“December is probably going to be our toughest month,” the former FDA commissioner said.
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned Sunday that the Thanksgiving holiday could be the “inflection point” of a dangerous surge in coronavirus cases that has already begun.
“Things are getting worse around the country,” Gottlieb said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” predicting: “December is probably going to be our toughest month.”
Health experts have been raising alarms about the upcoming holiday season, when millions of Americans typically travel and attend large gatherings with friends and family, with some urging the usual gatherings be shelved or reimagined this year.
Gottlieb rebutted President Donald Trump, in whose administration he served, and who has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. has “rounded the corner” on coronavirus as infections have begun to soar to record heights in recent weeks.
Outbreaks are on the rise in every state, and some states are reporting record hospitalizations, while the U.S. reported more than 99,000 new cases Friday — a new peak — even as Trump continues to play down the virus and hold massive campaign rallies in Midwestern states that are seeing the worst of the latest wave.
Gottlieb said the country is “right at the beginning of what looks like exponential growth” in areas such as the Midwest and the Great Lakes region, a trend he called “very worrisome.”
“The positivity rate is above 10 percent in 15 states,” he noted. “And all of the states are above 1 [percent], which means they’re an expanding epidemic right now. This is very worrisome as we head into the winter.”
A positivity rate for coronavirus tests is generally considered too high if it tops 5 percent.
The former FDA chief also cautioned that as the president continues to spout optimistic assessments of his response to the virus and where the country stands in relation to the pandemic, the facts on the ground will soon be too dire to ignore.
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Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned Sunday that the Thanksgiving holiday could be the “inflection point” of a dangerous surge in coronavirus cases that has already begun https://t.co/J9ybXMsf5G
— POLITICO (@politico) November 1, 2020
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