Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, is warning Americans COVID-19 could regularly take over 1,000 lives for the foreseeable future.
“We’re probably going to see significant spread across the entire United States in a confluent epidemic, now we’re much better prepared to deal with, so I don’t think that we’re going to see the excess death that we saw with the first wave of this pandemic when it struck New York,” Gottlieb told CNBC on Tuesday.
He added, “But the sheer fact that we’re going to be infecting so many people right now is probably going to mean that the death tolls get well above 1,000 for a sustained period of time and so it’s a very grim couple of months that we face.”
Watch his comments below:
"It is a very grim couple of months we face." Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warns of the months ahead as coronavirus cases surge, saying death tolls could climb above 1,000 daily for a sustained period of time. https://t.co/JPns0CK6bX pic.twitter.com/TeubVtIcRj
— CNBC (@CNBC) November 3, 2020
During his appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, Gottlieb weighed in on President Donald Trump’s claim the nation is “rounding the corner” on the COVID-19 pandemic, as IJR previously reported.
“Things are getting worse around the country. I think Thanksgiving is really going to be an inflection point. I think December is probably going to be our toughest month,” Gottlieb said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted a similar outcome, as IJR previously reported.
“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Fauci said.
He added, “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”
The United States on Monday reported at least 540 new coronavirus related deaths and 93,581 new cases.
More than 9,415,600 Americans have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 231,900 have died, as of Tuesday afternoon.