We have to team up to beat the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant boss fight and beat this stupid game

Only vaccinations can stop the spread of the frighteningly contagious Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus

I don’t want to be an alarmist but also I’m just so tired. Sick and bloody tired of all the BS. Sick and tired of COVID-19 disrupting everything. Sick and tired of people not getting vaccinated because they’ve been lied to (and because trust in the media and government—however understandable—is at all-time lows).

On top of all that, I’m starting to get pretty worried about the SARS-CoV-2 “Delta” variant , which is currently sweeping across the world and the United States, infecting even vaccinated people at alarming rates. Unvaccinated people—aka Florida—are still overwhelming hospitals in the state, while vaccinated people are much less likely to develop anything beyond relatively minor symptoms if they get sick at all. Even so, vaccinated people are apparently able to spread the delta variant, making it even more dangerous to the unvaccinated community, including children who have no choice in the matter.

This piece in Foreign Policy by Laurie Garrett makes a strong case for a third shot of the vaccine to help boost immunity further in the face of the Delta variant. She writes:

The delta variant has numerous mutations that give it special attributes. The spike protein that is vital to viral attachment to cells is altered so that it’s harder for the immune system to see it and generate slews of neutralizing antibodies—a case of immune-escape mutation. The proteins it uses to get inside human cells are also mutated so that they dodge the immune system and function efficiently. And the virus is able to generate copies of itself far more rapidly and efficiently. Within three to five days, the viral load of delta peaks at levels up to 1,000 times higher than seen with 2020 forms of SARS-CoV-2.

The implications in the real world of these biological findings are overwhelming. Because the virus surges so rapidly after infection, peaking its viral load two or three days faster than garden-variety COVID-19, individuals who are carrying all that virus in their bodies have no idea, exhibit no symptoms, and take no special precautions to protect others. Worse, even if they were immunized by either vaccines or prior COVID-19 illness, they may be vulnerable to reinfection. That’s for two reasons. First, the sheer volume of virus coming at their unmasked faces from a delta-infected individual is three orders of magnitude larger than anything their bodies were prepared for—instead of encountering a few puffs of particles in the air, they are gulping down microscopic hurricanes of the stuff. And secondly, it surges inside their bodies faster than their B cell memory component can mobilize to generate neutralizing antibodies and other weaponry.

According to Israel, and to Pfizer, vaccine-induced immune response shifts from a powerful form replete with neutralizing antibodies drifting in the bloodstream to the quieter B cell memory type within about four months’ time after the second dose. Neutralizing antibody production declines, Pfizer says, about 6 percent per month, hitting 84 percent vaccine efficacy by month six. By eight months, it’s all about memory, which leaves the individuals highly vulnerable to infection.

The whole piece is worth a read. It underscores just how badly the response to the virus has been. The CDC almost certainly should not have suggested that vaccinated people no longer wear masks since it opened up the floodgates for everyone to stop masking indoors, in turn making the delta variant spread even faster. With schools going back into session in the coming weeks all across the country, there is reason to be worried. Colder months—and a potentially extra deadly flu season—will only make matters worse.

Vaccines work. Even if they don’t prevent you from catching the Delta variant, your symptoms will be much-diminished (though potentially still very damaging). A third shot appears to significantly boost immune response to Delta and hopefully high-risk and front-line workers will get a booster sooner than later. Then again, there is also a very strong case to be made that prioritizing third-world and poorer nations where vaccination levels remain dangerously low is more humane than giving third doses to citizens of wealthy countries (though this isn’t stopping Israel, the UK or Germany). Whatever direction we go with the vaccine, it seems clear that more vaccination is better. More people dosed, more doses given.

Like I said, I don’t want to come off as an alarmist here. Information about this disease and its mutating viral variants is ever-changing, ever-shifting and it’s easy to roll your eyes when you see new mask mandates in place or hear the latest outrageous headline.

Wasn’t the vaccine supposed to stop all of this? Well yes, but not everyone is getting vaccinated and not nearly fast enough. The light at the end of the tunnel is still there, it’s just further off than we thought.

Still, even with the startling new threat of delta we’re in a better position than we were a year ago. COVID-19 is still with us, will still impact our lives and jobs and will still kill people, but we can fight back by getting vaccinated and being smart and compassionate by wearing masks and limiting indoor interactions with groups of people. I do worry, all the time, about my 11-year old who is going back to school in a week but can’t get vaccinated yet. COVID-19 in children isn’t nearly as dangerous, statistically similar to the flu in terms of severity, but the Delta variant does appear to be a bigger risk for kids and that’s more than a little terrifying to me and to any parents of younger children. I’m tired of being afraid, but what choice do I have?

So please, please get vaccinated if you’re able. Yes, there can be side effects. Yes, I do understand that it’s new and that newness means we don’t have all the data we should have and that’s also frightening. But COVID-19 is more dangerous and much, much scarier than the vaccine and the only way we can finally end this thing, kill the boss, move on to the next level, save the goddamn princess, is to work together. Why drag it out any longer? Aren’t you tired of this shitty game?