normal. a big picture question for you on the pandemic. is delta the last of it? you ve got case numbers, you ve got hospitalizations coming down. is this delta variant, is this it? or dare i ask, is there something on the horizon? we don t know, to be honest. anyone who says there is this variant in england, it doesn t seem to be explosive the way delta is. delta is probably 99% of all the isolates we have in the country at the moment. maybe this other ay 4.2 is going to grow. but it doesn t seem to be very transmissible compared to delta and/or worse than delta. so its threat i don t think is going to be high. given how fast delta spreads, i m not convinced that we re going to have another variant. but we have to be alert to that possibility. and we have to prepare for that possibility. and we can t just this isn t a game of hope. this is a game of careful
it could be a combination of factors. so much to learn still, jim. cdc data does show that while hospitalizations among people are up, it s not near the increase you see in the vulnerable. vaccinated people who get coronavirus and suffer, they tend to be older, 80 years old on average. should that inform our understanding of who is most at risk right now as delta spreads? i think so. i think we also need to have perspective and realize that the people who are hospitalized, the people suffering severe outcomes are the unvaccinated. within that group we re going to find differences as to who has a predisposing condition, who is elderly, who is more vulnerable. when you look at teens, healthy teens this is data from cdc last friday.