Rising delta variant cases prompts questions of a return to tighter health restrictions - The Washington Post

The United States is in an unprecedented juncture of the pandemic, where just under half the population is fully vaccinated, health and safety restrictions are looser than they have been in 18 months, and cases of new coronavirus infections are once again on the rise after months of decline.

As the delta variant spreads, the messaging from public health experts and officials is unequivocal: Vaccines are the best protection against severe illness and hospitalization.

More than 97 percent of new hospitalizations from the delta variant are from people who are unvaccinated, making what Rochelle Walensky, who directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calls “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”.

Health experts said even though the delta variant is more infectious than the original variant that first took hold in the United States last year, there are precautions that can help both vaccinated and unvaccinated people limit their risk.

Emily Landon, chief infectious-disease epidemiologist at University of Chicago Medicine, said the CDC should have included parameters on the mask rules, such as establishing a threshold allowing unvaccinated people to go without masks only if a certain percent of the population is inoculated.

Several experts consulted by The Post said it is safe for fully vaccinated people to spend time indoors with others who are fully vaccinated.

“If you yourself have been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks and if people you are spending time with have been fully vaccinated for a least two weeks, you can feel relatively safe about not having to mask indoors,” said Betty Jean “BJ” Ezell, who serves as a vaccine hesitancy outreach coordinator for Citrus County, Fla.

Ezell said it’s a good idea to mask up or socially distance if you’re in a large gathering outdoors and don’t know if the people around you are vaccinated as “the delta variant has shown that it’s rampant and unforgiving in its ability to spread.”.

While partial vaccination is better than none at all, the best protection from severe illness from the delta variant is to be fully vaccinated, Wertheim said.

Even though children tend to have milder cases of covid-19, Landon said infections in children are following the trend lines in delta variant hot spots: States with large outbreaks are showing more children with infections.

“I understand that it’s really enticing to think of covid as just another cold, but it’s not,” Landon said of the typically milder infections in children.

Some restrictions such as the return to indoor mask rules seen in Los Angeles County this weekend could be revived, though experts such as Landon said they are likely to be hyperlocal and responsive to infection and hospitalization rates in a specific area.