Dr Scott Gottlieb stressed the importance of getting as many people vaccinated as possible, and warned of a potentially serious spring and summer without protective immunity as new Covid variants appear around the world.
“If we can no longer get protective immunity for the population, we could face a situation where we have a perpetual infection in spring and summer, as these variants are gaining ground here,” the former FDA chief said. said. in the Trump administration Thursday night in an interview on CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith.”
Researchers at the state of Ohio have found a new Covid strain in the US with mutations that scientists have not seen before. They also revealed that they had found another species identical to the highly transmissible strain from the United Kingdom. The researchers say that these mutations are likely to make the virus more contagious.
Gottlieb warned that the variant could turn a relatively quiet spring and summer into a summer where we have more infection, because these variants now circulate and spread more easily, even in the hot months, when we really do not have a lot of coronavirus spread. “
The longtime professor of Harvard University, dr. David Edwards, reflected Gottlieb’s sentiments about the timing and importance of effective vaccination.
“Time is obviously important when confronting any organism,” says Edwards, the founder of FEND, a nasal hygiene mist developed for the coronavirus pandemic. “Our primary goal this winter should still be to vaccinate as many people as possible with the very effective vaccines we possess today.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. distributed 30.6 million vaccines and put 11 million of them in the arms of humans. However, an ensemble forecast compiled by the CDC predicted that another 92,000 Americans would die from Covid in the next three weeks.
According to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, the United States has suffered a complex 8,400 deaths in the past two days and nearly 40,000 in less than two weeks from 2021. The pandemic is killing an average of more than 3,300 Americans a day.
Gottlieb told host Shepard Smith that he was “encouraged” by Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine and “confident” in the company’s ability to increase its production to roll out Covid vaccines in the US to strengthen
“The early data looked encouraging,” Gottlieb said. “One of the things we saw in the data was that the antibody response continued to build up, even after about two and a half months.”
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a contributor to CNBC and is a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, the set-up of genetic testing Tempus and the biotechnology company Illumina. Pfizer has a manufacturing agreement with Gilead vir remdesivir. Gottlieb also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings‘En Royal Caribbean‘s “Healthy Sail Panel.”