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As the global population tries to wrap its collective brain around what we’ve been through in the past 20 months or so, and what the future might hold, SARS-CoV-2 churns along on its evolutionary path. As of this writing (in late August), COVID-19 cases and deaths are once again rising in many places. In the US, according to CDC data, 35 percent of counties were hosting high levels of community transmission in late July, with outbreaks occurring in areas of the country with low vaccination rates. Other spots around the world—in Australia, South America, Southern Africa, and elsewhere—are experiencing similar upticks in COVID-19 as the midpoint of 2021 recedes into the rearview. Underlying the troubling reversal of the downward trend in case reports in these areas is the so-called Delta variant of the virus.
Because the pace of peer-reviewed scientific publication is ill-suited to address phenomena ...
