Coronavirus Updates: A global race against the delta variant

June 26, 2021

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Important developments in the pandemic.

By Ben Guarino

The Post's coronavirus coverage linked in this newsletter is free to access from this email.

The latest

Each new phase of the coronavirus pandemic has pitted the speed of viral spread against the speed of human responses. Now, the contest is the delta variant vs. vaccines and prevention, in races playing out over and over in communities across the planet.

Consider the young adults in Washington, D.C.: At the recent graduation ceremony of Ballou High School students, D.C. Health workers were there, ready to offer shots. No graduates took them up on the offer. Younger Black adults have reported being wary of medical establishment and side effects, or they said they don't feel at risk. Ankoor Shah, who leads D.C.'s vaccine program, said, "The solution is not only some program or initiative. I think these are systematic and systemic and historical, structural problems that have happened for hundreds of years."

Or residents and travelers in Europe: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron urged European Union member countries to work to coordinate travel restrictions. "In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine," Merkel said Thursday. But that's not universal across the E.U. — an opening, she feared, the delta variant could exploit.

Or the city dwellers in Australia: Sydney began partial lockdown Friday because a cluster of the delta variant broke out there. Contact tracers have identified at least 65 cases following transmission that started with an airport limo driver. The lockdown has been likened to a circuit breaker, with New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian saying the week-long pause will "prevent further spread and prevent further dislocation."

Meanwhile, Brazil offers a grim lesson for what happens when the race is not run. President Jair Bolsonaro had promised his hands-off method to the pandemic would help the poor. Permitting them to work through the pandemic without support was better, he had claimed, than the alternative — that hunger would be more devastating than the virus. But allowing things to take their own course has had doubly harmful results, economists say: Brazil's crisis has been prolonged, and even more people there have entered poverty, because the government did not offer sustained help for the needy.

Other important news

For these rescue dogs, the pandemic has been an exercise in waiting for adoption.

Following thousands of reported instances of unruly behavior, the Transportation Security Administration is bringing back its self-defense training for flight attendants.

As offices reopen, workers are weighing the pros (such as improved well-being) and cons (such as blurry or nonexistent boundaries) from lessons learned through at-home work.

Prices are 3.9 percent higher than they were in May 2020, in part because demand is rebounding faster than supply chains can return to pre-pandemic speed.

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock is receiving a flogging for snogging his aide. A photo emerged showing the two, who are married to other people, in a violation of U.K. social distancing measures — the latest in a series of the government's covid controversies.

Guide to the pandemic

Track confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. and the spread around the world.

U.S. vaccine distribution and delivery, tracked by state.

Guides: Finding vaccine appointments | Vaccines | Variants | Masks

Submit a question and we may answer it in a future story or newsletter.

Your questions, answered

"What is the likelihood that the virus is circulating the U.S. just as much as it ever was but that case numbers continue to drop drastically just because more and more people are [asymptomatic] due to vaccination and so are not getting tested?" — Nicole in Maryland

Although it's true fewer Americans are getting tested now than they were six months ago, the chance the coronavirus continues to circulate at peak levels is minuscule. There are a few reasons for this.

It's looking more and more likely vaccines prevent most asymptomatic infections. Evidence has accumulated that vaccines protect against catching the coronavirus, whether or not a person shows symptoms. In March, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of health-care workers provided compelling results, as Health reporter Lena H. Sun wrote: "Among 2,479 fully vaccinated people, just three had confirmed infections. Among 477 people who received one dose, eight infections were reported." Those vaccinated workers were tested regularly, whether or not they felt sick — suggesting the vaccines were preventing infections in the first place.

Likewise, in studies of monkeys who were vaccinated but then exposed to the virus, those animals were protected from infection. That's held true for all three FDA-authorized vaccines.

The coronavirus needs a fresh host to reproduce. That's why cases spiked in patchwork patterns across the globe throughout the pandemic. First a region flares up as the virus spreads through the community. Once there are no more vulnerable people — either because they have been already exposed or adequately protected — the pathogen fizzles out.

Evidence suggests that in areas with high immunization rates, the coronavirus is fizzling. For more, check out this Post analysis on where case rates remain highest in the U.S.: As a rule, it's where people aren't vaccinated.

Hospitalizations and deaths remain low, too. Fewer infections means less disease and less transmission, as the CDC notes. A drop in testing wouldn't keep people with severe covid-19 out of hospitals. If vaccinated people were still spreading the virus at peak levels, even if that spread was not reflected in test positivity counts, hospitalizations would be high.

Consider the hospitalization trend in New York City, an early U.S. hotspot: Hospitalizations were highest in March and April 2020, before vaccines but also before widely available tests. Now, deaths, cases and hospitalizations are all so low New York's 15-month statewide state of emergency came to an end Thursday.

That doesn't mean the coronavirus has stopped spreading completely. It's too early to be complacent, especially as the delta variant emerges in U.S. communities. Please go get vaccinated if you are able.