The former head of the Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, predicts that the United States may have some treatments for the virus by the fall.
However, he said during an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” that he thinks China will produce a vaccine and have it available before America.
“There’s a risk that China may get to a vaccine first,” he said, adding, “I don’t think their Adenoviral vector vaccine is very good, but they may get it to the market before we do. I think that is a concern.”
Watch the video below:
.@ScottGottliebMD tells @margbrennan this morning that nobody is “out of the woods” and that “really any part of the country is vulnerable” to #coronavirus, particularly as Americans begin to congregate indoors next fall pic.twitter.com/kIPT92IBTD
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 19, 2020
According to the World Health Organization, there are 70 coronavirus vaccines that are being developed.
However, health experts say that it could be up to 12 to 18 months before the U.S. has a vaccine that is able to be produced and widely available to Americans.
Additionally, Gottlieb warned that “any part of the country” is vulnerable to a coronavirus outbreak and cautioned that “I don’t think anyone is out of the woods right now.”
Currently, the latest reports find that there are more than 737,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the country.