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Health leader warns new coronavirus variant could be resistant to vaccine

The virus has now penetrated our younger age populations. More than half of the new infections over the course of the last week have been in people under age 35.
Credit: Dimitris_Barletis - stock.adobe.

ARKANSAS, USA — Dr. Joe Thompson, former state surgeon general and CEO of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, says we are nearing the point of declaring another pandemic emergency and his biggest worry is a new coronavirus variant resistant to current vaccines.

Appearing on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics, Thompson was asked if it is time to declare a new COVID-19 emergency.

“We are approaching that point,” he said. “If we don’t get control of the spread of this Delta variant, one of my biggest fears is that with the spread we’re going to have a new variant that is either more infectious or escapes the control of our vaccines and then we will be back at square one as we were in the original pandemic.”

Over the past two weeks, Arkansas has recorded 16,022 new cases. As of Sunday (July 25), 6,048 Arkansans have died from COVID-19.

Hospitalizations have risen exponentially to the point where hospitals are redeploying critical personnel and restricting visitation.

To read more of this story, visit our partner in content, Talk Business & Politics.

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