‘I think people are underestimating how bad this is going to get’: Dr. Ashish Jha on the delta variant

The dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health warned about the tough months ahead across the U.S. due to Covid, as new data shows the delta strain can carry up to 1,000 times more virus in their nasal passages than those infected with the original strain.

“I think people are underestimating how bad this is going to get,” said Dr. Ashish Jha. “We are in for a very tough August, probably a very tough September before this really turns around.”

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters at a briefing Thursday that the delta variant “is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of, and that I have seen in my 20 year career.”

Jha told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith,” that the infection rate could be worse if it were winter, and predicted the delta spike could peak within two months. 

“It might peak in September, but we are far away from the peak, right now we are doing 40,000 cases a day, it’s going to go substantially higher before it peaks,” Jha said. 

The delta variant has spread rapidly through the U.S., accounting for more than 83% of sequenced cases in the U.S. right now, up from 50% the week of July 3, according to the CDC.