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       NIH director on disagreements over face masks, surging Delta cases National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins calls a mask 'a life saving medical device' and argues that 'it's really unfortunate that politics and polarization have gotten in the way of a simple public health measure.'

       National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins is warning unvaccinated Americans to get their shots and for everyone to go back to wearing masks as coronavirus case numbers have skyrocketed over the past month.

       CDC records show that there are now 129,701 daily new cases of COVID-19, up more then 700% from early July, and Collins told "Fox News Sunday" that he sees it only getting worse before it gets better.

       "I will be surprised if we don’t cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks, and that’s heartbreaking considering we never thought we’d be back in that space again," Collins said. "That was January-February, that shouldn’t be August. But here we are with delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking situation where 90 million people are still unvaccinated who are sitting ducks for this virus and that’s the mess we’re in. We’re in a world of hurt and it’s a critical juncture to try to do everything we can to turn that around."