Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, told travel advisors that consumer confidence will return within weeks as the omicron surge begins to diminish.
Gottlieb is the chairman of Norwegian Cruise Line's SailSAFE Global Health and Wellness Council.
Gottlieb said that omicron was an epidemic that was starting to peak. You're seeing cases come down over time. You're seeing a decline in the epidemic curve.
Gottlieb said that the level of infections would come down to a sufficiently low level in two weeks.
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Dr. Scott Gottlieb.
He said that people will see that it's going to be evident to them and that they're going to see people's confidence resume about going out and trying to plan for the future. "It's going to be clear to people that this epidemic wave is going to pass."
Gottlieb said that most people believe that omicron will be the last major wave of infections because of how much immunity the population has now.
Gottlieb said that this will become a more manageable respiratory pathogen if you have a sufficient wall of immunity.
Gottlieb predicts that by the spring there will be so little infections that we will stop recording them and stop measuring them. I wouldn't be surprised to see us get under five cases per 100,000 people per day in most parts of the country.
At that point, he said, people will be looking to claim things that are important to them, such as leisure activities and being able to plan vacations with family.
Travel advisors are selling cruises for the summer in Wave season. Gottlieb was asked if they could sell cruises to Alaska and Europe this summer.
Gottlieb thinks that people are going to want to get back to doing things that they enjoy because of the low prevalence this summer and fall. Consumers are going to start planning for the future in a more wholesale fashion when it's clear that the omicron wave is declining all across the country.
He said that when consumer confidence is regained, it will be the end of the Pandemic.
He thinks that the use of drugs will help people feel more confident about going out. When psychology will change across society for the vast majority of people is the question. I think you are already seeing that transition. It's hard to say the end of the Pandemic is near when we are in the midst of the biggest wave of infections that we've had. We have a couple of weeks left.
Consumer confidence is going to change very quickly when prevalence starts to decline.
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