Ex-FDA chief Scott Gottlieb warns that most unvaccinated people WILL get Indian Covid Delta variant and it could be the most 'serious virus of their lifetimes'

 The former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that most unvaccinated Americans will contract the Indian 'Delta' Covid variant and it will be the 'most serious virus of their lives'. 

In an appearance on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, Dr Scott Gottlieb, said that about 75 percent of the population - about 50 percent of whom have been vaccinated and 25 percent of whom have had the virus - are no long susceptible to COVID-19 but at least one quarter still are.  

He said that those who haven't been vaccinated, or don't have antibodies from a previous infections, are risking severe illness and hospitalization.

'This virus is so contagious, this variant is so contagious that it's going to infect the majority - that most people will either get vaccinated or have been previously infected or they will get this Delta variant,' Gottlieb told host John Dickerson.

'And for most people who get this Delta variant, it's going to be the most serious virus that they get in their lifetime in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital.'

Gottlieb's comments come as the average number as the U.S. 12,048 new cases on Sunday with a seven-day rolling average of 31,919, a 210 percent increase from the 10,293 average recorded two weeks ago.

The surge has been blamed on the spread of the Delta variant in states with low vaccination rates such as Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri.

The variant has been ravaging the UK, with the country recently recording more than 50,000 new cases in a day for the first time since January.  

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Ex-FDA chief Scott Gottlieb warned on Sunday that 'most' unvaccinated Americans will contract the Covid 'Delta' variant and it will be the 'most serious virus of their lives'

Gottlieb estimates that 97 percent of hospitalizations, along with most deaths, are among the un-jabbed.

With 50 percent of the population vaccinated and about a third of Americans previously infected with the virus, those who are unvaccinated and who have never before had Covid remain most at risk.

On Sunday, Los Angeles County became the first to scrap its reopening and require masks again as the Delta variant, first identified in India in December, spreads throughout the United States.

The country has seen an increase in cases based on a seven-day average, climbing to 29,604 cases on July 16 from 12,325 on June 16. The variant is 50 percent more contagious than the Great Britain-identified Alpha variant, which itself was 50 percent more contagious than the original strain of the virus, according to Yale Medicine epidemiologist F. Perry Wilson.

Gottlieb stressed that cases are likely to be undercounted.

'The people who tend to be getting tested right now are people who are getting very sick or people who are developing telltale symptoms of Covid like loss of taste or smell,' he said.

'And that's only about 15 or 20 percent of people who will become infected.

'We're not doing a lot of routine screening right now,' he said.

'Unless you work for the New York Yankees, you're not getting tested on a regular basis. So I think that this Delta wave could be far more advanced than what we're detecting right now in our ascertainment.'

He pressed for more high-quality masks, such as the N95 kind.

'Quality of mask is going to make a difference with a variant that spreads more aggressively like Delta does, where people are more contagious and exude more virus,' he said.

'Trying to get N95 masks into the hands of vulnerable individuals in places where this is really epidemic I think is going to be important, even in cases where they're vaccinated, if they want to add another layer of protection.'

The Mount Sinai-educated doctor also warned that certain regions are more vulnerable than others.

'If you're in parts of the country where vaccination rates are low and there hasn't been a lot of viruses spread, and that's a lot of parts of the rural South, I think it's much more vulnerable,' he said.

The former FDA chief, a Republican nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017, sits on the board of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer.