Former FDA chief: It will be difficult for Biden administration to fix vaccine rollout issues
Share This Content
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, member of the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina and former FDA commissioner, joined "Squawk Box" on Monday to discuss the issues surrounding the vaccine distribution process in the United States and how the Biden administration could go about fixing the issues. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi
Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Monday he believes states across the U.S. may expand coronavirus vaccine eligibility sooner than expected due to an underwhelming willingness to receive the shots.
“We’re living in this sort of belief that the demand here is endless, and it’s not,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I think by the end of February, we’re going to find that we have to open up eligibility pretty wide to get people to come in to get inoculated. We’re not going to be in this rationing situation. I think it’s going to end sooner than we think.”
Gottlieb sits on the board of Pfizer, which makes one of the two Covid-19 vaccines to have received emergency use authorization by the FDA. The other was developed by Moderna. With available doses being limited, the vaccine administration is being done in phases. Health-care workers and long-term care residents received priority in the initial wave, and some states have also moved into other groups such as elderly Americans and essential workers such as police and firefighters.
The pace of the vaccine rollout in the U.S. has received significant criticism after the FDA granted limited clearances in December. The Trump administration fell far short of its goal of having 20 million Americans vaccinated by year-end. As of Friday morning, about 6.7 million Americans had received their first shot of the two-dose vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There has been roughly 22.1 million doses distributed.
One hurdle in the vaccine distribution has been hesitancy to receive the shot among health-care workers, particularly for employees of nursing homes. Late last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said that 60% of the state’s nursing home workers were choosing not to be vaccinated.
Gottlieb, who led the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019, said the wariness of getting the shot likely permeates across the population, and he predicted it will remain present even as the number of available vaccine doses expands.
“My belief here is the demand is very deep — there’s people who really want this badly — but it’s not wide,” Gottlieb said. In Florida, for example, there were reports of elderly residents waiting hours in line to be vaccinated, including some who waited overnight, and other reports of residents of other states flocking to Florida to get shots because they’re open to anyone 65 or older
Not everyone will go to such extraordinary measures to be vaccinated, Gottlieb predicted. “I think once we get 60 [million], 70 [million], 80 million Americans inoculated, we’re going to find it’s a little bit more difficult to get people to come out to a stadium or line up for a vaccination,” he said. “We’re going to have to look for other delivery routes to make it easy for people to get these inoculations.”
Retail pharmacy chains such as Walgreens and CVS Health told CNBC last month they expected to begin offering vaccinations for the general public at some point in the spring.
» Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision
» Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC
» Subscribe to CNBC Classic: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCclassic
Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide.
The News with Shepard Smith is CNBC’s daily news podcast providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories. Available to listen by 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT daily beginning September 30: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/the-news-with-shepard-smith-podcast.html?__source=youtube%7Cshepsmith%7Cpodcast
Connect with CNBC News Online
Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/
Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Twitter: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC
