'We cannot let' Delta variant take over in U.S.: Fauci - Yahoo News

“The Delta variant currently accounts for more than 6% of the sequenced cases in the United States. This is a situation, the way it was in England,” Fauci said, noting how the Delta variant which originated in India, took over in the United Kingdom.

“We cannot let that happen in the United States,” Fauci said, urging all Americans to get vaccinated with both vaccine doses.

Video Transcript

ANTHONY FAUCI: What I'm going to do right now is spend the next couple of minutes talking to you about a subject that has gained a lot more attention over the last few days. And that has to do with the variants in general, but particularly in the variant which we now refer to as Delta, or the B1617.2, which in fact, as you know, originally was noticed in India, and dominated in certain states in India, but now has spread throughout other elements and other areas of the world. Next slide.

So let's just take a quick look at that. It's reported in 60 countries, including the UK and the USA. Clearly now, its transmissibility appears to be greater than the wild type, namely the alpha variant. It may be associated with an increased disease severity, such as hospitalization risk, compared to alpha, and in lab tests associated with modest decreased neutralization by sera from previously infected and vaccinated individuals compared to the alpha. However, fortunately, two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and AstraZeneca appear to be effective against the Delta variant.

So let's look at where we are in the United States. That variant, the Delta variant, currently accounts for more than 6% of the sequenced cases in the United States. This is the situation the way it was in England, where they had a B117 dominant, and then the 617 took over. We cannot let that happen in the United States, which is such a powerful argument to underscore what Dr. Walensky said, to get vaccinated. Particularly, if you had your first dose, make sure you get that second dose. And for those who have been not vaccinated yet, please get vaccinated.

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