anne rimoin. dasha, where you are, in mesa county, most are concentrated.ff, hospitals here are back in the thick of the battle against covid-19, as the delta variant has ripped through this community. hospitals are at nearly capacity. and i'll tell you, it feels a little bit like a flash back to fall of 2020. standing here at another hospital that is yet again almost full. nurses putting covid patients on ventilators. but there is a big difference between now and fall of 2020 and that is the vaccine, but mesa county is lagging significantly behind the rest of the state when it comes to vaccination rates and experts point to that as the biggest factor and the biggest concern. geoff, this is a rural, more conservative county where folks really pride themselves on lack of government interference. on personal choice. but in this case, that is translating to the low vaccination rates that are leading to the rise in hospitalizations here. and putting health care workers in a really tough spot. i want you to hear from the president of community hospital and one o

professor anne rimoin is an epidemiologist at the ucla fielding school of public health.in. give us your reaction to this pledge by the us president and also the report that g7 will match that. to what extent will it make a difference to this global pandemic? it make a difference to this global pandemic?- make a difference to this global pandemic? it will be very important. _ global pandemic? it will be very important. we - global pandemic? it will be very important. we need . global pandemic? it will be | very important. we need to global pandemic? it will be - very important. we need to get as many vaccines out, globally, to where they are needed most as soon as possible we can. right now, here in the united states we have almost 50% of the population vaccinated, fully vaccinated, but in the rest of the world, we have as little as 1% of populations vaccinated. places throughout africa, for example, have less than 1% of the population vaccinated, places like the democratic republic of congo, where i work, only several thousands of vaccines have been distributed in a coun

anne rimoin now, this variant, the delta variant, fast spreading. dr. fauci calls it the single greatest threat to ending the pandemic here's the question. do you expect cases to rise again in the months ahead, particularly in the fall >> absolutely. you know, all we have to do is look and see what's happening in europe right now where we have many countries where we have high rates of vaccination and we're seeing increasing cases. we're seeing the same phenomenon right here in the united states. a week or so ago it only accounted for 10% of all cases we were seeing now we're at 20% we know this particular virus, this variant, is much more transmissible than the variant that has been dominant here, that alpha variant which was already 50% more infectious than the original strain that was circulating. this variant, the delta variant is 60% more infectious than the alpha variant. if you have the same contact with somebody that you had previously who has k0i6covid anr you not vaccinated you are at substantial risk of getting affected it's a much more serio