In this special edition of UCSF Department of Medicine Covid-19 Grand Rounds, we’ll discuss the many cross-cutting issues that are making this period in the pandemic so confusing and challenging to navigate. Virologist Shane Crotty of the La Jolla Institute will talk about the Delta variant and what makes it different. He’ll also address the efficacy of vaccines against Delta, the prospect of boosters, and the potential for new variants in the future. Infectious Disease expert Carlos Del Rio of Emory University will describe the current state of the pandemic in the U.S. and worldwide, and offer his perspective on non-pharmacologic interventions (masking, etc), vaccinations, boosters, and our path forward. The session is moderated by UCSF Department of Medicine Chair Bob Wachter.
I watched lots of news coming out of India back in May concerning this delta variant and it was clear to me that this variant was much more contagious and way more virulent. I saw videos of entire families infected. I asserted that one reason for oxygen shortages was that delta caused more ppl to require oxygen than the wild type. I saw many videos of ppl mentioning how quickly family members were becoming ill. I knew this variant would was going to blossom very quickly here in America just by watching those videos. I wish the medical professionals would have been more astute in dealing with this variant much more quickly. Instead, the cdc was giving us a false sense of security by proclaiming that if we were vaccinated we could take our masks off. They had to know that there was a variant lurking, ready to explode.