I think delta is also considered to be more deadly and has a much higher viral load than the original strain.
than what? If age < 60, e.g. car accidents are orders of magnitude more deadly in my county here. There are just no (= 0) fatalities < 40 years here. So even swallowing hammers is equally or more deadly in that group.
Than preceding variants. You're shifting the goalposts by comparing to other causes of death in young people now.
.4% lethal compared to .3% lethal when I last checked.
So thats one goalpost. Another litmus test is that if delta was more lethal it would have been a very popular media talking point. Fear is unfortunately a successful motivator for clicks.
Alpha variant was already deadlier than the original strain, and delta variant at least caused higher hospitalization rates than alpha:
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n579.long
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03426-1
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3...
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3...