Dr Fauci warns of 200,000 daily COVID cases in US & new variants amid drop in vaccination

Hassled at the US' dropping vaccination rates, US chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday, warned that the nation may see 200,000 cases a day in the coming weeks due to the spread of the delta variant. In an interview to news portal McClatchy, Dr Fauci warned that the country will be in big trouble unless the unvaccinated get their shots. Us reached its target of 70% vaccination of atleast one shot on Wednesday, a month behind schedule.

Dr Fauci: 'Over 200,000 cases per day'

"Because we have about 93 million people in this country who are eligible to get vaccinated who don’t get vaccinated, you have a significant pool of vulnerable people. The curve of acceleration of 7-day averages of cases per day is going up in a very steep fashion. I think you’re likely going to wind up somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 cases,” said Fauci to McClatchy.

Hoping that the full approval of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Fauci estimated that there will be a bump in vaccination rates. He added that people infected with the delta variant have viral levels “about 1,000 times higher in quantity” than those infected with alpha variant. Warning of a deadlier variant than Delta, he lashed out at unvaccinated people saying "It's not only about them, it's about everybody".

“If we don’t crush the outbreak to the point of getting the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated, then what will happen is the virus will continue to smolder through the fall into the winter. There could be a variant that’s lingering out there that can push aside Delta. If another one comes along that has an equally high capability of transmitting but also is much more severe, then we could really be in trouble," said Fauci.

70% of US adults vaccinated

On Wednesday, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that 70% of US adults have been vaccinated with at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. As the Biden aimed to administer at least one dose of vaccine to 70% of adults by July 4, there was no celebration at the White House and there was no setting of a new target as people in the South and other rural conservative areas are still hesitating to get themselves vaccinated, stated AP. Protests have erupted across the US as mask mandates have been re-instated amid rising COVID cases.