The Delta variant is said to be as contagious as chickenpox. This was stated last week by an internal memo from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the main health agency in the United States. According to experts, vaccination does not prevent transmission of the virus but reduces by ten the risk of dying or developing a serious form.
The contagiousness of the Delta variant compared to that of chickenpox
Last week, the Washington Post obtained an internal memo from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the main health agency in the United States whose authenticity has been confirmed to AFP. This reveals that the Delta variant (initially appeared in India) is as contagious as chickenpox. Indeed, based on scientific studies and an analysis of nearly 900 cases of Covid-19 detected after the July 4 festivities in Provincetown in the United States (where three quarters of the participants in the event were vaccinated), CDC experts have estimated that one person infected with the Delta variant transmits it to an average of eight people. Hitherto compared to the contagiousness of influenza, the contagiousness of the virus is now comparable to that of chickenpox but still below measles.
Vaccination does not prevent transmission but reduces the risk of dying by ten
According to the scientists who wrote this note, there is no difference in the viral load of vaccinated or unvaccinated people. Indeed, the CDC documents indicate that contaminations of vaccinated people are not as rare as it was thought with “?35,000 symptomatic infections per week of the 162 million Americans vaccinated? ”. In contrast, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control estimate that the risk of dying or being seriously ill is divided by ten with a vaccine. Likewise, the risk of being infected is divided at least by three, which means that the vaccines are 90% effective against severe forms and 67% against infections.
Following this observation, the director of the CDC, Rochelle Walenksy again recommends wearing a mask indoors for people vaccinated in high-risk areas. According to Céline Gounder, specialist in infectious diseases at New York University: “ This is not to protect the vaccinated people who, if they are infected, will have mild symptoms, if any, but it is found that they can infect other people ”.
