Vox Sentences - What to do about delta

Alarming new information about the delta variant; Israel is recommending third Covid-19 vaccine shots for people over 60.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Gabby Birenbaum.

Delta as contagious as chickenpox

Amanda Northrop/Vox

• A new internal document from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows research that the delta variant is more severe than prior variants of the coronavirus and is as contagious as chickenpox. [Washington Post / Yasmeen Abutaleb, Carolyn Y. Johnson, and Joel Achenbach]
• The delta variant spreads from person to person more easily than Ebola, SARS, the seasonal flu, and even the common cold. [NYT / Apoorva Mandavilli]
• To put that into perspective, a person with the delta variant would infect 50 percent more people they come into contact with than the alpha variant, which itself was 50 percent more contagious than the original coronavirus. [WSJ / Josh Ulick and Alberto Cervantes]
• Scientists are not sure what could happen next or if a new, scarier variant will take delta's place. But the presence of delta and the potential for future variants clarifies the need to get as many people vaccinated, globally, as possible. [Vox / Brian Resnick]
• Vaccinated people are still far less likely to get infected than unvaccinated people. But if a vaccinated person does get infected, delta appears to be equally transmissible among the vaccinated and unvaccinated, and can still potentially cause severe symptoms in a vaccinated person. [Atlantic / Katherine J. Wu]
• The biggest takeaway from the CDC memo is that vaccinated people pose a much bigger risk to others — particularly the unvaccinated — than originally thought in May, when the CDC removed its mask recommendation for vaccinated people. The document calls for universal masking, though the CDC ended up not going that far, likely with public relations and political considerations at play. [Atlantic]
• But there’s still strong evidence that vaccines are working. They’re critical in preventing serious illness, hospitalization, and death. Breakthrough infections, while scary, remain relatively uncommon. [AP / Lindsey Tanner]
• Scientists and CDC personnel said that we’re still largely experiencing a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and the best thing to combat the delta variant would be a greater vaccination rate. [NBC News / Sara G. Miller, Denise Chow, and Shannon Pettypiece]

Covid-19 vaccine boosters in Israel

• In Israel, which had an early start on the vaccination campaign, the prime minister is announcing a program to provide Pfizer/BioNTech booster shots to people over 60 who had their second shots at least five months ago. [CNN / Amir Tal, Jacqueline Howard, and Andrew Carey]
• The delta variant has led to a new wave of infections in Israel, where case counts rose from the single digits to over 2,000 daily new cases in a month. [Times of Israel]
• About 30,000 Israelis have already booked booster appointments. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s goal is to get all 1.5 million people who qualify to get their boosters within the next 10 days. [Jerusalem Post / Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman]
• Bennett compared the boosters to receiving an annual flu shot to accommodate mutations and the vaccines weakening over time. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, 60, was the first to receive the new jab. [Washington Post / Shira Rubin]
• Israel’s Health Ministry found that while the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was still 88 percent effective against hospitalization and 91 percent effective against death, it was only proving to be 39 percent effective against the delta variant, necessitating the booster. [CNBC / Berkeley Lovelace Jr.]

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) are nearing a deal for a version of voting rights reform legislation that meets Manchin’s preferences — though it still would not pass without filibuster reform. [Independent / John Bowden]

• Former President Donald Trump is urging Republican senators to reject the bipartisan infrastructure deal, saying Speaker Nancy Pelosi will tie its passage to the Democrats’ spending bill. [The Hill / Max Greenwood]
• People in Missouri are getting vaccinated in secret in order to save face with their anti-vaxxer family and friends. [CNN / Aya Elamroussi]
• The Detroit Pistons took Oklahoma State star Cade Cunningham as the first pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. [ESPN / Tim Bontemps]

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“We are beginning the booster vaccination, which is so vital to enable normal circumstances of life, as much as possible, in this very challenging pandemic that humanity is faced with. This step is very important for the solidarity of the Israeli people.”

[Israeli President Isaac Herzog, on receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech booster vaccine]

Matt is joined by Liza Reed of the Niskanen Center to talk about energy policy, electricity transmission, and how America's complex system of power grids really functions. [Spotify / Matt Yglesias]

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