The Delta Variant Calls for a Strong Push on Covid Shots
It’s getting more dangerous to let the unvaccinated return to normal life with everyone else.
Vaccine passports are needed more than ever.
Photographer: Chris Delmas/AFP/Getty Images
The rise of the dangerous delta variant of the coronavirus gives new urgency to the effort to get people vaccinated. Delta has been spreading phenomenally fast. It’s already the dominant strain in India, the U.K. and Singapore, and it has a foothold in more than 80 countries. While it accounts for only about 10% of U.S. cases of Covid-19 so far, that share is expected to balloon.
There’s evidence, too, that the variant may cause more severe disease. Data from the U.K. suggest people who contract this strain are twice as likely to be hospitalized as those who caught a previous form of the coronavirus.