Scott Gottlieb was the Commissioner of the FDA.
Anyone who received a Covid vaccine in the early stages should register for their booster shots, because there is probably more infection happening among the vaccine population than the U.S. is currently monitoring, according to Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb.
Gottlieb said that the effectiveness of Covid vaccines is likely to diminish over time, and that breakthrough infections are likely to occur in individuals almost a year removed from becoming fully immunized. The former Food and Drug Administration commissioner noted that boosters can restore the protection offered by vaccines to their original levels.
Gottlieb said that there is probably more spread of infections among the vaccine population than what we are picking up. We are not doing a good job of tracking this in real time, even though retrospective studies will identify this. This is the reason for people to go out and get boosters.
Gottlieb advised Americans to get an extra dose of vaccine in the days leading up to Thanksgiving to have more protection. He called on parents to bring their unvaccinated children for their shots before the holidays, as they gain a better shield against Covid.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cleared the way on Friday for all US adults to get boosted at least six months after receiving their second vaccine shot. The agency approved boosters for Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients who were 18 years old or older after getting the one-dose Covid shot.
The U.S. reports a rise in Covid cases after a few weeks of declines and a nearly three-week peak. The new case average in the country was almost 92,400 on Sunday, up 16% from a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis.
The World Health Organization reported that covid cases were up in the week ended Nov. 14. Europe recorded more than 2.1 million new cases over the course of the week, accounting for more than half of the total cases worldwide, according to the WHO.
The seven-day average of new cases in Germany was 49,200 on Sunday, a 31% increase from the week before. Gottlieb said pockets of inadequate vaccination rates and a lower degree of prior infections are helping to fuel Germany's surge of the highly transmissible delta variant.
Gottlieb said that the total immunity in the German population was probably lower than in the U.S. We have certainly seen dense outbreaks of delta in specific parts of this country, but I am not saying that we are impervious to spread here.
We have had a lot of prior waves of infections, and Germany has been able to control the infection to a better degree. The strain is getting out of control.
The current measures to control the spread in Germany are insufficient, so Chancellor Angela Merkel told members of the conservative party. In areas where hospitals are full, public life is limited.
Austria, Germany's neighbor to the south, imposed a full lockdown on Monday and is implementing a nationwide vaccine mandate on February 1.
