Under the title "Those More Likely to Be Infected Again with COVID-19 Due to Delta!", Al-Arabiya published news noting that while the Indian variant is affecting the entire world, a recent study found that individuals who have previously been infected with COVID-19 are now more susceptible to reinfection due to the Delta variant. A laboratory analysis conducted by French researchers led by the Pasteur Institute in Paris revealed that the mutation that originated in India has a fourfold greater ability to overcome antibodies from previous infections compared to the Alpha variant from the UK, as reported by The Telegraph.
The study indicated that a single dose of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines provides only 10% protection against the Delta variant, at a time when it was already believed that the variant is 60% more transmissible than the version that swept the UK last winter.
Regarding the two vaccine doses, it was noted that a single dose of either of the two main vaccines used in the UK was "weak or completely ineffective" against both the Delta and Beta (South Africa) variants, the latter having not yet established a strong foothold in the UK. However, administering a second dose led to a neutralizing response of 95%, even though antibodies were three to five times lower against Delta than against Alpha.
The Delta variant, which first appeared in India, is the most contagious since the pandemic began in early 2020. Its spread and the lifting of health restrictions in several countries prompted the World Health Organization to warn that "the world is at a dangerous point" in this pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over four million people worldwide so far.
