New threats from highly contagious delta variant

Show Me the Science

As patients infected with the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus fill hospitals in parts of Missouri, and the virus spreads new infections around the country, Washington University data scientists and infectious diseases specialists are urging people to mask up again, regardless of vaccination status. The researchers say that although vaccination remains remarkably effective, masking and other public health practices that slowed the spread prior to the availability of vaccines are necessary again. Clay Dunagan, MD, a professor of medicine, senior vice president and chief clinical officer for BJC HealthCare and a member of the Metropolitan St. Louis Pandemic Task Force says that as case numbers rise, public health measures have become more important. Dunagan, and fellow infectious diseases specialist Hilary M. Babcock, MD, a professor of medicine and medical director of infection prevention and occupational infection prevention for BJC HealthCare, say even if more people get vaccinated, it will be weeks before they are protected, and during those weeks, people will need to turn back to the practices that protected them before vaccines became available. Meanwhile, Philip R.O. Payne, PhD, the Janet and Bernard Becker Professor and director of the Institute for Informatics, associate dean for health information and data science and the chief data scientist at the School of Medicine, says computer models his team has created continue to predict a rapid increase in infections in St. Louis and in the surrounding area. And he says those models don’t show a peak yet, meaning we could be in the current wave of infections for quite some time.

The podcast, “Show Me the Science,” is produced by the Office of Medical Public Affairs at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.