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Doctor warns U.S. 'in a much worse state' than anticipated: 'Delta variant has changed everything'

Dr. Taison Bell, University of Virginia Assistant Professor of Medicine in the divisions of Infectious Disease and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine joins the Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss the latest surge in the Delta variant.

Video transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: And right now, Dr. Fauci is saying that the United States is going in the wrong direction as we see a new wave of coronavirus cases around the country. So let's discuss some of these concerns. We have Dr. Taison Bell joining us now. He's an assistant professor of medicine IN the divisions of infectious disease and pulmonary critical care medicine at the University of Virginia. Doctor, always great to have you here with us. So I'm wondering if you think that right now, as we're seeing these new COVID cases, we're seeing these this Delta variant really surge around the country, if really now is the time for us to reintroduce some of those mask mandates.

TAISON BELL: Really good question, Kristin. Thank you for having me on. And unfortunately, I do agree with Dr. Fauci that we are in much worse shape than I certainly thought that we would be at this time, and I think that's really because the Delta variant has changed everything. This is one of the most transmissible respiratory viruses that we've ever seen, and it's leading to increases in all states. Our seven-day case rate is now 100 per 100,000, which is in the red zone, and cases are up in every state. We're seeing hot spots that are seeing scenes that were similar to last summer, even a winter, with hospitals overwhelmed with patients.

And so when you're in the midst of a surge, which we definitely are, vaccination certainly has a role. But remember, it does take time to train the immune system to have that response. Public health mitigation measures really are your way to break the back of a surge. And so I do agree that we need to take a strong look at mask mandates and bring them back.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I mean, mask mandates are one thing. The other thing that a lot of people are asking about now is the need for boosters, and maybe it's the wrong conversation to be having when you think about how many Americans haven't gotten their first dose of their vaccine. But when you think about the booster discussion and getting ahead of maybe a potential winter spike as well, I mean, how do you look at that as maybe a need, given the fact that we've seen the efficacy of some of these vaccines fall off in the spreading of the Delta variant?

TAISON BELL: So we've seen news that the Biden administration has purchased 200 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine that's to be delivered in the late fall to early winter. And I think some of this is probably in anticipation of needing boosters. I think it's safe to say that there will likely be a recommendation for boosters at least in folks who may not generate a good immune response in the first place, maybe elderly individuals, those that are immunocompromised. And we do see that there's data that your immune response can wane over time, at least your antibody levels. That also-- there's also cells involved in the immuno response called DNT cells that show that they can last a little bit longer.

But I think the safe thing is to say that there's a good possibility that we'll need to have boosters. Who exactly that's going to be recommended for is yet to be determined, but likely, we'll be coming our way.

KRISTIN MYERS: You know, I'm curious to know if you think, perhaps, that we reopened things too soon, especially considering some of the low vaccination rates that we are seeing in pockets around the country. And I know that this has really been a push-pull, you know, between public health, but then also the economy getting people back to work. But now that what we are seeing, some of these new COVID cases and, you know, even overseas with the Olympics, right? 83% vaccination rate and we are still seeing surges at the Olympics of these new COVID cases. I'm curious to know if perhaps we did things or rushed into things a little too soon or maybe we didn't reopen things the right way.

TAISON BELL: Kristin, I think we could always look back and say, could we have done this different or done this better? And the answer is-- in public health is always going to be yes. There's always something better that you can do differently in the past when you Monday morning quarterback. But I think what's more important is that you are able to react to what's going on on the ground that what changes.

And so, you know, we could have that discussion about, you know, should we have gotten rid of mask mandates in the first place and, you know, all the other decisions that went along with what got us to this point, but I think what's most important is that we're seeing that surges are happening across the country. We have a variant that's more transmissible. But that means that we have to change strategy. And so I think what's more important is that we can react to what's going on right now and make that decision.

You know, before the Delta variant, we were doing quite well. Cases were going down, our vaccination was rolling along, and we hadn't hit that plateau yet. This is a very different day, compared to that day. And so we have to respond to what's happening right now.

ZACK GUZMAN: And Dr. Bell, just to wrap up here, I hate to end on maybe a somber note, but there is optimism at least being voiced by Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, talking about a potential spike in cases here in the US in the next two to three weeks, given what we saw in the UK, if you want to call that a downtrend now. I mean, when you look at it, there is still a lot to be said about the way the vaccines are preventing hospitalizations and death in those who have gotten it.

So maybe focusing so much on cases isn't the right way to look at it. But when you look at that, I mean, combining what the UK has gone through and back here at home, are you in the camp that maybe it is just going to be a two to three-week spike here in cases, but still also kind of applying the fact that the vaccines are holding up in preventing hospitalization?

TAISON BELL: Well, I certainly hope that's the case. I think that we do tend to track around four to six weeks behind what's happening in the UK, and we're starting to see their case rates go down. And so I certainly hope that that follows. I think the other thing to point out is that a lot of states are now reporting COVID-19 cases on a weekly basis instead of a daily basis, so we may be undercounting a little bit. Our testing is also down compared to what we were doing before last summer.

So all those factors may indicate that we have seen-- probably seen more cases than we've accounted for in the CDC data. But if you look at what's going on in the UK, we can expect the kind of track behind that for a few weeks. And so I would certainly love to see cases start to go down again.