If your local newspaper is anything like mine, you’re probably inundated with scary news about the new Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus. It is true that new infection cases are rising, but they are almost entirely among those who are unvaccinated. A recent post (Vaccines and the Delta Variant) was meant to reassure my readers who are already vaccinated. Today, I have more good news to share.

Two public health researchers, Leslie Bienen of the Oregon Health and Science University – Portland State University School of Public Health and Monica Gandhi, infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, share this news in The Wall Street Journal. They say a new study from the U.K. found that the vaccines are still incredibly effective in preventing serious illness, even with the Delta variant. The Pfizer vaccine was 96% effective after two doses in preventing hospitalization, which means the unvaccinated are more than 25 times as likely to be hospitalized with Covid as those who are vaccinated.

This is probably an understatement since the vaccinated cohort was older and had a higher incidence of pre-existing conditions than the unvaccinated one. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine produces strong neutralizing antibodies and cellular responses against the Delta variant, still present eight months after administration. The Moderna vaccine was not used in this study, but may have similar results as Pfizer since they are both mRNA developed vaccines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) both have asserted their confidence in the vaccines. They also jointly announced that no boosters are necessary at this time.

There is also much talk about the Delta variant making people sicker. There is actually no evidence to support this claim. The authors reviewed publicly available data from the CDC and compared hospitalizations per case, particularly in regions where a new variant is more common. They found that the hospitalization data support none of the alarming headlines suggesting Delta is more dangerous than earlier strains.

Further analysis of hospitalization data tells us whether healthcare systems are overwhelmed, and helps us predict deaths with high reliability. Positivity data are less reliable, especially the relationship between infection and hospitalizations becomes weaker in highly vaccinated countries like the U.S. The authors conducted similar analyses in April, when headlines were raging that the U.K. variant, now called Alpha, was driving surges in kids. They found that it wasn’t, and that juvenile hospitalizations weren’t rising in places with a high prevalence of the Alpha variant.

The authors say, “Whatever else we know or don’t know about Delta, its prevalence clearly isn’t driving hospitalizations. When we look at current hospitalization data across the country, the most striking predictive pattern is that a high vaccination rate in a region accurately predicts a lower hospitalization rate.”

The hardest question to answer is transmissibility, because it isn’t possible to conduct controlled trials comparing how many people get infected with a particular variant. New variants may be more infectious, as some suspect the Delta variant is, or they may only be better at reproducing themselves in an infected person’s body. For whatever reasons, the Delta variant is becoming the dominant strain in the U.S.

Unfortunately, politics continues to influence headlines and even public health policy. The latest concerns the infection rates and hospitalizations in Florida being announced in the headlines, not by the CDC or even the Florida public health officials, but by the White House. Is it possible they fear the rising popularity of Governor Ron DeSantis?

Hospitalizations due to Covid-19 are rising and healthcare officials blame the Delta variant of the coronavirus for this recent surge. Should you be worried if you’re vaccinated?

Betsy McKay, writing in The Wall Street Journal, tells us the Delta variant, also known as B.1.617.2, is spreading at an increasing rate around the country, penetrating areas where people are susceptible because they haven’t been vaccinated. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director, says most of the people who are getting sick and needing hospitalization are not vaccinated.

Just under 2,000 new patients were admitted to hospitals each day over the week ending Monday, July 5^th. This is a 6.8% increase over admissions during the previous week and an 88% decrease over a seven-day average of 16,492 patients admitted daily in early January, according to the CDC.

Two pictures of the pandemic are emerging across the country, said Dr. Walensky: One where vaccination rates are high, and new cases, hospitalizations and deaths are declining; and another where most people aren’t vaccinated, new cases are rising once again and hospitals are starting to fill up. Concern is rising for those who are unvaccinated.

The Delta variant is considered highly contagious and therefore more easily spread. This variant has become the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the U.S. today, making up at least 51.7% of new infections, according to the CDC.

The data show that the Covid-19 vaccines are effective against the Delta variant in most cases. A recent study published in the journal Nature, suggests that it takes both doses of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines to create sufficient protection. One shot barely protects against the Delta variant the study concludes. Natural immunity was less protective against Delta than against the Alpha variant, which was previously the dominant U.S. strain. The study did not evaluate the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

The take-home message should be clear. If you’re fully vaccinated, the Delta variant represents little or no risk to you. If you’ve had only one shot, you probably should get the second shot. If you have natural immunity but have never been vaccinated, you should consider getting at least one shot to bolster your immunity. Studies suggest the second shot for those with natural immunity is unnecessary.

But if you’re never been vaccinated and never contracted the viral infection, you’re most vulnerable to this new Delta variant. Perhaps it is time for you to get vaccinated. Discuss this with your doctor and then make an informed choice.

I have something in common with President Trump. No, it’s not that we both love golf – we’ve both been censored. This week the former president filed a lawsuit against Big Tech for their unlawful censorship of him and other Americans. Perhaps I should join his class-action lawsuit.

Last year during the height of the Covid pandemic, I wrote a new book called Changing Healthcare. It is a compilation of over 150 of my blog posts over the last six years. One of the chapters covered the Covid pandemic and that’s when the trouble started. When I submitted my manuscript to my publisher, KDP – Kindle Direct Publishers – owned by Amazon, they refused to publish the book until that chapter was eliminated. They explained that they were not publishing any “unofficial sources of coronavirus information.” In other words, they refused to consider sharing Covid information that had not been blessed by the government.

This is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment which protects free speech. Naturally, I don’t have the same resources to sue Big Tech as Donald Trump, so I’m pleased to see he is taking on this fight on behalf of himself and others, like me, whose free speech rights have been violated. Free speech is what separates our country from repressive regimes like China, Russia, and Iran. Free speech is what freedom is all about.

Trump writes in The Wall Street Journal, “No longer are Big Tech giants simply removing specific threats of violence. They are manipulating and controlling the political debate itself. Consider content that was censored in the past year. Big Tech companies banned users from their platforms for publishing evidence that showed the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, which even the corporate media now admits may be true. In the middle of a pandemic, Big Tech censored physicians from discussing potential treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, which studies have now shown does work to relieve symptoms of Covid-19. In the weeks before a presidential election, the platforms banned the New York Post – America’s oldest newspaper – for publishing a story critical of Joe Biden’s family, a story the Biden campaign did not even dispute.” 

There are other examples, too. Jennifer Horton, a Michigan schoolteacher, was banned from Facebook for sharing an article questioning whether mandatory masks for young children are healthy. (Scientific studies say they are not.) Later, when her brother went missing, she was unable to use Facebook to get the word out. Colorado physician Kelly Victory was deplatformed by YouTube after she made a video for her church explaining how to hold services safely. Kiyan Michael of Florida and her husband, Bobby, lost their 21-year-old son in a fatal collision caused by a twice-deported illegal alien. Facebook censored them after they posted on border security and immigration enforcement.

Yet the same platforms approve Chinese propaganda and allow the Iranian dictator to spew threats and hateful lies with impunity.

In response, Trump has filed class-action lawsuits to force Big Tech to stop censoring the American people. The suits seek damages to deter such behavior in the future and injunctions restoring his accounts.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration does not oppose this censorship. Trump says, “Further, Big Tech and government agencies are actively coordinating to remove content from the platforms according to the guidance of agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Big Tech and traditional media entities formed the Trusted News Initiative, which essentially takes instructions from the CDC about what information they need to “combat.” The tech companies are doing the government’s bidding, colluding to censor unapproved ideas.”

Since we have already lost faith in the credibility of the CDC (CDC Credibility Gone), we cannot trust the information they are disseminating with the aid of Big Tech. Protecting our free speech is the only thing separating us from the authoritarian regimes of our enemies. Our only real hope is in the Supreme Court, the last defense against tyranny.