Thread by @Ayjchan

Internal CDC document cites "unpublished data from outbreak investigations and outside studies showing that vaccinated individuals infected with delta may be able to transmit the virus as easily as those who are unvaccinated."
washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07…

"Even people who are vaccinated should wear masks indoors in communities with substantial viral spread or when in the presence of people who are particularly vulnerable to infection and illness, the CDC said."

"public trust in vaccines may be undermined when people experience or hear about breakthrough cases, especially after public health officials have described them as rare."

“We’ve done a great job of telling the public these are miracle vaccines,” Seeger said. “We have probably fallen a little into the trap of over-reassurance, which is one of the challenges of any crisis communication circumstance.”

"This echoes data seen from studies in other countries, including highly vaccinated Singapore, where 75 percent of new infections reportedly occur in people who are partially and fully vaccinated."

The problem of Delta underscores the need to share vaccines with the developing world ASAP.

We can't let SARS-CoV-2 rip across hundreds of millions of people and not expect a more transmissible variant to emerge. Newer, more transmissible variants may have evolved by now.

To make things worse, countries that don't have access to vaccines are also generally the countries that do not track SARS-CoV-2, whether by testing, contact tracing, and/or sequencing. We usually only pay attention to emerging variants of interest/concern several months late.

I want to keep reminding that for now the vaccines still largely protect against severe Covid, regardless of the variant.

But what this means is that we need higher vaccination rates if we want to dial back public health measures. And the vaccines also need to be updated.