Should vaccinated SC residents wear masks as Delta variant spreads? What experts say The Island Packet 13 hrs ago Sam Ogozalek, The Island Packet (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) Jul. 5—This was supposed to be America's post-pandemic summer. "A summer of freedom. A summer of joy," as the Biden administration recently put it. But fears of another COVID-19 surge are growing in South Carolina and across the United States as the highly infectious Delta variant, first discovered in India late last year, begins to rapidly circulate among unvaccinated residents. "We're not learning from what other people have seen. It just never fails," said Dr. Helmut Albrecht, medical director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at Prisma Health and the University of South Carolina.