I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Tuesday, June 29th.

With us now, Dr. Lena Wend, Washington Post columnist, former Baltimore Health Commissioner

and George Washington University

professor, who's given us so much medical and public health insight during the pandemic and so

many things to think about from her opinion writing. Today we'll talk about the Delta variant,

a question about booster shots from people who were vaccinated in January, and Dr. Wend's column arguing that COVID vaccine should

be an urgent priority for young children. Dr. WAN, we always appreciate it. Welcome back to WNYC.

Thank you, Brian. It's always a pleasure to join you. Can we start on the Delta variant? It's more

transmissible than any previous one and is causing new outbreaks in the U.S. as around the world.

What are some of the things you're seeing first in this country?

Well, let's talk about the transmissibility of the Delta variant, which is key to why we're so worried about it.

So the alpha variant, the B117, the one that originated in the UK, already displaced all the other

variants here in the U.S. because it was about 60% more transmissible than the other variants.

The Delta variant, the one originating from India, actually is 60% more transmissible than that

alpha variant. So it is now 99% of all the variants in the UK itself

is now well over 20% of all the variants here in the US. There are also some studies that show

that the Delta variant causes more severe illness, increases the likelihood of hospitalization.

And I certainly am very concerned about this. I mean, we are seeing surges and localized outbreaks in parts of the country that have low rates of vaccination.

And I think at this point, people have two choices.

You get vaccinated or you are very likely and at high risk for contracting the coronavirus, in particular with the Delta

variant, becoming the predominant variant here in the U.S. very quickly.

I read that in Israel, with high vaccination rates of the Pfizer vaccine, half the new Delta

...