UCSF Doctors: The Light is at the End of the Tunnel with the Delta Variant

This is not a UCSF doctor. It’s a stock photo image. But it totally works, right?

Things may be looking up in the Bay Area. According to some very prominent doctors at UCSF, the Delta Variant is trending down in San Francisco and the wider Bay Area.

On Tuesday, KGO reported that Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, who is an infectious disease expert said, “So the light is at the end of the proverbial tunnel. We’ve already had some silver linings.”

That silver lining is that California state data shows that COVID rates are winding down statewide, and this is particularly true in the Bay Area.

UCSF’s Dept. of Medicine Chair, Dr. Bob Wachter told KGO, “The Bay Area is sort of leading the way in terms of an early peak and starting to come down. I think we’ve clearly plateaued.”

As SFGate reports, San Francisco’s “seven-day rolling average fell from a high of 282 cases per day Aug. 1 to 203 per day Aug. 10, according to the city’s COVID dashboard. The city hasn’t calculated the average for the past week as they’re still processing and validating test results.”

Dr. Monica Gandhi, who has been studying the Delta Variant told SFGate, “This could be an early sign that our delta wave is abating as predicted by several models watching decreasing cases in the UK.” She adds that “Of note, delta does lead to a lot of immunity in both vaccinated (boost) and unvaccinated which can bring down cases.”

Obviously there’s a long way to go, but at least we can be mildly optimistic. So, keep your masks on and get vaccinated, so we can beat this thing together.

To lear more check out the KGO article right here and the SFGate article right here.