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Friday, December 1, 2023 | 
Coronavirus U.S. & World

The U.S. needs to prepare for the Delta variant, Dr. Fauci says

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the U.S. to get vaccinated to fight off the Delta variant.

By Herb Scribner Herb Scribnerhscribner@deseretnews.com
SHARE The U.S. needs to prepare for the Delta variant, Dr. Fauci says
Case numbers of the Delta variant first identified in India have been relatively high.

Members of the Armed Forces speak to people outside a mobile COVID-19 vaccination centre outside Bolton Town Hall, in Bolton, England, Wednesday, June 9, 2021, where case numbers of the Delta variant first identified in India have been relatively high.

Associated Press

What is the COVID delta variant?

The Delta variant— originally known as the B.1.617.2 — has been spreading rapidly throughout the world. In fact, the Delta variant has become the main coronavirus variant in the United Kingdom, overtaking the Alpha Variant (or the B.1.1.7 “UK variant”) as the most dominant in the region, according to CNN.

The Daily Beast reports that the Delta variant has been running its way through China, In fact, the Chinese government to shut down the city of Guangzhou — which has about 15.3 million people — to help stop the spread, as I wrote for the Deseret News.

  • “In this race against the virus, we must run a bit ahead and run faster than before in order to block the spread of the virus and cut off the infection chain in time,” Huang Guanglie, director of the Guangzhou municipal health commission, said Tuesday, according to The Daily Beast.

Dr. Fauci advises how to stay safe from delta variant

Dr. Anthony Fauci has some concerns about how the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India, will impact the United States.

  • “In the U.K., the Delta variant is rapidly emerging as the dominant variant. ... It is replacing the B.1.1.7,” Fauci said, according to CNBC. “We cannot let that happen in the United States.”

Right now, the Delta variant makes up about 60% of new COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, according to CNBC. In the U.S., the variant has only made up 6% of cases, at least according to scientists who sequenced different strands of the virus, CNBC reports. The actual number of cases could be higher.

So what’s Fauci’s solution? Get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to CNN. Fauci said that the Delta variant is “such a powerful argument” to get vaccinated.