Delta COVID changes the pandemic struggle: a leaked CDC document and what it means for higher ed

Last night and this morning I worked hard on climate change and higher education, writing up two book chapters and a blog post. But I’m not going to blog about that today, because the latest COVID developments are so urgent and fast-moving.

Here I’m going to outline a leaked CDC document, then point to some possibilities for higher education.

This week the Washington Post published an internal CDC Powerpoint stack and the CDC’s director admitted its authenticity. The document is a presentation by a task force to the rest of the organization, apparently, and it develops two points: the latest research on the Delta COVID-19 variant and how CDC should best communicate it.

Let me summarize the key points, and share some of the graphics.

Delta is much more infectious than previous COVID variants. It’s more transmissible than smallpox, akin to chicken pox, not so virulent as measles. Its R0 value is up to 8 or 9. It’s also somewhat more dangerous to humans, leading to some increases in people being hospitalized, admitted to ICUs, being put on oxygen, getting pneumonia, and dying.

Here’s the presentation’s chart comparing Delta to other COVID-19 variants and to other diseases: