ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The delta variant’s spread across the country and in Florida has led to increased infections from COVID-19 and more people getting seriously sick, experts say.

But with just 52% of Americans fully vaccinated, doctors are warning that initial herd immunity predictions won’t be enough to eradicate COVID-19.

“I think in Florida, you really have to be on top of this and get it done as soon as you can,” said Brevard County resident Linda Jordan. 

Jordan and her daughter Paulina made the drive in from Brevard County Tuesday afternoon to get their Pfizer vaccines at Camping World Stadium. Jordan said her employer is mandating the vaccine for employees, but with her daughter in school and not everyone masking up, she said they both wanted to come out and get that protection from COVID-19. 

“It was scaring me that people were going around without masks or vaccines over there," Jordan said. "So I was like hey, we gotta get this done."

Infectious diseases expert Dr. Michael Muszynski said doctors agree that the original calculations calling for 70-85% of the population be vaccinated to reach herd immunity no longer apply because the delta variant is more infectious.

“The original calculation on the percent of people that needed to be vaccinated to achieve what’s called herd immunity —  which means, the virus would basically just stop spreading within a population of people, called the herd — was based on the alpha variant which on average infected about two to three people, let’s say in a crowded room with one infected person and nobody immunized," said Muszynski. "Now, the delta variant comes along and it’s much more contagious. It infects much more people in that same setting, not just 2 to 3, now it’s anywhere from 6 to 9 people in that room."

"You need much higher vaccination rates to slow it down," he said. "Those calculations are tied to how many people one person can infect. And once it gets below one person per infected person, then the pandemic will slow down."

Because of that, Muszynski said the country will need a much higher rate of immunization in order to reach herd immunity. 

“The more people a virus can infect in one setting, the higher the herd immunity percent rate has to be," he said. "So recalculating it, it now is approaching 90%. I don’t see us achieving that anytime soon."

Mandating vaccinations for school-age children is what allowed the country to overcome polio decades earlier, Muszynski said. And again, vaccinations will be key to combating COVID-19.

“The only thing we can do now to stop further spread is to vaccinate widely and get more people to accept that vaccination is what’s going to save us in the long run still,” Muszynski said. 

Until vaccination levels get to that point, experts say masks will be important to help slow COVID-19’s spread.

“If we want to get out of this pandemic, yeah,” Jordan said. 

Both Jordan and her daughter said they hope to see more people thinking about the community overall in the pandemic. 

“It’s a public health matter," Paulina Jordan said. "You know, this is about herd immunity."