The US healthcare system is overwhelming.
Hospitalization for COVID-19 in the US last week Over 100,000 This is the second time since the pandemic began. It has increased by nearly 500% from two months ago. NS New analysis Evidence from the United Kingdom is accumulating evidence suggesting that the delta mutation is the cause. This is because highly contagious mutations not only increase the risk of infection, but also involve hospitalization. Indeed, studies now suggest that delta variants make unvaccinated people sick.
A study published last Friday for Lancet infections investigated more than 40,000 COVID-19 cases between March and May 2021. Delta variant Established in the UK, hospitalization rates were compared to B.1.1.7 (or alpha) variants. This is the most detailed and largest study of the effects of delta variants on pandemics so far, as the samples are based on the health records of genetically sequenced people.
74% of the study participants were unvaccinated, 24.2% were partially vaccinated, and 1.8% were fully vaccinated. Researchers found that 80% of study participants were infected with the alpha mutant and 20% were infected with the delta mutant. .. When adjusted for age and various factors, the researchers concluded that hospitalization was more than twice that of the delta mutant.
“The results suggest that patients with the delta variant are at least twice as likely to be hospitalized as patients with the alpha variant.” According to a British study.. “Patients with delta variants also have a higher attendance rate for emergency care in combination with hospitalization, indicating an increase in inpatients’ use of emergency care services as well as hospitalization.”
U.S. on average 11,533 patients According to the CDC’s 7-day average report, they are sent to the hospital daily, a slight decrease from the previous week. Nevertheless, during the peak pandemic of the first week of January 2021, an average of 16,492 people were hospitalized daily.
The results of a UK study Early research From Scotland, which suggested in June that infection with the Delta mutant doubled the risk of hospitalization.
“In summary, these two studies suggest that the occurrence of delta mutations in unvaccinated populations may lead to higher medical burdens, especially compared to the previously prevalent SARS-CoV-2 strain. It suggests that there is, “the study author writes. “The findings show resource planning and policy decisions to mitigate the impact of delta variants in the United Kingdom, where delta variants are currently dominant, and in other high-income countries where rapid expansion of delta variants is likely to occur. Is the key to
In particular, this study showed how hospitalizations vary depending on vaccination status. Among patients who were not vaccinated or who received only the first dose of vaccine, patients with the delta variant were at increased risk of hospitalization compared to patients infected with the alpha variant. There was no significant difference between fully vaccinated people and those who had breakthrough cases in both variants.
However, the researchers concluded that the fully vaccinated group was too small to analyze on its own.
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“This study found earlier findings that most cases included in the analysis were unvaccinated, but people infected with Delta are much more likely to require hospitalization than people infected with Alpha. We have confirmed, “said Dr. Gavin Dabrera, a consultant epidemiologist at the National Infection Services of the British Public Health Services. , of statement.. “We already know that vaccination provides excellent protection against deltas. This variant accounts for more than 99% of COVID-19 cases in the UK, so those who have not been vaccinated twice should be vaccinated as soon as possible. It is important to do. “
This and previous studies suggest that delta mutations make people sick, but there is a scientific debate as to whether deltas are more contagious or the mutations themselves are more toxic. was there. Regarding the latter possibility, this study has changed the theory of many experts.With a series of tweets About researchDr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, suggested that high viral load of the delta variant could be the “cause”.
As Topol previously explained to Salon, it is much more because the delta variant “has a different mutation and is linked to 1,000 times more copies of the virus in infected people compared to early strains. Is a highly contagious version of the virus; that is the main problem. “
Separately Twitter thread Dr. Meaghan Kall agreed, according to the chief epidemiologist of Public Health England.
“This study found that the risk of hospitalization for Delta mutants was doubled, suggesting that Delta is not only more infectious, but potentially more toxic,” Cal said. Said on Twitter. “Confounding due to factors that could not be adjusted by the model, such as lack of information about comorbidity, may partially explain the increased risk.”
