Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday that the US is unlikely to eradicate Covid as it has done with other diseases, such as polio and smallpox, unless Americans significantly change their stance on vaccination.
“It’s possible. We don’t seem ready to do it and take the collective action that is needed,” the former Food and Drug Administration chief said of “Squawk Box.”
“It requires people to practice some serious virtues to get vaccinated, even if they individually feel they have a low risk of the infection because even if they are personally at low risk, they can still get the infection. and you cannot transmit and eradicate a disease where you have a significant contingent of people who will continue to contract and transmit the disease, ”he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no cases of polio have developed in the US since 1979. The first vaccine against the disease – which can cause paralysis – became available in the country in 1955.
According to the CDC, it has been more than 70 years since the last naturally occurring smallpox outbreak in the US was recorded. In 1980, after years of global public health campaign involving mass vaccinations, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization declared smallpox to be eradicated.
Routine vaccinations no longer occur for smallpox, the CDC said. However, the agency still recommends that children receive four polio vaccines at different ages.
“We are eradicating things where we have very high vaccination coverage, and where the vaccine is a single vaccine that is completely protective for a long time and for life,” said Gottlieb, who is on Pfizer’s board of directors. one of three Covid vaccines approved in the US for emergency use. 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.
“You look at measles, smallpox, polio, we vaccinate children. It provides them with a level of protection that lasts forever or well into adulthood, and so we are able to eradicate those diseases – or eradicate most of them in societies where we exist vaccination levels that are very high, ”said Gottlieb. That is unlikely for Covid in the US, he said. In addition, a “sufficient” proportion of the adult population opposes Covid vaccination and the injections are not yet available for young children, he explained.
“When it becomes available to children, there is now a very healthy debate in this country whether it will be mandatory for children to go back to school and it seems that the answer will be ‘no’ in the vast majority of people. states, “Gottlieb said.” That doesn’t create the intent to eradicate this virus. That creates a set-up where we can get this virus to a low level. But you will still be scattered. If we want to eradicate it, we have to make different decisions as a society. “
However, many colleges and universities in the US require Covid vaccines for students returning for the fall semester.
Gottlieb’s comments came Friday a day after the comments made by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who said it is “likely” that people will need a third dose of Covid vaccine within a year of being fully vaccinated.
The comments renewed the conversation around the duration of the coronavirus threat, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic 13 months ago.
According to the CDC, in the US, about 24% of the population is fully vaccinated against Covid. President Joe Biden has asked states to ensure that all adults are eligible for the injection for the next few days.
But even with millions of Americans being vaccinated, coronavirus cases in the US are still on the rise. The seven-day mean of new daily infections was 70,484, up 7% over the past week, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University. That’s far from their all-time highs earlier this year, but consistent with the levels seen during the summer wave.
Some people, including Bourla, have suggested that coronavirus vaccinations could become an annual event, similar to seasonal flu. Gottlieb said he expects that to be true in the near term.
“It’s hard to predict what things will look like in seven years, in ten years with Covid, and how far this infection will be reduced socially, but at least in the near future you could see that this is an annual … vaccination. “, he said.
According to Hopkins data, more than 31 million cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the US since the start of the pandemic, and at least 565,293 people in the country have died from the disease. Both cumulative cases and fatalities in the US, the highest of any country in the world, account for about 20% of the global totals.