The United States will see a significant reduction in new coronavirus infections in the coming weeks, Dr. Scott Gottlieb predicted Monday on CNBC.
“I think we’ll start to see the pandemic spread to the United States, in terms of declining cases,” Gottlieb said in an interview with Squawk Box.
However, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration warned that even if the highest number of new infections falls, “we will still have outbreaks in some parts of the country.”
“We will virtually never eliminate this virus,” said Gottlieb, who headed the regulatory agency from 2017 to 2019 to the Trump administration, reiterating the concern he raised Friday when he warned that the vaccination in the U.S. causes it is unlikely that the nation will eradicate Covid as is done with other diseases, such as polio and smallpox.
“But I think you’ll start to see cases drop dramatically as we go into May,” said Gottlieb, who is part of Pfizer’s board of directors, which has one of the three Covid vaccines removed for emergency use in the US Modern manufactures the other two-shot vaccine. The Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine has been stopped by the FDA due to rare but serious cases of blood clotting problems.
On Monday, the seven-day average of new daily cases of coronavirus in the U.S. was about 67,400, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. This figure has fallen slightly from a week ago, although it represents an increase over the levels observed in late March and at the same level as the rise last summer.
Deaths from the disease have fallen more sharply in the United States According to CNBC analysis of Hopkins data, the seven-day average of new daily deaths for Covid on Monday was 723, which fell by 25 % compared to a week ago.
Gottlieb said he expects to see continuous improvement in the pandemic landscape for two reasons. The first is a warm climate that allows for more outdoor activities, where the risk of coronavirus transmission is lower. The second is further progress in Covid vaccine deployment, he said.
All U.S. adults officially switched to the coronavirus vaccine on Monday. Just over half of adults in the United States have already received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and board member of Pfizer, the start of Tempus genetic testing, healthcare technology company Aetion Inc. and biotechnology. Illuminate. He is also co – chair of Norway Cruise Line Holdings′ I Royal Caribbean“Healthy Candle Panel”. The Associated Press contributed to this report.