Delta variant – latest: 39 states a ‘very high risk’ as study shows Moderna vaccine more effective than Pfizer

As the Covid-19 Delta variant continues to spread throughout the United States, disease expert Larry Brilliant says the pandemic is “closer to the beginning” than the end unless everyone across the globe is vaccinated to prevent the emergence of new variants.

The prediction comes amid warnings from Queen Mary University epidemiologist, Dr Deepti Gurdasani, who says herd immunity is “not possible” unless the vaccine roll-out is expanded to include 12 to 15-year-olds. The UK’s 16 and 17-year-olds will be offered their first injection of the Pfizer vaccine within weeks.

Dr Anthony Fauci, meanwhile, says anyone who thought children were immune to being hospitalised with Covid were wrong, and needed to “get the facts”.

“Kids are getting sick” from the Delta variant, he warned. An average of 216 children were hospitalised last week across the US, according to data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Former CDC director Richard Besser explains on NBC News’s TODAY show that the Delta variant would be the dominant strain in the country and that schools will be “forced to shut down more than they did in fact last year”.

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