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The New Delta Strain Reveals the Shakiness of Our Covid-19 Situation
The longer the wider world remains unvaccinated, the greater the risk that a devastating new variant will emerge
In a letter recently obtained by The Guardian newspaper, more than 100 former presidents and heads of state urged the leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries to do much more — to commit more money, in particular, but also more aid and resources — toward making and distributing vaccines across the globe.
“No one anywhere is safe from Covid-19 until everyone is safe everywhere,” the letter’s signatories wrote, according to The Guardian.
That’s not just lofty talk, and it’s not just a plea for the sake of the unvaccinated. That is cold reality.
Apart from the deadly threat that the virus poses to those it infects, there is the coincident threat that a new vaccine-resistant strain of SARS-CoV-2 could emerge.
“Infected human beings are factories that produce billions and billions of virus particles,” says John Swartzberg, MD, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at the University of California, Berkeley. “And as those are produced, mistakes will happen,”
