Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned those receiving the coronavirus vaccine on Thursday not to leave their guards immediately, telling CNBC that they should follow public health measures, such as wearing masks.
The former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration said the advice is particularly important for American seniors who are at higher risk of death or serious illness caused by Covid-19.
“I think for an older person who is vulnerable to this virus, you definitely … wait a while after the second shot until you may have complete protective immunity,” Gottlieb told Squawk Box. . “I don’t think people should feel completely safe after the first blow.”
Both Covid vaccines that have received emergency use approval from the FDA require two doses. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have developed one of the vaccines, while Moderna produces the other. Gottlieb is sitting on the Pfizer board.
About 10.3 million Americans received the initial Covid blow, starting Wednesday morning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately 29.4 million doses were distributed.
The launch of the tremor vaccine comes as the nation continues to see high levels of coronavirus infection and more deaths due to Covid-19. The average of seven new days of daily cases in the country is 245,306, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. On average, 3,360 Americans died of Covid per day in the last week, the second highest number recorded.
Vaccine recipients must continue to take public health precautions because the outbreak in the United States remains so important and “the infection is everywhere,” Gottlieb said. “If you are a vulnerable person, even if you have had the second blow and you think you have complete immunity to protection against the vaccine, it is still very prudent to continue wearing a mask and take precautions.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to hibernate and avoid seeing family,” added Gottlieb, who led the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. “You may be able to lean forward on this, but wear a mask. Be more careful in these interactions, because in a high prevalence environment, you are still at risk. “
As more Americans get vaccinated, Gottlieb said global infection rates in the United States should drop and the intensity of the epidemic should be significantly reduced. At that point, he said, it will be more sensible to “relax” some precautions.
“This will hopefully be summer, spring, if these new variants do not settle here in the United States and change our trajectory,” he said, referring to the coronavirus strains originally found in Britain and South Africa, which are considered to be more transmissible.
Researchers in Ohio said Wednesday that they have discovered two new variants that are likely to come from the United States
Last week, Gottlieb warned Americans that a return to pre-pandemic life is unlikely to happen in 2021. For example, he told CNBC that public places could still require people to take the temperature before entering.
“I just think things will be different, just as they are different when you go through an airport now after 9/11,” he said last week. “I do not think that masks will be mandatory next fall and winter if we can increase the vaccination rate and if these new variants disappear or do not become predominant. But I think a lot of people will want to wear masks and that’s okay. “
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and a board member of Pfizer, a genetic testing start-up Tempus and the biotechnology company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.