On Sunday, the former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claimed that there would be a spike in coronavirus cases after the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the New York Post reports.
Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA Commissioner under President Donald Trump and is now a board member with Pfizer, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “we’re going to see a post-holiday spike, there’s no question about that.”
“People are exhausted right now,” he continued, “but we need to remain vigilant just for a little bit longer. If you’re in the southwest right now, you’re in the Great Lakes region, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, you’re in parts of New England or western Pennsylvania or northern New York, or certain mountain states like Colorado, things don’t look good.” Gottlieb claimed that these regions in particular may witness a spike since they “haven’t experienced the Delta wave yet,” referring to the India variant of the virus.
Gottlieb claimed that the virus would ultimately be defeated if children get vaccinated, referring to a controversial decision by the FDA to authorize Pfizer vaccines for children between the ages of 5 and 11. This comes despite the fact that young children consistently remain the age group with the strongest natural resistance to the virus, which would negate the need for vaccines.
“I think we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of declining prevalence on the back end of this Delta wave and also with the deployment of new technology that we have,” Gottlieb continued. “We now have orally available drugs that should be available in the first quarter. We have vaccines available to children. So, we see that point in time when this is going to still be a pervasive risk, COVID, but it’s not going to be the prevalent risk it is right now where it…dominates our lives.”