Speaking to the Senate Health Committee this week, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said preliminary results on the first round of a study by the agency show more than 90% of the population is susceptible.
That means more than 295 million Americans could still get infected with the virus.
Redfield spoke at the Senate hearing on Wednesday along with several other leading coronavirus political figures, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir and FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn.
Together, the group advocated for a fact-based response to the pandemic and pushed back against concerns that the vaccine approval process would be hampered by political interference.
"We do feel the urgency of the moment. We do take very much.... very seriously our responsibility to protect American lives," Hahn said. "We will not delay, but we will not cut corners in our process."
Hours later, though, President Trump stomped on that united front by claiming he may override the FDA if the agency released tougher standards for the authorization of a vaccine.
About 6.9 million people across the country have already contracted the illness and more than 200,000 people have died since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The US continues to lead the world in both deaths and infections and now experts warn that the spread of the virus could get much worse with schools now open and flu season on its way.
At least 21 states -- mostly across the US heartland and Midwest -- are reporting an increase in new Covid-19 cases compared to the previous week. Nationwide, the US is averaging more than 43,000 new cases per day -- about double what the country was averaging back in June when lockdown restrictions were easing.
And the country is no longer seeing the kind of decline in deaths it was seeing in late August, according to infectious diseases expert Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo.
Marrazzo said it's not unfathomable another 100,000 Americans could die by the end of the year. Researchers with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predict a total of more than 378,000 Americans will have died from Covid-19 by January 1.
"The bottom line is that it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on politically," Marrazzo said during an Infectious Diseases Society of America briefing Wednesday. "The numbers are the numbers. You can't argue with them. And they are not going in the right direction."
20% of summer Covid-19 cases were in young people
Warnings from experts have remained the same for months: wear a mask, wash your hands, social distance and avoid crowded places.
Over the summer, many of those warnings targeted younger groups, after public health officials and state leaders said young people were helping drive a surge of new cases.
A new report from the CDC now shows people ages 20 to 29 accounted for more than 20% of all confirmed Covid-19 cases between June and August.
In June, Southern states saw an increase in positive tests a
