Covid’s cases in America continue to decline the White House revealing plans this week to tackle the virus in the future without the need for more blockades or other austerity measures, many hope the United States will avoid being hit by another summer riot – as it has in the past two years.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former Director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Squawk Box on CNBC on Thursday that he does not expect the United States to experience another jump of Covid in the coming months, and if anything else, it will happen in the fall or winter of this year.
He also praised the White House’s new strategy for dealing with Covid in the future, which was first announced by President Biden during a speech on the state of the Union on Tuesday night and was fully unveiled on Wednesday morning.
The plan includes increasing local production of tests, antivirals and masks, expanding access to resources and public health information, helping Americans manage Covid’s “long-term” symptoms, and launching the Test to Treat program, which should expand access to Covid therapists.
It also provides funding to schools and day care centers to improve their ability to prevent transmission by providing them with Covid tests and resources needed to improve ventilation.
Part of the White House’s plan to tackle the virus in the future included increasing the nation’s production capacity for COVID-19 testing and stockpiling. Pictured: A woman in Baltimore, Maryland, receives a test for Covid on January 26
Implementing many of these plans will take time, and while there is criticism from the administration that it has been waiting a year for this process to begin, Gottlieb believes that now that there should be no Covid jump in the foreseeable future, America has bought enough it’s time to start preparing for the world after Covid.
“The criticism you can say is why the administration didn’t do that six months ago? But we’ve learned a lot along the way, and we’re doing it now, “said Gottlieb, who is also a board member of Pfizer.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb (pictured), FDA chief, does not expect the United States to experience a new surge of Covid cases this summer. The country has been hit by the virus over the past two seasons
“We hope we have time to put these things in place.”
He also added that “we will have quite normal spring and summer” as he does not expect the cases to increase in the next six months.
Gottlieb believes the plan will be especially good for schools. While schools have been open for a year and a half, many have been affected by Covid outbreaks, forcing students to miss crucial time in the classroom. Some localities have resorted to camouflage in schools to prevent the transmission of Covid, but controversial policies have been criticized for hurting children’s ability to socialize during key years of their development.
As masks are thrown away in schools across America, the new plans outlined by the federal government can hopefully reduce transmission and prevent Covid’s school closures.
“We have never provided good guidance to schools,” said Gottlieb, who is a critic of the school mask mandate.
“In the end, schools had to look for government agencies to get a real book on how to stay open amid a wave of infections. This is really a restart of things that we have not done adequately. ‘
The White House plan was unveiled as more Americans began to return to normal life amid declining Covid cases and lifting restrictions on the pandemic.
The United States reported an average of 59,245 Covid cases each day, a 25% drop in the last week and a 92% drop from the peak in mid-January of the Omicron jump, when average daily cases reached 800,000 per day.
Americans are also highly protected from the virus, with official CDC figures showing that 88 percent of adults have received at least the COVID-19 vaccine and 75 percent have been fully vaccinated. The agency also reported that 94.4 million Americans received a booster.
“Thanks to the progress we have made over the past year, COVID-19 no longer has to control our lives,” President Biden said in a speech Tuesday.
An AP-NORC A survey last month found that only 24 percent of Americans are still very concerned about themselves or someone in their family who will be infected with the virus.
In response, US cities and states lifted Covid’s restrictions and allowed their citizens to live normally. Hawaii remains the only state that either still has a mandate for a mask or has no day to remove it in the coming weeks.
However, the island nation may soon join its counterparts as officials lifted quarantine requirements for visitors on Tuesday.
New York, which had some of the strictest guidelines for Covid during the pandemic, will even remove vaccine checks and mask mandates from March 7. However, the city’s mandate for private employers will continue to apply.
Other cities, such as Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco, have also removed or eased mandates for indoor masks in recent weeks.
