Dr. Scott Gottlieb has a simple message for all Americans — stay careful this month.
What’s going on?
Gottlieb told CNBC last week that the United States needs to exercise caution when it comes to the novel coronavirus and not lift restrictions too quickly.
- “We need to be careful this month. I don’t think that this is the time to start lifting ... the simpler mitigations like wearing masks, things like that,” said Gottlieb, who previously worked as the Food and Drug Administration commissioner.
Gottlieb said March will be a “difficult” month in the pandemic fight since there’s been a slight rise in cases — or some states have held steady — while the vaccine rollout has continued.
- April and May will offer a better picture of where we stand in the pandemic fight, he said.
- “In April and May, things may look much more clear and it may be obvious that we can take our masks off,” Gottlieb told CNBC. “Right now, it’s not quite as obvious.”
Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN there’s a risk in spreading the novel coronavirus right now — it could undo so much of the work already accomplished by vaccines.
- “Not only does uncontrolled spread cause avoidable illness, hospitalization and death, but it increases the risk that an even more dangerous variant may emerge that could make the vaccine less effective,” he said.
As I wrote for the Deseret News, Frieden told CNN that people should still wear masks and limit travel to stop and slow the spread of the virus.
- “When people travel and mix, you can see a big surge of infections a couple of weeks later,” he said.