Richard Besser, who served as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under former President Barack Obama, said he fears that people are discounting Covid’s figures while governors decide to reopen their states.
“In Texas, where they removed the mandate from the mask, less than 10% of people were vaccinated and the levels are higher than last summer’s levels when they put the mandate first,” said Besser. “I worry that I’m getting a little numb with these numbers and we don’t remember that every day in America more than 2,000 people still die from Covid.”
The governors of Texas and Mississippi announced on Tuesday that they are removing mandates from the masks and allowing companies to reopen at full capacity.
“Now is the time to open Texas 100%,” said Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat, announced on Thursday that a number of companies in his state will be allowed to reopen at full capacity starting March 19.
Besser told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that states should follow the CDC’s example and address the concerns of director Rochelle Walensky, who said she is still “deeply concerned” about the virus.
“Our recent declines appear to be stopping – stopping in more than 70,000 cases a day,” said Walensky during a press conference at the White House on Monday. “With these new statistics, I am really concerned by reports that more states are reversing the exact public health measures that we recommend to protect people at Covid-19.”
Besser’s former agency is due to release new guidelines on Friday for people who are fully vaccinated. He advised presenter Shepard Smith that people should manage their expectations.
“I don’t think they are going to give the kind of green light on wholesale that a lot of people are expecting. It will have a downward trend even more, and it will lead to more people being vaccinated than we currently have.