THE DELTA FORCE STANDS ATHWART THE DELTA STRAIN

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By Akin Ojumu

SARS-CoV-2 is doing a number on the world. In our lifetime, no pestilence has caused this much damage and destruction this rapidly. More than 18 months into this terrible pandemic, the world is reeling from the havoc it has caused. As much as the world tries to fight it, with all the lockdowns, social distancing, face masking, hand washing, injecting disinfectants and shooting UV-light under the skin – ala Donald Trump – and multiple vaccines and millions of vaccinations, the conning shapeshifter continually transforms itself into even more deadly strains.

Currently, the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), and Delta (B.1.617.2) strains are considered the variants of concern (VOC) in the United States and in several other places around the world. Of these four, the Delta is the deadliest one in town.

First discovered in India in December 2020, the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is a highly contagious and more lethal strain of COVID-19 that is currently sweeping the globe like an invading hordes of stone-cold ISIS terrorists. When Delta reaches a place, it leaves in its wake devastation and death. This deadly strain is now the most dominant strain of coronavirus in India, UK, and the United States. 

The rapid spread of the Delta strain has put the brakes on the plans by various governments to reopen their countries and localities. After being in lockdown for over a year, we were all eagerly looking forward to getting our lives back. Suddenly, the Delta emerged and puts a damper on all our excitement.

Yet, hope remains, and all is not lost, at least for those smart enough to get their COVID shot. We have a Delta Force that’ll rescue us from the Delta strain. 

More than 50 percent of the current strain of COVID-19 spreading in the US is the Delta variant and 99 percent of those dying from COVID are those who have foolishly chosen not to get vaccinated. If you have been vaccinated with one of the approved vaccines, you’ve got a pretty good chance of not getting knocked out by the Delta variant. The COVID-19 vaccines are working, and they remain effective against any of the COVID variants of concern. The Delta variant has met its match in our Delta Force.

For all those who still insist on entering the “Death Lotto” by refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, all I can say is, “Good luck to yah! Hope you are ready to meet your Maker.”
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Title: Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against variants of concern, Canada

Authors: Sharifa Nasreen PhD, Siyi He MSc, Hannah Chung MPH, et al.

Publication: MedRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259420; July 3, 2021.

Objectives: To estimate the effectiveness of BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech), mRNA-1273 (Moderna), and ChAdOx1 (AstraZeneca) vaccines against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe outcomes (COVID-19 hospitalization or death) caused by the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), and Delta (B.1.617.2) variants of concern (VOCs) during December 2020 to May 2021.

Methods: We conducted a test-negative design study using linked population-wide vaccination, laboratory testing, and health administrative databases in Ontario, Canada.

Results: Against symptomatic infection caused by Alpha, vaccine effectiveness with partial vaccination (≥14 days after dose 1) was higher for mRNA-1273 than BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1. Full vaccination (≥7 days after dose 2) increased vaccine effectiveness for BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 against Alpha. Protection against symptomatic infection caused by Beta/Gamma was lower with partial vaccination for ChAdOx1 than mRNA-1273. Against Delta, vaccine effectiveness after partial vaccination tended to be lower than against Alpha for BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, but was similar to Alpha for ChAdOx1. Full vaccination with BNT162b2 increased protection against Delta to levels comparable to Alpha and Beta/Gamma. Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization or death caused by all studied VOCs was generally higher than for symptomatic infection after partial vaccination with all three vaccines.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that even a single dose of these 3 vaccine products provide good to excellent protection against symptomatic infection and severe outcomes caused by the 4 currently circulating variants of concern, and that 2 doses are likely to provide even higher protection.

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