With these words, epidemiologist Michael Osterholm lays it out. Oklahoma is sadly experiencing a surging coronavirus – Delta variant – among unvaccinated people. Seven-day averages over the past three weeks are: 196, 209, 283, and 532. 60% more hospitalizations in the past 2 weeks.
Nearly every hospitalization, and every additional death that we’ll hear about soon (deaths lag 2-4 weeks after cases) will happen to someone unvaccinated, in other words, preventable.
Please: do not be the person who dies from COVID days before you would otherwise have gotten your life-preserving vaccination.
Another thought that I fully agree with, again via Dr Osterholm’s great podcast “The Osterholm Update,” if you got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you should strongly consider getting a dose of one of the mRNA vaccines, either Pfizer or Moderna. If you got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you might be under-protected against the new delta variant.
It has not been carefully studied, yet, but against the beta variant, formerly known as the B.1.351 or South African variant, it performed relatively poorly and there is cause for concern that it might not be protective against the Delta, which is taking over, across the country.
“If you are unvaccinated, this virus will find you.” – M. Osterholm, The Osterholm Update