Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday that the U.S. is unlikely to eradicate Covid as it has with other diseases, such as polio and smallpox, unless Americans significantly change their attitudes toward vaccination.
“It’s possible. It looks like we’re not ready to do that and take the collective action it will need,” the former Food and Drug Administration chief told Squawk Box.
“People who exercise some serious virtue will be required to be vaccinated, even if they individually consider that they have a low risk of infection, as even if they have a low personal risk, they can continue to transmit the infection and cannot be eradicated. a disease where you have a significant group of people who will continue to capture and transmit it, ”he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States has not caused any cases of polio since 1979. The first vaccine against the disease, which can cause paralysis, was released. available in the country in 1955.
It has been more than 70 years since the last smallpox outbreak that occurred naturally in the United States was recorded, according to the CDC. In 1980, after a long global public health campaign involving mass vaccines, the World Health Organization’s decision-making body proclaimed the eradication of smallpox.
According to the CDC, routine smallpox vaccines are no longer produced. However, the agency still recommends that children receive four doses of polio vaccine at various ages as they grow older.
“We eradicate things where we have very high vaccination rates and where the vaccine is a complete vaccine and is totally protective for a long, lifelong time,” said Gottlieb, who is on the board of Pfizer, 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.
“Look at measles, smallpox, polio, we vaccinate children. It provides them with a level of protection that lasts into perpetuity or into adulthood, and therefore we are able to eradicate (or eradicate to a large extent. ) diseases of societies where vaccination levels are very high, “Gottlieb said. That is unlikely to be the case for the U.S. for Covid, he said. In addition, a “large enough” proportion of the adult population resists vaccination against Covid and shots are not yet available for young children, he explained.
“When it is available for children, there is now a very healthy debate in this country about whether it will be mandatory for children to go back to school and it looks like the answer will be‘ no ’in the vast majority of states,” Gottlieb said. . “This does not create the configuration to eradicate this virus. This creates a configuration where we can get this virus to reach low levels. But you will still have pockets of spread. If we want to eradicate it, we have to make different decisions as a society.”
However, many U.S. colleges and universities require Covid vaccines for students returning in the fall semester.
Gottlieb’s comments came on Friday a day after comments were made public by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who said it was “likely” that people would need a third dose of Covid vaccine in a year after vaccination. complete.
The comments renewed conversation about the duration of the coronavirus threat, which the World Health Organization declared pandemic 13 months ago.
In the United States, approximately 24% of the population has been completely vaccinated against Covid, according to the CDC. President Joe Biden has called on states to ensure that all adults can receive the shot in the coming days.
However, even though millions of Americans are getting vaccinated, coronavirus cases in the U.S. continue to rise. The seven-day average of new daily infections was 70,484, up 7% from last week, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. This exceeds the all-time highs earlier this year, but coincides with the levels seen during the summer hike.
Some people have suggested, including Bourla, that coronavirus vaccines could become an annual event, similar to seasonal flu. In the short term, Gottlieb said he hopes this will be true.
“It’s hard to predict what things will be like in seven years, in ten years with Covid and how much this infection will be reduced socially, but at least in the foreseeable future it can be seen that it will be annualized … vaccination,” he said. to say.
More than 31 million cases of coronavirus in the U.S. have been reported since the start of the pandemic, according to Hopkins data, and at least 565,293 people in the country have died from the disease. Both the accumulated cases and the fatalities in the US, the highest of all nations in the world, account for approximately 20% of world totals.