Adm. Brett Giroir, the Trump White House’s COVID-19 testing czar, on Friday spelled out what unvaccinated people should expect from the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus.
“If you are not vaccinated and if you have not had COVID before, you’re going to get the delta variant,” Giroir told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
“On average, one person will transmit this to nine people, unlike the original virus, which got transmitted to two or three,” he explained.
Giroir expressed concern over people relying on natural immunity from a previous infection as their sole protection from the disease.
“Natural immunity is real and it provides protection,” he acknowledged. “But there is more and more accumulated evidence that that immunity wanes and it’s not so good against delta.”
“So I’m very concerned and I do support the recommendations that even if you had COVID, you need to get vaccinated as well,” he added of the shots proven to safely and effectively curb transmission and prevent serious illness.
Giroir’s comments came after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in internal documents of a change in “the war” against COVID-19 because of the highly infectious delta variant that’s spread nationwide.