South a 'harbinger' for rest of U.S. as schools reopen, former FDA commissioner warns

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS News' Major Garrett on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation that data suggest the South's current COVID-19 epidemic is contracting. However, there should still be some "very hard weeks ahead" for the region as hospitalizations, which lag behind case numbers, continue to rise before peaking themselves.

Gottlieb then zeroed in on Florida, where he said that nearly every age group is showing declines in day-to-day case numbers. That's a good thing, of course, except for the fact that the trend doesn't hold for one demographic: school-aged children.

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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.