Dr. Scott Gottlieb hinted Monday that the COVID-19 surge from the delta variant might have started to peak.
Has the delta variant peaked in the South?
Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner during the Trump administration, told CNBC that the COVID-19 surge from the delta variant in the American South might have reached its apex.
- “I thought there was an indication the South was peaking, and I think it’s pretty clear right now the South has peaked,” he told CNBC on Monday.
- “You look at states like Arkansas and Louisiana, you see the cases coming down,” said Gottlieb.
Is the delta variant surge over?
That doesn’t mean the recent surge is anywhere close to over since hospitalizations and deaths will follow infection counts, Gottlieb told CNBC. But for now, infection counts seem to have slowed.
- “It doesn’t feel that way because we still have a lot of new infections on a day-over-day basis, and the hospitals still have some very hard weeks ahead,” Gottlieb said. “They’re still going to get maxed out as the infections start to decline.”
Is the COVID-19 pandemic over?
However, we’re still not close to the end of the pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Monday that the end of the pandemic — or at least the heavy spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. — won’t come until 2022.
- “We hope we’ll be there ... but there’s no guarantee because it’s up to us,” Fauci said.
Fauci said getting everyone vaccinated will help the nation reach the end of the pandemic.
- “If we do it right and get through the winter, I hope as we get to the spring of 2022, we’ll get there,” he said on the “Today” show.