out. 17% of firefighters according to an fdny spokesperson. when you look at the numbers compared to last week, that is double from where we were then. they are pleading, unless it s an emergency, dial 311 versus 911. it is surprising to see we are back the advising what number you should be calling given the influx of new cases. polo, thank you. reporter: thanks, kaitlan. now for something different, or potentially positive news. a new study out of south africa showing people who have recovered from the omicron variant may be more resistant to infection from the delta variant. the researcher who said maybe pushing delta out is a good thing and maybe we can live with something more easily and that will disrupt us less than the previous variants. alex sigal, researcher from africa health institute.
and we ll see more and more variants and possibly getting stronger or able to continually evade vaccines? well, that is not a fait accompli. if we don t have to live this way if we do one thing, and that is vaccinate the southern hemisphere. right now the african continent is entirely unvaccinated, not much better in southeast asia and latin america. and mother nature has told us what they has in store for us. she gave us delta out of an unvaccinated population in india earlier this year and omicron out of an unvaccinated population in southern africa. and this is what will continue to happen. and this is where we really need the biden administration to step up and take a greater leadership role in vaccinating the world because right now there is no plan. there is no plan to varksccinat the southern hemisphere or nothing that i ve seen that is very meaningful. and we have to fix that.
professor, the argument essentially here, based on what we re looking at from this study, which still has to be peer reviewed and published in a scientific journal of course is that in the short-term, omicron is causing all of these ebbs. that is clear. we don t even need to go into that. but longer term it would be of benefit. i m sorry. i lost you i lost the question. i think the argument is essentially that what you re seeing here and finding is in the short-term omicron is causing all of these issues, it is hurting people and driving up the case numbers, but in the long term it could be more beneficial, as you phrased it, pushing delta out? yeah. i don t think you can call any variant beneficial, but you are getting maybe the best of the worst. it is like when you are fighting a bushfire. you have something called a backburn where you basically
respiratory virus, and because we have failed to vaccinate the african continent. we have failed to vaccinate southeast asia. we have failed to adequately vaccinate latin america, that s where we re going to have another big variant coming on board, just like we saw in the summer of 2020, just like we saw in the summer of 2021 across the south of texas. that s what we re in store for, unless we make a concerted effort to vaccinate the world s low and middle income countries. mother nature is not being coy here, jim. she s told us what she has in min mind. she gave us delta out of an unvaccinated indian population last year, she gave us omicron in an unvaccinated population in southern africa towards the end of last year, i promise you she ll do it again. dr. peter hotez, more reason to get protected. thanks so much for your time as always. we appreciate it. thank you, jim. all right, coming up, cnn breaking news, details about a possible kremlin plot to install
let s bring in one of the doctors you saw in that piece, my friend, dr. peter hotez. he s the co-director of the center for vaccine development at texas children s hospital and dean at by lor college of medicine. i want you to talk to my mom right now because she s watching the news every day and hearing about a new potential vaccine. what if we ve already been vaccinated and boosted? now we need a different vaccine? for what? well, you know, right now, we don t know what s looming out there, but here s what we do know, stephanie, is that as long as we fail to vaccinate the world, mother nature is going to hurl new variants at us. she s not being coy here. she s telling us exactly what she has in mind. she gave us delta out of an unvaccinated population in india at the beginning of last year. she gave us omicron out of an unvaccinated population out of southern africa towards the end of last year. and yet another variant is clearly brewing out of