The United States could soon see nearly 200,000 COVID cases a day in the next couple of weeks, according to the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The nation is currently reporting an average of about 129,000 new infections a day, a 700% increase from the beginning of July and that could jump in the next couple of weeks, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said on Fox News Sunday.
He said, “I will be surprised if we don’t cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks, and that’s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again.”
Dr. Collins is urging unvaccinated Americans to get their shots as soon as possible. He called unvaccinated people “sitting ducks” for the highly contagious Delta variant, which is greatly affecting the nation.
He said, “That was January, February, that shouldn’t be August. But here we are with the Delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking situation where 90 million people are still unvaccinated, who are sitting ducks for this virus, and that’s the mess we’re in. This is going very steeply upward with no signs of having peaked out.”
Dr. Collins also said the nation could decide whether to offer a booster dose to more Americans this fall.
Health officials have made one thing clear they are preparing for the possibility that the time for boosters may come sooner than later, according to The Guardian.
Dr. Collins said, “There is a concern that the vaccine may start to wane in its effectiveness. And Delta is a nasty one for us to try to deal with. The combination of those two means we may need boosters, maybe beginning first with healthcare providers, as well as people in nursing homes, and then gradually moving forward.”
Dr. Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna Therapeutics, said seeing some “breakthrough” infections among the vaccinated within six months has been surprising, although most symptoms have not been life-threatening so far.
He told Fox News, “I think that suggests we are going to need booster vaccines to get through the winter.”
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the third dose of Pfizer and Moderna for immunocompromised people so they can better protect themselves from the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said, “If it turns out as the data come in, we see we do need to give an additional dose to people in nursing homes, actually, or people who are elderly, we will be absolutely prepared to do that very quickly.”
Dr. Collins and Dr. Fauci stressed that the best way to contain the spread of the virus is for the unvaccinated to get their jabs as soon as possible.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said about 60% of the American population has had at least one dose and more than 51% are fully vaccinated so far.
The officials found that areas with low vaccination rates have been particularly hit hard with COVID infections. “That’s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again,” said Dr. Collins. “But here we are with the Delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking situation where 90 million people are still unvaccinated who are sitting ducks for this virus, and that’s the mess we’re in. We’re in a world of hurt.”
Dr. Fauci told CBS’ Face the Nation, “We’ve just got to realize that we’re dealing with a public health crisis. The more you get infections, the more spread you get, the greater opportunity the virus has to continue to evolve and mutate.” The article was published in The Guardian.
