{"id":53983,"date":"2021-07-31T07:54:41","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T11:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/?p=53983"},"modified":"2023-06-06T18:12:45","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T22:12:45","slug":"why-the-delta-variant-is-more-contagious-and-prevalent-in-younger-populations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/why-the-delta-variant-is-more-contagious-and-prevalent-in-younger-populations\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Delta Variant is More Contagious and Prevalent in Younger Populations"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_50063\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 300px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2021\/03\/david-wohl.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50063\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2021\/03\/david-wohl.jpeg\" alt=\"david-wohl\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2021\/03\/david-wohl.jpeg 290w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2021\/03\/david-wohl-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">David Wohl, MD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/coronavirus\/article252911313.html\"><em>News and Observer<\/em><\/a> reports that there is much to learn about the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, recognizing why it is more contagious and how symptoms can differ.<\/p>\n<div>\u201cPeople who are now getting COVID-19 are largely younger and younger people,\u201d said David Wohl, MD, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases. He emphasized that younger people have \u201cdifferent patterns of symptoms\u201d than older people, and men can have different patterns than women.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt may just be a feature of who\u2019s getting infected, rather than just what the virus is infecting,\u201d Wohl said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to untangle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/coronavirus\/article252911313.html\">Read more from the <em>News and Observer<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The News and Observer reports that there is much to learn about the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, recognizing why it is more contagious and how symptoms can differ. \u201cPeople who are now getting COVID-19 are largely younger and younger people,\u201d said David Wohl, MD, a professor of medicine in the division &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/why-the-delta-variant-is-more-contagious-and-prevalent-in-younger-populations\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Why the Delta Variant is More Contagious and Prevalent in Younger Populations\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69419,"featured_media":50063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[100,2],"tags":[630],"class_list":["post-53983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infectious-diseases","category-news","tag-630","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why the Delta Variant is More Contagious and Prevalent in Younger Populations | Department of Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/why-the-delta-variant-is-more-contagious-and-prevalent-in-younger-populations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the Delta Variant is More Contagious and Prevalent in Younger Populations | Department of Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The News and Observer reports that there is much to learn about the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, recognizing why it is more contagious and how symptoms can differ. \u201cPeople who are now getting COVID-19 are largely younger and younger people,\u201d said David Wohl, MD, a professor of medicine in the division &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/why-the-delta-variant-is-more-contagious-and-prevalent-in-younger-populations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNCDeptMedicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-31T11:54:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-06T22:12:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2021\/03\/david-wohl.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kim Morris\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uncdeptmedicine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uncdeptmedicine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kim Morris\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/why-the-delta-variant-is-more-contagious-and-prevalent-in-younger-populations\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/why-the-delta-variant-is-more-contagious-and-prevalent-in-younger-populations\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kim Morris\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/9a358414a53d5237f9ba3f8daa55c529\"},\"headline\":\"Why the Delta Variant is More Contagious and Prevalent in Younger 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