Dr. Scott Gottlieb Predicts ‘Pandemic Phase’ of Covid Will End When Antiviral Drug and Kids’ Vaccine Are Approved
Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said on Wednesday that the “pandemic phase” of Covid-19 could be nearing an end, following the approval of an antiviral drug from Merck and a vaccine for children ages 5-11.
During the CNBC Squawk on the Street interview, Gottlieb suggested that many people would “get comfortable going back into the office” as those two options become readily available.
“A lot of people who are vaccinated who are worried about going back into the office recognize the risk to them is low,” he said. “They’re vaccinated. They’re unlikely to have a very bad outcome from Covid. What they’re worried about is bringing a mild or asymptomatic infection back into their home where they might have young kids or an older relative.”
A third potential mitigation tool that could help employees return to the office, Gottlieb said, is a “wider availability of diagnostic tests so you can test yourself serially to make sure you’re not carrying an asymptomatic infection.”
Gottlieb predicted that the Delta variant will have moved through the country approximately by Thanksgiving. He previously told MSNBC that the current wave of infections from the Delta variant could be the country’s “last major surge” in the pandemic.
He then noted that at around the same time he expects the Delta variant to wane, “we’re going to have, hopefully, a vaccine available for children and, at some point before the end of the year, we probably will have the orally available drug from Merck if things go well and that undergoes a favorable review.”
“I think those two things are going to be the bookend on the pandemic phase of this virus and we’re going to be entering the more endemic phase when this becomes an omnipresent risk but don’t represent the extreme risk that it represents right now,” he added.
Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LLP, announced last week that a phase 3 trial showed that the drug, Molnupiravir, reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by about 50% in Covid patients, all of whom were unvaccinated and had at least one underlying risk factor.
Merck said it plans to seek emergency use authorization in the U.S. Singapore has already signed a purchase agreement with the company, and several other countries are in talks to do so as well.
Watch above, via CNBC
