Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, and President Donald Trump are not on the same page regarding whether the nation is “rounding the corner” on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Things are getting worse around the country. I think Thanksgiving is really going to be an inflection point. I think December is probably going to be our toughest month,” Gottlieb said.
He noted states are seeing an “accelerated spread” of the coronavirus.
Gottlieb argued the nation is at the beginning of what seems like “exponential growth in a lot of states,” which include those in the Midwest, the Great Lakes region, Texas, Illinois, Florida, and Wisconsin.
Watch his comments below:
#Pandemic Analysis: @ScottGottliebMD tells @margbrennan that #Thanksgiving will be an inflection point and December will be the toughest month for #COVID19 .
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 1, 2020
"Things are getting worse around the country," he warns pic.twitter.com/rg3oUv5h4r
“These are very worrisome trends. There are about 23 states right now that are accelerating the spread right now. There’s the positivity rate is above 10% in 15 states and all the states have and are above one which means that they’re an expanding epidemic right now. So this is very worrisome as we head into the winter,” Gottlieb said.
On Thursday, the White House coronavirus task force predicted a relentless spread of COVID-19 in the nation’s western half, as IJR previously reported.
“We are on a very difficult trajectory. We’re going in the wrong direction,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, task force member and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
During an interview with CNBC Wednesday night, Fauci warned if the nation does not get ahead of the virus, things are going to get a whole lot worse.
“If things do not change, if they continue on the course we’re on, there’s gonna be a whole lot of pain in this country with regard to additional cases and hospitalizations, and deaths,” Fauci said.
The United States shattered a world record on Friday after reporting just over 100,000 new infections in a single 24-hour period.
