A former head of the Food and Drug Administration said it’s possible at least a half-million people in the United States are becoming infected with the coronavirus per day.
Scott Gottlieb, who served in the Trump administration, told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday that the country is likely only diagnosing 1 in 10 new infections, and between 400,000 to 500,000 are contracting the disease every day.
“The reality is we have well more than 100,000 infections a day and more than 100,000 cases a day right now,” Gottlieb said. “We’re probably diagnosing, as we talked about, maybe 1 in 10 infections nationally … in these epidemic states, where they’re falling behind on testing.”
“So the 40,000 to 50,000 infections that we’re diagnosing each day right now really represents 400,000 to 500,000 infections. Now, those are infections. They’re not all cases, because not all those people are symptomatic. But probably 200,000 to 300,000 of them are symptomatic — perhaps mildly symptomatic for a lot of them. So not enough to go get tested,” he added.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease doctor, testified to Congress on Tuesday that he expected as many as 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day “if this does not turn around.”
The U.S. is reporting about 40,000 new cases per day as states reopen, but the latest spikes in COVID-19 diagnoses have prompted governors to rethink their plans.
