'We Need Everybody Vaccinated': UCHealth Doctor Urges More COVID Vaccinations As Delta Variant Spreads

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- It seems like every day there is new guidance about how to keep yourself safe from COVID-19. The latest, the CDC saying the Delta variant is more contagious than the original COVID-19 strain.

That means it is easier to spread regardless of vaccination status.

"If you are vaccinated and you are one of those rare breakthrough infections, you actually have the capacity to pass it to somebody else," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in an interview with CBS This Morning on Wednesday.

It can be hard to keep all of these guidelines straight. Some may wonder why the message is changing.

It's not just the messaging changing though, Dr. Richard Zane of UCHealth says the virus itself is changing, "As the virus gets into humans, the unvaccinated, they mutate."

Think of it as a survival mechanism for the virus. It mutates, or changes itself, in order to ensure its survival and proliferation.

Dr. Zane says, "As variants change, the characteristics and the efficacy of the vaccine changes."

He says that doesn't make vaccines worthless, they still offer protection from the virus.

Vaccinated people might get sick but Dr. Zane says, "They get very mild symptoms and rarely if ever are they admitted to the hospital."

The bottom line, all viruses mutate including the flu and, although imperfect, vaccinations against these diseases work. History shows us that.

"Small Pox and Polio were eradicated because of vaccinations. Not because of herd immunity, not because of natural immunity," says Dr. Zane.

He says if we want to beat this pandemic, we all have to get vaccinated as soon as possible and follow health and safety guidelines like wearing masks. If we don't the virus will always be with us.

"If we want to change that, we need everybody to get vaccinated," says Dr. Zane.