U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) is motivating others to get the COVID-19 vaccine as the Delta variant continues to spread.
Doggett’s encouragement comes after CEO of the DFW Hospital Council Stephen Love told NBCDFW that coronavirus hospitalizations in Texas hover around the 5,000 mark as of July 27. That number equates to 8.93% of bed capacity and 24.17% of adult ICU patients.
“Not getting vaccinated gives COVID the room it needs to evolve—to become more transmissible and more deadly,” Doggett said in a July 29 tweet. “Protect yourself and your neighbors, and especially those too young to get vaccinated.”
Statewide, the seven-day average for new cases has climbed above 4,000 for the first time since April, NBCDFW reports.
“Vaccinations are absolutely helping protect people and the unvaccinated are very much at risk with the increase in the delta variant,” Love said. “Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator so as case numbers increase, we anticipate hospitalizations will increase.”
According to KLBK, a Texas Tech study shows that masks are 80% effective against the virus. The findings surfaced after Professor of Chemical Countermeasures and Advanced Materials at Texas Tech Seshadri Ramkumar and his graduate student Mirza Khyum conducted research using a Fractional Efficiency Filter Tester machine to test particles.
The machine pumped simulated viral particles that were a similar size to COVID-19, 30 to 150 nanometers, through various types of masks to see how many particles would make it through, KLBK reported.
There have been raised concerns over a higher amount of infectious particles in the Delta variant, but Ramkumar is still confident that masks significantly protect the wearer.
“Of course, we are here not only to protect us but more importantly to protect good people around the earth, and this is one tool. I’m not claiming that this is the tool but, in a toolbox, this is an important tool,” Ramkumar said, according to KLBK. “It’s such an unassuming material. It’s saving lives.”
