‘The Tables Have Turned’: Former FDA Commissioner Predicts the US Will Not Have To Lockdown Again

Italy is imposing new restrictions to help stop the spread of COVID-19 as the country heads toward a third wave of the virus.

That has some wondering if the U.S. should prepare for another lockdown, even as President Joe Bidensays every adult should be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of May.

The former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Scott Gottlieb, was asked during an appearance on CBS’ “Face The Nation” if he believes the country will need to lockdown again.

“Through this whole pandemic, we’ve been about maybe three, four weeks behind Europe, so we’ve used Europe as a barometer of what’s going to happen in the United States,” Gottlieb said. “I think the tables have turned, and I think we’re ahead of Europe because we’re vaccinating so much more aggressively. Eastern Europe looks very bad right now. Italy looks bad.”

He continued, “But I think the U.S. is in a much different situation, through a combination of the fact that we have a lot of prior infection — so there’s immunity in the population from prior infection — and we’ve now vaccinated 25% of adults.”

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Gottlieb noted that the country is administrating about 2.5 million doses of the vaccine per day.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 63% of Americans over the age of 65 have received at least one vaccine dose.