Startling explosion in COVID-19 numbers is likely attributed to the reopening of states: Public health doctor

The Center for Disease Control revealed projections of COVID-19 cases that predict the fatality numbers will double in less than a month, by June 1.

Numbers guru Nate Silver questioned the numbers, saying that currently, the United States has about 30,000 new cases daily. Projecting 200,000 cases daily is a dramatic increase that he urged people to take with a grain of salt.

But Dr. Joshua Sharfstein of Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health explained that the only thing that has been holding the numbers back is social distancing.

We have been "depriving the virus of a chance to jump from person to person," he told MSNBC Monday. "Now that we're getting back together, there is a certainty that there will be more viral spread. The question is how much? And can we respond to that spread effectively through contact tracing and other mechanisms? And if we can't, if we're opening too much too early, then we're going to have more cases. And you know, there are all kinds of potential scenarios, and having more cases and more deaths is definitely a realistic possibility."

Watch the discussion below: