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CBS News May 9, 2021, 11:12 AM
Transcript: Scott Gottlieb discusses coronavirus on "Face the Nation," May 9, 2021
The following is a transcript of an interview with former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb that aired May 9, 2021, on "Face the Nation."
JOHN DICKERSON: And we've got a lot to get to today, and we're going to begin with former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb. He sits on the board of Pfizer and he joins us from Westport, Connecticut. Good morning, Dr. Gottlieb.
DOCTOR SCOTT GOTTLIEB: Good morning.
JOHN DICKERSON: So I- every time we talk, we talk about where things are and then you kind of tell us where we're going to be. A few weeks ago, you were saying, you know, they should change the mask restrictions for outdoors if you're vaccinated. Your feeling now about maybe changing those mandates for indoor masks? You- you think they should be lifted, do you?
DR. GOTTLIEB: Well, look, COVID won't disappear. We're going to have to learn to live with it, but the risk is substantially reduced as a result of vaccination, as a result of immunity that people have acquired through prior infection. And so I think we're at the point in time when we can start lifting these ordinances in a wholesale fashion and people have to take precautions based on their individual risk. They have to judge their own individual risk and decide whether or not they're going to avoid crowds or wear masks based on their circumstances. But we've always said from a public health standpoint that we would set as a metric maybe when we get down to 10 cases per 100,000 people on a daily basis. Well, half the country's there right now. If you want to be more conservative and say five cases per 100,000 people, well, this week, by this week, probably about a quarter of states will be there. So we're at the point right now where we could start lifting these ordinances and allowing people to resume normal activity. Certainly outdoors, we shouldn't be putting limits on gatherings anymore. We should be encouraging people to go outside. In the states where prevalence is low, vaccination rates are high, and we have good testing in place and we're identifying infections. I think we could start lifting these restrictions indoors as well on a broad basis...
CBS News May 9, 2021, 11:12 AM
Transcript: Scott Gottlieb discusses coronavirus on "Face the Nation," May 9, 2021
The following is a transcript of an interview with former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb that aired May 9, 2021, on "Face the Nation."
JOHN DICKERSON: And we've got a lot to get to today, and we're going to begin with former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb. He sits on the board of Pfizer and he joins us from Westport, Connecticut. Good morning, Dr. Gottlieb.
DOCTOR SCOTT GOTTLIEB: Good morning.
JOHN DICKERSON: So I- every time we talk, we talk about where things are and then you kind of tell us where we're going to be. A few weeks ago, you were saying, you know, they should change the mask restrictions for outdoors if you're vaccinated. Your feeling now about maybe changing those mandates for indoor masks? You- you think they should be lifted, do you?
DR. GOTTLIEB: Well, look, COVID won't disappear. We're going to have to learn to live with it, but the risk is substantially reduced as a result of vaccination, as a result of immunity that people have acquired through prior infection. And so I think we're at the point in time when we can start lifting these ordinances in a wholesale fashion and people have to take precautions based on their individual risk. They have to judge their own individual risk and decide whether or not they're going to avoid crowds or wear masks based on their circumstances. But we've always said from a public health standpoint that we would set as a metric maybe when we get down to 10 cases per 100,000 people on a daily basis. Well, half the country's there right now. If you want to be more conservative and say five cases per 100,000 people, well, this week, by this week, probably about a quarter of states will be there. So we're at the point right now where we could start lifting these ordinances and allowing people to resume normal activity. Certainly outdoors, we shouldn't be putting limits on gatherings anymore. We should be encouraging people to go outside. In the states where prevalence is low, vaccination rates are high, and we have good testing in place and we're identifying infections. I think we could start lifting these restrictions indoors as well on a broad basis...