A former resident of Salmon Arm who is a world-renowned expert on the origin and emergence of viral pandemics says the very contagious delta variant of the coronavirus comes with a silver lining of sorts.

Michael Worobey, who grew up in Salmon Arm and graduated from Salmon Arm Secondary, is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He has done ground-breaking work on HIV/AIDS and influenza, including the 1918 influenza pandemic, and has published multiple papers in top scientific journals in the world about the origin and spread of SARS CoV2 B次元官网网址� the virus that causes the coronavirus disease, COVID-19.

He confirmed the delta variant is very good at spreading between people, but in terms of how it looks to our immune system, itB次元官网网址檚 very similar to early variants.

While itB次元官网网址檚 a bad thing itB次元官网网址檚 so transmissible, he said, B次元官网网址渢he interesting silver lining of that is it out-competed some other variants that were actually more of a challenge to the vaccine. Right now, weB次元官网网址檙e in a pretty good place in terms of the vaccine targeting delta.B次元官网网址�

Worobey said people will see updates to the vaccine, and future boosters or updates will be based on delta rather than earlier variants.

Asked about safety of the vaccines, he replied: B次元官网网址淭he vaccines are incredibly safe and much, much safer than allowing yourself to get infected from the virusB次元官网网址� Most of the side effects are extremely mild; you may feel like crap for a day or two but thatB次元官网网址檚 a small price to pay for immunity.B次元官网网址�

While a very small percentage of people have had mild carditis B次元官网网址� inflammation in the heart, he said the number of people who get it after the vaccine, is dwarfed by the numbers who get that kind of complication, and much worse, if they get the disease without being vaccinated.

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Worobey said the vaccines are by no means experimental. They have been tested and fully approved in both the U.S. and Canada and now all over the world.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 just like any other vaccine we take like measles and chicken pox and so forth.B次元官网网址�

He said the mRNA type of vaccine was maturing when the pandemic started and so nothing was rushed.

B次元官网网址淚t was already in place, the technology was developed for how to deliver this kind of genetic instruction, and so the groundwork has been laid over the past 20 years for this.B次元官网网址�

He explained how they work.

B次元官网网址淩ather than just giving a protein that your immune system recognizes as unusual and creates antibodies against, this gives the instructions on how to make the protein in the form of messenger RNA, itB次元官网网址檚 called, and our cells take those instructions up and make the antigen, the protein, themselves.B次元官网网址�

Asked about having a third shot, he said it may help block infection, B次元官网网址渂ut the vaccines even without a booster are very, very good at protecting against landing in the hospital or dyingB次元官网网址�B次元官网网址�

He said three-week or one-month delays between shots may not have been optimal because it appears that having a longer delay between immunizations ramps up the immune system.

B次元官网网址淪ome people have suggested it may be best to think about the third shot as not exactly a booster shot, but maybe what we should have done from the beginning in terms of doing three shots as the standard.B次元官网网址�

Asked what he foresees for the future, Worobey said: B次元官网网址淭his virus is going to stick with us and itB次元官网网址檚 gonna be something like flu that we just contend with year after year.B次元官网网址�

However, he said once everyone has either had the virus through natural infection or has been vaccinated, or both, it will settle into something that is much less scary and disruptive than it has been and still is.

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e still in that transitional phase where not everyone has had exposure to the virus or the vaccine yet. But itB次元官网网址檚 going to be something that kills in North America, I would bet, more than 100,000 people a year.B次元官网网址�

He said itB次元官网网址檚 becoming clear that the virus is not something that happens and then itB次元官网网址檚 behind you. He said he just read a study about an increase of up to 4,000 per cent in some cardiovascular problems during the year after contracting the virus.

B次元官网网址淪o the vaccines are so much safer than the virus and you are going to get this virus if you donB次元官网网址檛 get vaccinated,B次元官网网址� he predicted.

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Worobey would like to see people work together to end the disruptive stage of the pandemic now underway. One important step would be much easier access to rapid tests that people can do at home, he said.

B次元官网网址淲e should be in a world where everyone has essentially an unlimited supply of those and can test themselves every day.B次元官网网址�

Then people could spend time isolating if infected and not be infecting others.

B次元官网网址淏ecause there still are people who either canB次元官网网址檛 take the vaccine because they have some sort of immunological problem or some other reason and people who if theyB次元官网网址檝e had the vaccine are still at quite high risk of a bad outcome,B次元官网网址� he said, pointing to the very elderly, for instance.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 way, way less dangerous now with a vaccine than without a vaccine, but there are still avoidable risks that if everyone in society was pulling their weight as much as they can to do these tests on a daily basis, we could really knock this down to almost nothing.B次元官网网址�

Worobey is currently focusing his research on working out when and how the virus emerged in Wuhan, China, with an eye to preventing future outbreaks like the one the world is experiencing.

Asked if, with all his research into viruses, the rise of skepticism is a new phenomenon, he said, no, itB次元官网网址檚 not new. But he is surprised how much traction itB次元官网网址檚 getting.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 very concerning that thereB次元官网网址檚 just generally a lot of mistrust in science and a tremendous amount of misinformation and disinformation where people are just spreading a lot of dangerous lies and errors about the risks of these vaccines. And so itB次元官网网址檚 a concern because I think itB次元官网网址檚 going to actually affect how we are able to vaccinate our kids against stuff that virtually everyone in society has had no problem with up until this time point.

B次元官网网址淪o itB次元官网网址檚 not only an issue for this new virus, it seems to have gathered so much steam that itB次元官网网址檚 going to take down vaccination efforts to other stuff that weB次元官网网址檝e had good success with in the past. ItB次元官网网址檚 extremely disappointing and unfortunate. ItB次元官网网址檚 going to cost a lot of lives.B次元官网网址�