Millions of Americans are jeopardizing their health, freedom and finances by not getting vaccinated and putting themselves at risk of the most infectious coronavirus strain yet, current and former federal health officials say.

"Most people will either get vaccinated, or have been previously infected, or they will get this Delta variant," Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
"And for most people who get this Delta variant, it's going to be the most serious virus that they get in their lifetime in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital," said Gottlieb, who was commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration during the Trump administration.
For those not fully vaccinated, "quality of mask is going to make a difference with a variant that spreads more aggressively like Delta does, where people are more contagious and exude more virus," he said.

US is 'losing time' in vaccination race as Delta variant becomes more pervasive, expert says In research posted online, scientists examining 62 cases of the Delta variant found viral loads about 1,260 times higher than those found from 63 cases from the early epidemic wave in 2020.

The Delta variant is also sending younger and previously healthy people to hospitals -- the vast majority of which have not been vaccinated, say doctors in several states suffering surges.
"This year's virus is not last year's virus," said Dr Catherine O'Neal, an infectious disease specialist at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"It's attacking our 40-year-olds. It's attacking our parents and young grandparents. And it's getting our kids," O'Neal said. She said her Covid-19 unit now has more patients in their 20s who were previously healthy.
"You have to get vaccinated," O'Neal said. "That's the only way to end it. Masks and mitigation, they're not going to take it. It's going to be vaccination."
Since February, 97% of cases and deaths related to Covid-19 in Louisiana were among people not fully vaccinated, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Friday.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/18/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html