How much do you know about the new variant of the coronavirus, the one they're calling Delta?

This is the story of the Delta variant.

That variant now spreading so rapidly in the United States that it's expected to become the dominant strain in the next few weeks.

And hospitalizations are spiking.

Maybe, you know, it was first detected in

India. Maybe you know it's more transmissible than other strains. Warning, the delta strain of COVID

can be transmitted within seconds. Maybe you've heard it's causing hospitals to get crowded again.

June, so far seeing more COVID patients than any of the three previous months, and one

hospital CEO says his facility is now more full than it was in the peak of winter.

But Dr. Monica Gandhi, she wants you to rethink what you've heard.

She works in San Francisco, says when she walks into her hospital,

it's kind of empty. She doesn't feel any of the urgency she sees on the TV news.

Yeah, I feel a real dissonance, actually. She worries a little bit that this new variant is causing

some doctors to dust off an old playbook, using fear to try to change

behavior.

There's very much a negative messaging.

So my only theory on this is that scientists think if they are very negative in doom and

gloom, people will get scared and they'll go out out and vaccinate who are still on the fence.

You seem very chill, which is very different than what I hear when I turn on the news.

Yeah, because I watch the numbers every day.

In the Bay Area, the numbers, when it comes to COVID, are really good.

The city leads the nation in terms of vaccination.

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