Dr. Scott Gottlieb on Thursday warned recipients of the coronavirus vaccine against letting their guards fall immediately, telling CNBC that they should adhere to public health measures, such as wearing masks.
The former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the advice is particularly important for elderly Americans who are most at risk of death or serious illness due to Covid-19.
“I think for an older individual who is vulnerable to this virus, certainly … wait a period of time after the second injection until you probably have full protective immunity,” said Gottlieb in “Squawk Box”. “I don’t think people should feel completely safe after the first shot.”
Both Covid vaccines that have received FDA emergency use authorization require two doses. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech developed one of the vaccines, while Moderna manufactures the other. Gottlieb is on the board of Pfizer.
Approximately 10.3 million Americans received their initial injection of Covid on Wednesday morning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 29.4 million doses have been distributed.
The unstable launch of the vaccine comes as the nation continues to see high levels of coronavirus infection and more deaths from Covid-19. The seven-day average of new daily cases in the country is 245,306, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. An average of 3,360 Americans died from Covid a day in the past week, the second highest count ever recorded.
Vaccine recipients still need to take public health precautions because the outbreak in the United States remains very significant and “the infection is everywhere,” said Gottlieb. “If you are a vulnerable individual, even if you have had your second injection and think you have full protective immunity from the vaccine, it is still very prudent to continue to wear a mask and take precautions.”
“This does not mean that you need to hibernate and avoid seeing the family,” added Gottlieb, who led the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. “Maybe you can lean over that, but wear a mask. Be more careful in these interactions , because in a high prevalence environment, you are still at risk. “
As more Americans are vaccinated, Gottlieb said that this should lower overall infection rates in the United States and significantly reduce the intensity of the epidemic. At that point, he said, it will be wiser to “relax” some cares.
“Hopefully, it will be summer, spring, if these new variants do not establish themselves here in the United States and change our trajectory,” he said, referring to the coronavirus strains initially found in the United Kingdom and South Africa that are considered more transmissible.
Researchers in Ohio said on Wednesday that they had discovered two new variants that probably originated in the U.S.
Last week, Gottlieb warned Americans that a return to pre-pandemic life is unlikely to happen in 2021. For example, he told CNBC that public places may still require people to have their temperature measured before entering.
“I just think things are going to be different, just as they are different when you pass an airport now after 9/11,” he said last week. “I don’t think masks will be mandatory next fall and winter if we can increase the vaccination rate and if these new variants disappear or don’t become prevalent. But I think a lot of people are going to want to wear masks, and that’s okay.”
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and board member of Pfizer, a beginner genetic testing company Tempus and the biotechnology company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of the “Healthy Sail Panel” for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.