• Slide 2 of 11: If you thought COVID was over or you just want to move on because you're tired of it, let this new Delta variant be a wake up call. "The virus that we're dealing with is a different virus than we were dealing with several months ago," Fauci told Couric. "And we just have to deal with the reality of that. It's a more formidable virus. It translates much more efficiently. And even individuals who are vaccinated, even though they are largely protected from serious disease, nonetheless can get infected and even transmit it."
  • Slide 6 of 11: "The vaccine is doing exactly what we wanted it to do," Fauci clarified. "It's preventing people from getting seriously ill. That's the reason why you get vaccinated. However, this virus is so transmissible that it can infect, even though it's a small fraction, it can infect vaccinated people, almost invariably, in a way that they're either without symptoms or only mildly symptomatic. So it's less that it's going to make the vaccinated person sick. It's more that it's going to allow the vaccinated person to transmit it to someone else who might get sick, like a vulnerable person in the family, an elderly individual, a child who's un-vaccinated. So the issue with a person who is vaccinated, who gets infected the level of virus in the nasopharynx of that person is relatively equivalent to that of an unvaccinated person, which means there's a mechanism to say that that person very well might be able to transmit it. And in fact, we have documented cases where a vaccinated infected person did transmit."One important note: "The level of virus in the nasopharynx of a person who's vaccinated and infected is the same level as the level of virus in the nasopharynx of an unvaccinated person. So you can make a reasonable assumption that they can be equivalent in how they transmit. However, there's one thing that works in favor of the vaccinated person. That level, though, it starts off the same as an uninfected person as an unvaccinated person, it decreases much more quickly," because of the vaccine.

“The vaccine is doing exactly what we wanted it to do,” Fauci clarified. “It’s preventing people from getting seriously ill. That’s the reason why you get vaccinated. However, this virus is so transmissible that it can infect, even though it’s a small fraction, it can infect vaccinated people, almost invariably, in a way that they’re either without symptoms or only mildly symptomatic. So it’s less that it’s going to make the vaccinated person sick. It’s more that it’s going to allow the vaccinated person to transmit it to someone else who might get sick, like a vulnerable person in the family, an elderly individual, a child who’s un-vaccinated. So the issue with a person who is vaccinated, who gets infected the level of virus in the nasopharynx of that person is relatively equivalent to that of an unvaccinated person, which means there’s a mechanism to say that that person very well might be able to transmit it. And in fact, we have documented cases where a vaccinated infected person did transmit.”

One important note: “The level of virus in the nasopharynx of a person who’s vaccinated and infected is the same level as the level of virus in the nasopharynx of an unvaccinated person. So you can make a reasonable assumption that they can be equivalent in how they transmit. However, there’s one thing that works in favor of the vaccinated person. That level, though, it starts off the same as an uninfected person as an unvaccinated person, it decreases much more quickly,” because of the vaccine.