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Dr Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday he believes the United States is dramatically underestimating the number of Covid delta infections, making it unclear whether the highly transmissible strain is causing hospitalization rates and mortality rates higher than expected.
“We don’t know what the denominator is right now,” Gottlieb said in an interview on “Squawk Box”. “I think we are significantly underestimating the level of delta spread right now because I think people who are vaccinated, who might develop mild symptoms or might develop a breakthrough case, on the whole don’t come out and don’t not get tested. If you ‘If you’ve been vaccinated and you develop a mild cold right now, you don’t think you have Covid.’
Coronavirus cases in the United States have increased due to the delta variant, with the seven-day average of new daily infections rising to 26,448, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. This is 67% more than a week ago. The weekly average of new daily deaths is up 26% from a week ago, to 273, according to CNBC analysis.
“There is no clear evidence that this is more pathogenic, that it causes more serious infections. It is clearly more virulent, it is clearly much more contagious” than the previous viral strains, said Gottlieb, who sits on the board of directors of vaccine maker Covid Pfizer.
If young Americans are getting sick with the delta variant at higher levels than previous points in the pandemic, it is because “younger people are not being vaccinated,” Gottlieb said. “When vaccinated people are infected and there are infectious infections, they don’t get so sick. They are protected from serious disease.”
Delta is now the most common strain of coronavirus in the United States, accounting for more than 57% of cases in the two weeks from June 20 to July 3. This is the last window available on the CDC website.
U.S. health officials have sounded the alarm for weeks on the potential of the variant to curb hard-won progress in reducing infection rates, which fell in the spring as the U.S. vaccination campaign was beating down. its full. As of Friday, 48.3% of the country’s population were fully immunized and nearly 56% had received at least one dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Covid vaccine coverage is highest among the most vulnerable group of Americans: the elderly. More than 79% of people aged 65 and over are fully vaccinated and nearly 89% have received at least one dose, according to the CDC.
The vast majority of US counties with high infection rates right now – defined as at least 100 new cases in the past seven days per 100,000 population – have vaccinated less than 40% of their residents, according to analysis CNBC completed earlier this week.
In Los Angeles County, authorities responded to an increase in cases on Thursday by reinstating an indoor mask warrant, even for those fully vaccinated. The nation’s most populous LA County lifted its previous mask requirement about a month ago, working with the state of California to end most of its remaining pandemic restrictions.
Gottlieb said he didn’t expect many other state or local governments to follow LA County and start putting in mitigation measures already lifted “because there won’t be much support for mandates at this stage “.
“People who worry about Covid have largely been vaccinated. I realize that not everyone has been able to get vaccinated, but most of the people who worry about this infection have been vaccinated,” said Gottlieb, who led the FDA from 2017 to 2019 in the Trump administration.
“People who are not vaccinated don’t worry about the infection and don’t want to wear masks either. Now, at the end of the day, that means it’s just going to spread through the population,” a- he added.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a contributor to CNBC and serves on the boards of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion, and biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.
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