COVID-19 cases in the United States have tripled over the past month as the highly contagious Delta variant rapidly spreads across the country, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates. Deaths from COVID-19 have increased by nearly 50% over the past week, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the Delta variant is now responsible for 83% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. “Things are much worse than people might realize,” says Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic who has been reporting on the Delta variant’s spread in Missouri, one of the hardest-hit areas in the U.S. “The more we let this pandemic linger on, rage on around the world, the less protected any of us will be — including those of us who currently luxuriate under the umbrella of vaccination.” Yong recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his coverage of the pandemic.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.