Ex-FDA Chief Warns: Hidden Infections Among Vaccinated Causing ‘Vast’ Underestimate of Covid Spread
Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Friday he believed new infections of the Delta variant of Covid-19 were being “vastly underestimated” as a result of vaccinated people failing to get tested when they became infected.
“I think we’re vastly underestimating the level of Delta spread right now because I think people who are vaccinated, who might develop some mild symptoms and might develop a breakthrough case, by and large are not going out and getting tested,” Gottlieb said in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “If you’ve been vaccinated and you develop a mild cold right now, you don’t think you have Covid.”
Gottlieb helmed the Food and Drug Administration during the Trump administration and presently sits on Pfizer’s board. Later in the interview, he also addressed the news that six players for the New York Yankees tested positive for the virus this week, saying it was “hard” for him to understand why baseball teams allow players to “go into that setting unvaccinated.” The comment prompted CNBC’s Joe Kernen to ask Gottlieb to confirm his statement about vaccinated people contracting the virus.
“The other players that are at risk are unvaccinated,” Kernen said. “I don’t know. Maybe they deserve each other. I don’t understand, either, Scott. But if you’re vaccinated you can’t catch it, so what do you mean? Who are the unvaccinated people giving it to, other unvaccinated people?”
Co-host Becky Quick interjected to remind Kernen that people “who were supposedly vaccinated” had been catching the virus. “Yeah, I don’t believe that,” Kernen said, before furrowing his brow and asking, “Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know,” Quick said. “I have some doubts.”
Turning back to the camera, Kernen addressed Gottlieb, who had been sitting silently. “Do you believe that the people who got it, that they got vaccinated?” Kernen asked him. “Or maybe they got one or something? I don’t know.”
Gottlieb, who had started laughing, still didn’t respond, provoking Kernen to continue, “I don’t know! What do you think? You don’t want to continue this.”
“You’re asking me me?” Gottlieb said. “The reporting is some of those people were vaccinated, some were unvaccinated. We don’t know who introduced it into the setting. We’re probably never going to know. … But my hunch is that an unvaccinated individual introduced it into that setting. and in that kind of a setting where you’re in close quarters, some people, even who are vaccinated, are going to catch it.”
Watch above via CNBC.
