According to Dr. Scott Gottlieb — former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner for President Donald Trump — the United States will be facing a strenuous fall and winter with COVID-19.
President Donald Trump said during his rally on Saturday, the nation is “rounding the turn” on the coronavirus even without a vaccine.
“I think we have at least one more cycle with this virus heading into the fall and winter,” Gottlieb said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
He added, “If you look what’s happening around the country right now, there’s an unmistakable spike in new infections, and you’re also seeing declines in hospitalizations that we were achieving starting to level off. I would expect them to start going up again as well.”
Check out his remarks below:
#COVID LOOKAHEAD: “I think we have at least one more cycle with this virus, heading into the fall and winter,” @ScottGottliebMD tells @margbrennan, highlighting an increase in infections in various states heading into the new season pic.twitter.com/6gJiwOcKUs
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 20, 2020
Gottlieb noted there are around 15 states with a positivity rate of 10% or higher, which is “deeply concerning.”
About 30 states have a rate of transfer of above one which indicates an “expanding epidemic.”
“Right now we’re seeing a resurgence of infection. Now, whether or not that’s a post labor day bump and will start to level off or this is the beginning of a resurgence heading into the fall and the winter,” Gottlieb said.
He continued, “It’s unclear, but I’m deeply concerned that as we head into the fall and the winter, this is a season where a respiratory pathogen like coronavirus wants to spread, and so there’s a lot of risk heading into this season.”
The president predicted during his press briefing on Friday Americans will have widespread access to a coronavirus vaccine by April, as IJR previously reported.
Over the past week, there has been an average of 40,668 cases per day, which remains the same as the average two weeks prior.
On Saturday, the United States reported at least 672 new coronavirus related deaths and 41,844 new cases.