‘War has changed’, CDC says, calling for new response

( Reuters), July 31 - The “war has changed” against Covid-19 because of the highly contagious Delta variant, the US Centers for Disease Control said, proposing a clearer message, mandatory vaccines for health workers and a return to universal masking.

An internal CDC document, entitled “Improving communications around vaccine breakthrough and vaccine effectiveness”, said the variant required a new approach to help the public understand the danger - including making clear that unvaccinated people were more than 10 times more likely than those who are vaccinated to become seriously ill or die.

A list of recommended prevention measures included making vaccines mandatory for health care professionals to protect the vulnerable and a return to universal wearing of face masks.

While vaccinated people were less likely to become infected, once they contracted such “breakthrough infections” from Delta - unlike the case with earlier variants - they might now be just as likely as the unvaccinated to pass the disease on to others.

“High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus,” CDC head Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.

In parts of the world where large numbers of people have yet to be vaccinated, the Delta variant has led once again to surging death rates and hospitalisations.

The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said health systems in many countries were now being overwhelmed: “Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost,” he said.

Even in rich countries that were among the first to roll out big vaccination campaigns, cases have surged. While vaccines have so far kept death rates lower, big populations remain vulnerable, especially those who refuse vaccines.

In Britain, where the Delta variant caused a sharp surge in infections in recent months despite one of the world's fastest inoculation campaigns, a panel advising the government said immunity from vaccines was likely to wane over time, meaning vaccination campaigns would probably last for years.

Countries in Asia, many of which avoided the worst outcomes that hit Western nations in 2020, have been particularly hard hit in recent weeks.