As the delta variant of the coronavirus spawns new outbreaks worldwide, governments may be forced to reinstate indoor mask mandates and other preventative measures this fall, health experts predict.
To fight the disease, experts say states and businesses should consider reintroducing mask rules, capacity limits and other public health measures that have been rolled back recently.
“We are heading for a very dangerous fall, with large swaths of the country still unvaccinated, a surging delta variant and people taking off their masks,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, CNBC reported.
Many scientists say the virus will likely circulate worldwide for at least the next two or three years as new strains continue to crop up, CNBC reported.
Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine advocate who has served on advisory panels for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, said the spread of the highly contagious delta variant — already the dominant strain in the U.S. — among the unvaccinated could produce “two Americas.”
“There is the vaccinated America and the unvaccinated America, and I think the unvaccinated America is about to pay a price for that,” Offit said, CNBC reported.
