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U.S. sees Delta variant ‘upsurges’: Gottlieb
“So Connecticut, for example, where I am, shows no upsurge of infection. But Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri show very substantial upsurges of infections. That’s based entirely on how much population wide immunity you have based on vaccination.”Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday said states with lower vaccination rates in the Midwest and South are seeing an upsurge in cases involving the highly-infectious Delta coronavirus variant. “This variant is probably 40 to 60% more infective, more contagious than the 1.1.7 variant, that variant that became prevalent in the United States and caused that surge in the late spring. It doesn’t necessarily appear more pathogenic, meaning more dangerous, but it’s infecting people more easily and it’s starting to become very prevalent in the UK in communities that are unvaccinated.”Top U.S. Health officials including infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci have been urging Americans to get vaccinated for weeks to prevent what happened in the U.K., where the Delta variant, which originated in India, became the dominant strain. FAUCI: “We cannot let that happen in the United States.”Britain recorded 9,284 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday and six new deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test. Although lower than recent days, the number of new cases reflects an upward trend in recent weeks driven by the spread of the more infectious Delta variant.