Incoming CDC Director Expects Over 100,000 US COVID-19 Deaths in Next Month

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to head the Centers for Disease Control, speaks during a news conference at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., on Dec. 8, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

More than 100,000 more Americans will die from COVID-19 over about the next month, the next director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts.

“By the middle of February, we expect half a million deaths in this country,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who President-elect Joe Biden has tapped for the position, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Jan. 17.