Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, on Sunday became the latest public health official to predict the U.S. will break 200,000 daily coronavirus cases –numbers last seen in January – as he warned unvaccinated Americans remain “sitting ducks” for the highly infectious Delta variant.
Collins said on Fox News Sunday that the latest surge of the virus is “going very steeply upward with no signs of having peaked out,” adding that he will be “surprised” if the U.S. doesn’t exceed 200,000 daily cases in the coming weeks.
Collins also underscored the particular danger the virus poses to 90 million Americans who are unvaccinated, calling them “sitting ducks,” and adding, “We’re in a world of hurt.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, has also predicted the U.S. will surpass 200,000 daily cases, as has Tom Frieden, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. came close to that number late last month, reaching 194,608 cases on July 30, the highest number of cases since the winter surge on Jan. 16.
Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, predicted in a Meet The Press interview that the latest surge of the virus could continue for four to six weeks.