Yeah, and in spite of the vaccinations.
“Yeah, and in spite of the vaccinations.”
These vaccines have been very useful in reducing serious disease and death, but not much against infection and transmission of the Delta variant.
Delta rapidly blooms in the nasal passages (as much as 1,000 times the viral load, in 2/3rds the time of the initial strain), outside of the blood borne immune response. A nasally administered vaccine (at least seven are in development/testing worldwide) would probably be more effective in developing a more rapid immune response in the nasal mucosa (an Immunoglobulin E, or IgE response), to better resist initial colonization, and thereby lessen transmission. But as it is, our vaccines don’t seem to stop colonization in the nasal cavities in time to prevent transmission (although they do seem to dampen it marginally).
Our injected vaccines are effective in preparing the body to mount rapid antibody responses in the bloodstream, which produce much better outcomes for individuals who are infected.
Delta is a very transmissive virus (Omnicron reportedly even much more so). Most people will likely contract it before we stop getting waves of high case numbers - vaccinated or not.
If the vulnerable are vaccinated ahead of time however, far fewer will suffer serious illness or die from their infection.
Further mutations are a wildcard however. We had already been winding down before Delta arrived, and probably about half of the human population has yet to be infected, so we could still see significant new variants emerge.