- What is Lambda??Delta now accounts for 93% of all new infections in the United States. On top of that, we need to learn about?Lambda?--?https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.26.21259487. The Covid Lambda variant appeared first in Peru in December 2020 and now accounts for 97% of Covid isolates in Peru. Lambda has been found in 8 countries in South America and 41 countries around the world. From the little we know about it, this variant seems more transmissible than the original Covid virus but less transmissible than Delta.?Researchers from Japan have?found?that the lambda variant contains three mutations on its spike proteins. So far, just over 1,300 cases of Lambda have been sequenced in the U.S., with some of the first cases noted in Houston, TX and now identified in 44 states. Initial research suggests that all three of our vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna and J&J) produce immunity against Lambda, although lab studies on antibodies suggest that the J&J single shot vaccine might need a booster.
- ?How frequently are breakthrough cases happening??A breakthrough case can be simply defined as a Covid infection in a fully vaccinated person. We learned from the Provincetown, MA July 4 cluster of cases that vaccinated persons can easily get infected with Covid and can easily transmit Covid to others. In that outbreak, ? of the 469 people with new infections had been previously vaccinated. But how often is this really happening? Here are some numbers. In Delaware, as of July 30, 469,873 residents had been fully vaccinated. Of those, there have been 567 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 — or about 0.1% of vaccinated individuals.?In New Jersey, more than 4.9 million residents had been fully vaccinated by July 19. Among those individuals, there have been 6,381 breakthrough infections —?or 0.13%. Only about half of those people experienced symptoms.?The CDC data suggests that 1/3 of breakthrough cases remain entirely asymptomatic. We can safely estimate that far fewer than 1% of vaccinated persons have experienced breakthrough infections to date. There are many variables that could affect the breakthrough infection percentage going forward including the natural waning of antibody levels, new variants that might emerge, how counties handle masks and social distancing and the potential for booster vaccinations, or even new vaccines more targeted against certain Covid targets. Stay tuned!
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC/CANCER CRUSADER
3 年What about the Gamma variant? Should we be worried about that?