Dr. Scott Gottlieb said on Monday that he sees promising signs that suggest Covid vaccines are effective in reducing the spread of the virus from person to person, in addition to its well-documented ability to protect against serious illnesses.
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration warned that, although the first data appears positive, some uncertainties remain. “I think there is a reduction in transmission. The question is, how big is that?” said Gottlieb, a member of Pfizer’s board of directors.
The company’s vaccine, developed in conjunction with the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, is one of three to receive FDA emergency use authorization. The other two are from Moderna and more recently from Johnson & Johnson, which received limited authorization from the US regulator on Saturday.
The FDA issued emergency use authorization for the vaccine trio after individually determining that they were safe and effective in preventing recipients from developing symptomatic Covid’s disease, particularly severe cases and deaths. What has become less clear since the United States began administering Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in December are specific data on limiting the spread of the virus; this is one of the reasons why doctors have been recommending that even those who have been vaccinated continue to take precautions.
For example, in its press release announcing that the J&J vaccine received emergency use authorization, the FDA said there was “no evidence that the vaccine is transmitting SARS-CoV-2 from person to person”.
However, Gottlieb said there are reasons to be optimistic that vaccines do just that, even though “the definitive study” that proves this has not yet emerged. “The accumulated evidence is very convincing that there is a reduction in transmission,” said Gottlieb, who led the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019.
He pointed to two studies conducted in Israel, one of the main countries in the world in vaccinating its population, which suggest that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduced the transmission of the virus. Gottlieb also said that J&J found in its study a 74% reduction in participants who developed asymptomatic infection. This J&J discovery, said Gottlieb, “is a good indication that there is a reduction in transmission.”
“I think most people agree … vaccinated people are less likely to transmit the infection if they become infected themselves,” said Gottlieb, adding that he expects a more definitive response “within a month or two.”
On Monday morning at the Squawk Box, J&J President and CEO Alex Gorsky said the company’s initial findings about preventing asymptomatic infection were encouraging and signaled the possibility of putting a “big dent” in the pandemic. from Covid. “But we need to gather more. We hope to bring that together literally in the coming months, as we continue to monitor these patients in the trial,” he said.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and board member of Pfizer, a beginner genetic testing company Tempus, health technology company Aetion and biotechnology company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of the “Healthy Sail Panel” for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.