The US will see a significant reduction in new coronavirus infections in the coming weeks, Dr. Scott Gottlieb predicted on CNBC Monday.
“I think we will see the pandemic in the United States turn, in terms of cases coming down,” Gottlieb said in an interview on “Squawk Box.”
However, the former Food and Drug Administration chief warned that even if the highest number of new infections falls, “we will still have outbreaks in some parts of the country.”
“We will never virtually eliminate this virus,” said Gottlieb, who led the regulatory body in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019, reiterating his concerns he had raised on Friday when he warned that vaccine hesitation in the US was unlikely. makes that the nation will eradicate Covid as it happens with other diseases, such as polio and smallpox.
“But I think you’ll see the cases decline pretty dramatically when we come in May,” said Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer’s board of directors, which has approved one of three Covid vaccines for emergency use in the US. . Moderna makes the other vaccine with two injections. The Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine has been discontinued by the FDA due to rare but serious blood clotting problems.
Monday, the seven-day average of daily new cases of coronavirus in the US was approximately 67,400, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University. That figure is slightly lower than a week ago, although it represents an increase from late March levels and is similar to last summer’s increase.
Deaths from the disease have dropped significantly in the U.S. According to Hopkins analysis by CNBC, the seven-day average of daily new Covid deaths on Monday was 723, down 25% from a week ago.
Gottlieb said he expects continued improvement in the pandemic landscape for two reasons. The first is warming weather that allows more outdoor activities, where the risk of transmission of the coronavirus is lower. The second is additional progress in rolling out Covid vaccines, he said.
Every American adult was officially eligible for the coronavirus vaccine on Monday. Just over half of American adults have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a contributor to CNBC and serves on the boards of Pfizer, genetic testing start-up Tempus, healthcare technology company Aetion Inc. and biotech company IlluminaHe is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings‘ And Royal Caribbean‘s “Healthy Sail Panel.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.