bkkcanuck8

The Delta variant is sending more young into the ICU than previous variants. I also suspect it will not be the last 'variant' that is created, since the longer it takes to reduce the spread to nominal.... the more chances there are for further mutations that will make it more deadly, more contagious or more aggressive at infecting younger people (or a combination of above). These normal mutations are the least of our worries though ('Antigenic Drift'), SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is actually a rather slow mutating virus compared to others. The real risk with the continued spread of SARS-CoV-2 is that it has shown that this version which is primarily human transmissible -- also has been transmitted to animals (cats, dogs, minks, etc.). In the case of minks there is confirmed proof of bi-directional transmissibility. Coronaviruses (of which SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 is one strain) is limited in diversity in humans (I believe there are 7 known now: 4 strains cause colds, SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19], SARS-CoV-1 [SARS outbreak of 2003ish] (10% mortality rate), and MERS [limited transmissibility in humans but 38% mortality rate]). The influenza virus is perennial threat since there are a large diverse reservoir of different influenza strains already in humans, which allows for the risk of 'Antigenic Shift' (as opposed to 'Antigenic Drift') where two different strains of virus infects the same host and allows for the risk of swapping whole segments of the virus between them creating new virus strains (this creates new virus types that we would have NO vaccine to protect us). Since this version of the virus can transmit to animals and back, there is a risk (though a much lower risk) of this happening in the animals close to us. The longer this is uncontrolled, the more time we give it to become 'all that it can become'.

I believe I read in a news publication who shall not be named on this forum.... that they expect the appointments to start being emailed around a week from now.