The evolution of coronavirus in Europe is probably no longer an early indication of what will happen weeks later in the United States, due in part to America’s progress in vaccinating its population, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday.
The comments of the former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration at Squawk Box came a day after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical officer, said the situation in Europe shows why US states should not completely give up pandemic precautions right now.
Italy is imposing stricter restrictions on business in parts of the country following an increase in new infections, including a future nationwide closure for the Easter weekend. German health officials have also warned of an increase in Covid cases.
“Earlier I said I was about four to six weeks behind Europe and I was a bit close,” Gottlieb said, referring to the earlier stages of the global health crisis. “Everything that happened in Europe has finally happened here. Now I think they are back. We are ahead of Europe.”
“I do not think that the conditions in Europe and the situation in Europe are no longer necessarily predictive of what will happen here, because we have much more immunity in our population both against the previous infection – which they also have – but also now from vaccination, “added Gottlieb, a board member of Pfizer, which produces a Covid vaccine.
About 9.5% of the vaccine-eligible population in all EU Member States and the European Economic Area had at least one Covid vaccine, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. About 7.5% of Italians aged 18 and over and 8.5% of Germans aged 18 and over had at least one dose of Covid vaccine, according to ECDC data.
In contrast, 27% of the American adult population received at least one Covid stroke, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna require both doses to protect against total immunity. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one injection, has recently been phased out for use by the European Union. U.S. regulators granted emergency use of the J&J vaccine late last month after removing Pfizer and Moderna in December.
“I think we should be concerned that things may turn in a direction we don’t predict,” said Gottlieb, who had previously called on states to continue to require people to wear masks to prevent coronavirus transmission. In fact, he said ending the term of office should be the last public health measure to be lifted.
However, the former head of the FDA under the Trump administration said that emerging Covid strains, such as the B.1.1.7 variant first discovered in the UK, have proved less problematic in the US than elsewhere. of the world.
“Right now you see that B.1.1.7 is becoming quite widespread in the United States. It is more than 50% of the cases in Texas, Florida and Southern California and you don’t see the big increase in cases that we could have expected once the variant claimed to be owned in the United States, “Gottlieb said, attributing -l the level of previous infection in the country, along with vaccination rates.
Last week, he estimated at CNBC that about 50% of Americans have “some form of immunity” to coronavirus.
“The fact that we haven’t seen the growth of coronavirus grow … even though B.1.1.7 is becoming the predominant strain in the United States, I think it’s auspicious,” Gottlieb said Monday.
New York, where researchers have discovered a new strain called B.1.526, is an area of concern for Gottlieb. He said there were indications that certain mutations in the virus in the strain “could make our vaccines more resistant and make people more likely to be re-infected.”
“We really don’t understand this mutation well, but that’s a cause for concern, so we need to look at this quite carefully,” he said, adding that the next few weeks should give officials more answers.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a board member of Pfizer, Tempus Genetic Testing Company, Aetion Healthcare and Illumina Biotechnology. He is also co-chair of the “Healthy Sail Panel” of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify groups receiving vaccinations.