The latest data is showing us something very important: that with the new Delta variant, the viral load, the amount of virus carried by an infected person, is the same whether or not that person has been vaccinated. This is a different situation than we understood before, with previous variants and the original virus, because all three of the vaccinations available here—Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J—were able to suppress the amount of virus. Not eliminate it, necessarily, but certainly we were seeing big differences in the virus load being carried by vaccinated versus unvaccinated. That no longer seems to be the case. Even though the vaccines will, by and large, prevent very serious illness or death in a person who gets infected with the Delta variant, it turns out that the vaccines do not suppress the amount of virus in a person’s body.
Read the rest of the interview with Dr. Irwin Redlener at The Daily Beast
