NIH director calls unvaccinated Americans 'sitting ducks' and predicts the US will see 200,000 COVID cases per day within TWO WEEKS if more people don't get shots and wear masks

National Institutes of Health Director Dr Francis Collins referred to unvaccinated Americans as 'sitting ducks' in an interview on Sunday

National Institutes of Health Director Dr Francis Collins referred to unvaccinated Americans as 'sitting ducks' as he offered a grim prediction that the US could see 200,000 new coronavirus cases per day within the next two weeks. 

Collins issued his warning on Sunday as the CDC reported a seven-day rolling average for new cases of 119,523 - an increase of over 700 percent from early July.

'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’d be back in that space again,' Collins told Fox News. 

'That was January-February, that shouldn’t be August. But here we are with 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 and it’s a critical juncture to try to do everything we can to turn that around.' 

Collins issued his warning on Sunday as the CDC reported a seven-day rolling average for new cases of 119,523 - an increase of over 700 percent from early July

Pictured: percentage of population vaccinated so far

A graph of daily COVID-19 vaccinations in the US

As of Sunday about 196.5 million people, or 59.2 percent of the total US population, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while about 167.4 million people, or 50.4 percent of the total US population, have been fully vaccinated. 

Weekly vaccine rates have been falling, albeit slowly. As of Thursday, the 7-day average number of administered vaccine doses reported to the CDC per day was 699,068, a modest 0.03 percent decrease from the previous week. 

On Sunday Dr. Collins argued that masks are 'a life saving medical device' before adding that 'it's really unfortunate that politics and polarization have gotten in the way of a simple public health measure.' 

Since early last week, the issue of mask mandates for children in schools has sparked debate on the idea nationwide, with many passionate parents like OutKick founder Clay Travis, who's heated argument with a Tennessee school board drew support from the likes of former NFL star quarterback Jay Cutler.

Critics of school mask mandates point to CDC data that supports children's safety from the more serious COVID-19 effects.

And as more Americans begin to go maskless over a year after the pandemic initially began, Dr. Collins warns that those who continue to forgo facial covers and the coronovirus vaccine are in danger, whether they believe so or not.

The super-contagious Indian Delta variant, which NIH reports was proven to be prevented by two Moderna vaccine shots, is now causing more than 90 percent of new Covid cases in the US, driving the country's current surge. 

Graph of number of US COVID-19 infections per day in July and August

However, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine - the most commonly used shot in the U.S. - was only 42 percent effective against infection, while the Moderna vaccine was only 76 percent effective in July. 

For the study, published on pre-printer server medRxiv.org - meaning it has not yet been peer review - the team gathered data on more than 25,000 Minnesotans from January to July. 

While the vaccines remained about as effective as advertised, around 90 percent, for the first six months of the year, their effectiveness began to dip in June.

However, the efficacy largely dropped in July as the variant took hold in the United States.

The change in vaccine effectiveness corresponds with a massive surge in the prevalence of the Delta variant in Minnesota, growing from 0.7 percent prevalence in May to more than 70 percent in July.

Meanwhile, the Kent 'Alpha' variant, the previous dominant strain in the U.S., decreased in prevalence from 85 percent to 13 percent over the same time period.

Even despite a rise in breakthrough infections, the vaccines were still effective in preventing hospitalizations and severe cases from the virus, with both having a hospitalization rate of under 25 percent.

Currently, there are three available Covid vaccines in the United States.

Daily trends in COVID-19 cases in the United States as reported to the CDC

The Pfizer vaccine is the most popular, having been used 197 million times since it received FDA emergency use authorization in December 2020.

The Moderna vaccine, which was also given EUA in December, has been used more than 140 million times.

Only one single dose vaccine is available in the U.S. - the Johnson & Johnson vaccine - which has been used 13.7 million times.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Covid patients in America's hospitals are unvaccinated, while vaccinated people tend to have milder cases - or be fully asymptomatic. 

As of Sunday, August 15, there have been 36,657,821 cases of Coronavirus and 621,325 deaths nationwide.