When it comes to coronavirus much attention right now focuses on the Delta variant and its rapid spread in many areas of the country. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it represents 83% of all sequenced COVID-19 cases in the U.S. currently.
University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy Professor Vince Venditto said increasing vaccinations remains the answer, but spreading fear is not. “You know scaring people is not really the way to get people vaccinated because if somebody doesn’t want to get vaccinated, there’s a reason why they don’t want to get vaccinated,” said Venditto.
Venditto noted those reasons can often best be addressed one-on-one with a trusted doctor or pharmacist. The pharmaceutical sciences professor said break-through infections in the vaccinated are going to occur with all variants, but the likelihood of hospitalization is greatly reduced.
Venditto said increasing vaccinations against COVID-19 could come in many forms. There has been discussion about booster shots at some point for vaccinated people. He noted it might be best to distribute that vaccine to the unvaccinated. “Instead of me getting a booster shot, I would rather send my booster shot to Africa and start vaccinating people in other countries that don’t have access to the vaccine right now because the faster that we’re able to get the world vaccinated, the faster we’re going to come out of this pandemic,” explained Venditto.
Venditto said even if protection for the vaccinated wanes some, it will likely still be as effective as a flu vaccination, for instance.
The UK professor has concerns about the spread of the aggressive Delta variant, particularly in pockets where vaccination rates are relatively low. Venditto said that could stress hospital capacities in some small regional hospitals across Kentucky.
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