Former FDA commissioner suggests Delta variant should force reconsideration of school safety measures

The Delta coronavirus variant should change the way we approach COVID-19 mitigation efforts in schools, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb suggested during Sunday's edition of Face the Nation on CBS.

Although lower risk than other situations, schools weren't "inherently safe" even before Delta became the dominant variant in the United States. But now that the more transmissible strain is here, it's a bad time to get rid of precautionary measures like masks, testing, or podding students, Gottlieb said. If those aren't in place, especially in areas with a lot of infection, "we can expect a different result" from earlier waves, when outbreaks were generally suppressed in schools.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.