Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 simply cannot return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Wednesday.
“It will not be as it was in 2017 and 2018, when we did not worry at all about catching a respiratory pathogen,” the former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner told Squawk Box. “We will worry, even if we are vaccinated.”
However, he said: “I think we will worry much less than we worry now, we hope.”
The new coronavirus appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China and has spread worldwide, causing a total of nearly 86.6 million infections and more than 1.87 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University as of Wednesday morning. The United States, in the midst of another case of rising deaths, accounted for more than 21 million of these cases worldwide and more than 357,000 deaths.
Gottlieb, who led the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019, compared the potential post-coronavirus changes in American life to flying a plane after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. For example, he said he believed that , due to the pandemic, public places may continue to check temperatures.
“I just think things will be different, just as they are different when you go through an airport now after 9/11,” said Gottlieb, who is on the board of Pfizer, which produces a Covid-19 vaccine. “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. “
Gottlieb cited a number of reasons for his beliefs, including the reluctance of some people to be vaccinated against Covid-19, just as there is no universal vaccination against seasonal flu. In addition, he pointed out that vaccines protect people from the symptomatic development of Covid-19, not necessarily from ever being infected with coronavirus.
“It will take time to fully answer this question, because we will be dependent on real-world evidence, but the conventional wisdom … is that the vaccine is likely to prevent some people from becoming infected and is likely to reduce the likelihood of people being infected. [from transmitting] the virus, “Gottlieb said.” What we don’t know is the extent of this effect. “
Gottlieb’s remarks followed a warning he issued Tuesday night about the new coronavirus strain circulating in South Africa, telling CNBC’s Shepard Smith that it was “very worrying” because it could be moved in a way that could limit the effectiveness of antibody drugs.
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.