,” said Teng.
Genomic sequencing of variants is also important to show how effective vaccines are.
The Florida Department of Health uses genomic sequencing to identify variants in our population. According to the CDC, its national genomic surveillance program tracks variants to figure out how they impact everything from treatments to vaccines.
“We won't really know until we study in the lab, how well our immune system will still recognize these variants because we see all these mutations in the spike protein, which is the protein that we vaccinate against. Do they (the mutations) have a real effect on our immune recognition? Or is our immunity still pretty good, so we'll cover the virus,” explained Teng.
He says data from the United Kingdom shows the Pfizer vaccine is about 90 percent effective against the delta mutation.
So what about young children who are not eligible for the vaccine?
Dr. Teng says the more adults who are vaccinated, the better protection of children or others who cannot get the vaccine. Until a higher proportion of the population is vaccinated, he encourages parents to be mindful of social distancing and avoiding crowded indoor spaces.
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