The United States could be entering its “most dangerous season” for coronavirus infections, Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned Tuesday, as the colder weather brings more people indoors.
“As we head into the fall and winter, the conditions are right to see continued, more aggressive spread of this virus,” Gottlieb said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” He urged Americans to adhere to public health measures aimed at mitigating the spread such as wearing masks and social distancing.
“Kids are back in school, kids are back in college campuses. Work is trying to restart. People are becoming more complacent and tired of the restrictions, and so all of those conditions are going to set up a fall and winter that, I think, is going to create a lot of risk,” he added.
Gottlieb’s comments came one day after global deaths from Covid-19 topped 1 million, and one week after the U.S. eclipsed 200,000 deaths.
The former Food and Drug Administration commissioner under President Donald Trump added he’s concerned about the current number of new daily infections in the U.S., echoing remarks made Monday by White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
With an average of new cases over 40,000 per day, Fauci said the U.S. is “not in a good place” as it enters the fall and winter.
Gottlieb said Tuesday, “You’re certainly seeing the rising infections right now, so we’re taking an awful lot of infection into probably what is going to be the most dangerous season for this virus.”
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer, genetic-testing start-up Tempus and biotech company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings‘ and Royal Caribbean‘s “Healthy Sail Panel.”
Source: Business - cnbc.com
