The Good and Bad News About the Delta Variant
About this episode
Klein interviews epidemiologist Dr. Céline Gounder about the Delta variant and the shifting ground of the Covid-19 pandemic. Gounder explains that Delta produces roughly a thousand times the viral load of earlier strains, spreads more easily, partially evades immunity and may be more dangerous, including for children. She argues vaccines remain highly protective against severe disease and death — potentially making Covid flu-like for the vaccinated — while breakthrough infections are typically mild. The conversation covers the CDC's reversal on indoor masking, the Provincetown outbreak as a vaccine stress test, long Covid, boosters and mix-and-match dosing, New York City's first-in-the-nation vaccine mandate, school reopening, and the risk of a two-tiered society as blue and red areas take sharply different approaches to the virus.