What factors helped propel the latest wave of Covid-19? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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The spread of the delta variant of Covid-19 may have reached a plateau in the United States, the most recent data suggest. Many have pointed to unvaccinated people as the primary driver of this latest surge. Mark Sulkowski, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins, says optimism early in the summer contributed.

Sulkowski: One of the other factors was this return to normal activity. A poll taken in June where one out of three Americans thought we had turned the corner and optimism was reaching a peak – 89% of people were optimistic about the coronavirus situation- as they called it in the poll. Domestic and international travel, just a resurgence of travel as well, so people were getting back to normal activities, we went to reductions in mask wearing requirements and things like that, which are now reversed.  :31

Sulkowski says knowing the range of factors that helped the virus spread are informative in controlling it as well as helping people reduce their own risk. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.