Marian Regional Medical Center: Health experts predict more COVID-19 variants to come

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - As Santa Barbara County battles the latest Delta variant, health expert in Santa Maria believe we will likely see more variants coming.

Dr. Chuck Merrill at Marian Regional Medical Center says when the coronavirus enters a human body, it replicates a billion times. “So every time it replicates there’s an opportunity for there to be a mistake … commonly known as mutations.”

In the coronavirus, these mutations are referred to as variants.

Merrill says some of these variants are harmless and don’t even replicate. “And then once in a while you will get one that’s harmful … like the Delta Variant has been.”

As the number of COVID-19 cases rise, Merrill believes we will see more variants emerge.

"The Lambda variant … it is there … I believe I’ve read that a thousand cases in the US that they found. But studies I’ve read so far are stating that it is more vaccine resistant … than all the other strains that came out previously," says pharmacist Sagar Asodia at JDX Pharmacy. "Our vaccines are holding up against Delta, but a future variant could emerge that’s even more deadly or resistant to vaccine protection."

Merrill says the way to prevent the virus from mutating is straight forward. "If you have a town of 100,000 people like Santa Maria … and half the people get vaccinated … those people are not gonna be at risk for getting these mutations … the other 50 percent will … if you can get your vaccination rate up to 90 percent … now there’s only 10 percent of the people will get the virus … and it will essentially die out."

Merrill says the virus replicates more quickly for those unvaccinated.

Anyone needing to get vaccinated can sign up on the state's My Turn website or call 2-1-1.One of the newest variants seen in some 26 countries including the US is the Lambda variant.