Scott Gottlieb on "Face the Nation" on July 4, 2021
Of the delta variant of Covid:
And when it comes to the Delta variant, which is now raging across many western and southern states, how many more Americans could be affected by that and how soon? SCOTT GOTTLIEB: I think given how transmissible this variant is it's likely to infect about eighty-five percent of the population or what-- what I mean to say is eighty-five percent of the population is going to end up with some level of immunity to coronavirus. We now have our choice in terms of how we acquire that immunity. You can acquire it through vaccination or you're going to end up acquiring it through natural infection. I think people who choose to acquire it through natural infection may end up acquiring it more than once. But given how transmissible this is it's probably going to infect or leave eighty-five percent of the population with immunity before it starts circulating with this level of velocity. We now have about fifty-five percent of the population with at least one dose of-- of vaccine in them. So it leaves a lot of people who are going to be vulnerable to this infection. We've probably infected about a third of the population. So some complement of the people who have chosen to remain unvaccinated have been previously infected with the virus. But there's still a lot of vulnerable Americans when you talk about absolute numbers of people.
Of "mission accomplished"
Would it be wise to be declaring independence from the pandemic right now? SCOTT GOTTLIEB: Well, look, I wouldn't be declaring mission accomplished. I think this is going to be a long fight, but I think we have had a near term victory against the virus in terms of getting immunity into the population through vaccination. And-- and virus levels are much lower than they were certainly last summer and they are likely to remain low. I think you're seeing a decoupling between cases and hospitalizations and deaths because there's so much immunity in the population, not just through vaccination, but also through prior infection, people who have acquired immunity from prior infection. But this is likely to become an endemic virus. We're going to have to deal with it. It's likely to be on par with the second circulating flu this winter. At-- at best, it's going to be on par with the second circulating flu. It could be a little bit worse. And I think we're going to need to think differently about respiratory pathogens generally in the wintertime and be more vigilant about the spread of diseases like flu and like coronavirus.
Of Governor Brown of Oregon
So, for example, of the families that lost homes in southern Oregon last Labor Day fire, several hundred of them were undocumented. FEMA does not provide aid or assistance to these families. It is absolutely unacceptable. These families are so much a part of our communities. They're the heart and soul of our culture and they are the backbone of our economy. They deserve the assistance and they need it.
Separately, it is worthwhile to listen to the AUDIO of the following (especially as to "harbinger"):
KATE BROWN: Absolutely, we have. There's no question. I think the concern, Ed, is that this is a harbinger of things to come. We literally have had four emergency declarations in this state at the federal level since April of 2020. In Labor Day last year we had horrific wildfires. They were historic. We lost over a million acres, over four thousand homes and nine lives. And what is really, really clear, that just like we saw during the pandemic, throughout these emergency events our communities of color, our low-income families are disproportionately impacted. And we have to center the voices of Black and brown and indigenous people at the forefront of our work as we do emergency preparedness.
link: https://money.yahoo.com/full-transcript-face-nation-july-174900901.html
https://youtu.be/K16NGhQxdjY
On delta from BusinessInsider
The Delta variant continues to spread across the country, as millions of people plan to gather with family and friends to celebrate the Fourth of July [2021] Five states are particularly vulnerable to the Delta variant. Those states are Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Nevada, and Utah.
[Of delta plus] The Nevada State Public Health Laboratory said it detected the Delta plus variant in Clark County, which is "really just the delta variant with an additional spike mutation that is seen in other variants of concern," said Mark Pandori, director of the lab at the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine.
link: https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-variant-spreads-across-five-states-fourth-of-july-weekend-2021-7
And when it comes to the Delta variant, which is now raging across many western and southern states, how many more Americans could be affected by that and how soon? SCOTT GOTTLIEB: I think given how transmissible this variant is it's likely to infect about eighty-five percent of the population or what-- what I mean to say is eighty-five percent of the population is going to end up with some level of immunity to coronavirus. We now have our choice in terms of how we acquire that immunity. You can acquire it through vaccination or you're going to end up acquiring it through natural infection. I think people who choose to acquire it through natural infection may end up acquiring it more than once. But given how transmissible this is it's probably going to infect or leave eighty-five percent of the population with immunity before it starts circulating with this level of velocity. We now have about fifty-five percent of the population with at least one dose of-- of vaccine in them. So it leaves a lot of people who are going to be vulnerable to this infection. We've probably infected about a third of the population. So some complement of the people who have chosen to remain unvaccinated have been previously infected with the virus. But there's still a lot of vulnerable Americans when you talk about absolute numbers of people.
Of "mission accomplished"
Would it be wise to be declaring independence from the pandemic right now? SCOTT GOTTLIEB: Well, look, I wouldn't be declaring mission accomplished. I think this is going to be a long fight, but I think we have had a near term victory against the virus in terms of getting immunity into the population through vaccination. And-- and virus levels are much lower than they were certainly last summer and they are likely to remain low. I think you're seeing a decoupling between cases and hospitalizations and deaths because there's so much immunity in the population, not just through vaccination, but also through prior infection, people who have acquired immunity from prior infection. But this is likely to become an endemic virus. We're going to have to deal with it. It's likely to be on par with the second circulating flu this winter. At-- at best, it's going to be on par with the second circulating flu. It could be a little bit worse. And I think we're going to need to think differently about respiratory pathogens generally in the wintertime and be more vigilant about the spread of diseases like flu and like coronavirus.
Of Governor Brown of Oregon
So, for example, of the families that lost homes in southern Oregon last Labor Day fire, several hundred of them were undocumented. FEMA does not provide aid or assistance to these families. It is absolutely unacceptable. These families are so much a part of our communities. They're the heart and soul of our culture and they are the backbone of our economy. They deserve the assistance and they need it.
Separately, it is worthwhile to listen to the AUDIO of the following (especially as to "harbinger"):
KATE BROWN: Absolutely, we have. There's no question. I think the concern, Ed, is that this is a harbinger of things to come. We literally have had four emergency declarations in this state at the federal level since April of 2020. In Labor Day last year we had horrific wildfires. They were historic. We lost over a million acres, over four thousand homes and nine lives. And what is really, really clear, that just like we saw during the pandemic, throughout these emergency events our communities of color, our low-income families are disproportionately impacted. And we have to center the voices of Black and brown and indigenous people at the forefront of our work as we do emergency preparedness.
link: https://money.yahoo.com/full-transcript-face-nation-july-174900901.html
https://youtu.be/K16NGhQxdjY
On delta from BusinessInsider
The Delta variant continues to spread across the country, as millions of people plan to gather with family and friends to celebrate the Fourth of July [2021] Five states are particularly vulnerable to the Delta variant. Those states are Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Nevada, and Utah.
[Of delta plus] The Nevada State Public Health Laboratory said it detected the Delta plus variant in Clark County, which is "really just the delta variant with an additional spike mutation that is seen in other variants of concern," said Mark Pandori, director of the lab at the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine.
link: https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-variant-spreads-across-five-states-fourth-of-july-weekend-2021-7
posted by Lawrence B. Ebert at 3:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home