Former FDA commissioner anticipates 'persistent spread' of coronavirus, 100,000 deaths in U.S. by end of June


Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottleib, who's become a regular guest on CBS' Face the Nation, told host Margaret Brennan on Sunday that while coronavirus cases are no longer growing at an exponential rate in the United States, the country may have to prepare for "persistent spread," in which there are somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 new infections and 1,000 new deaths, per day.
Gottleib didn't want to look beyond the end of June because it's too hard to predict (though he does expect a bit of reprieve later in the summer before potential flare-ups in the fall), but for now he doesn't seem optimistic that the decline will be as fast as the rise was in March. That means by the end of June, there could be more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in the country.
He also cautioned that the national decline can be misleading since it relies so heavily on the New York City metro area, which is indeed trending downward, but because the outbreak there was so large, it masks smaller outbreaks across the rest of the country. Tim O'Donnell
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

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.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
Labour's brewing welfare rebellion
The Explainer Keir Starmer seems determined to press on with disability benefit cuts despite a "nightmare" revolt by his own MPs
-
A potentially mutating bat virus has some scientists worried about the next pandemic
Under the Radar One subgroup of bat merbecovirus has scientists concerned
-
Crossword: June 24, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panel
speed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kids
Speed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sick
speed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last year
speed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
-
Trump seeks to cut drug prices via executive order
speed read The president's order tells pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices, but it will likely be thrown out by the courts
-
RFK Jr.: A new plan for sabotaging vaccines
Feature The Health Secretary announced changes to vaccine testing and asks Americans to 'do your own research'
-
RFK Jr. visits Texas as 2nd child dies from measles
Speed Read An outbreak of the vaccine-preventable disease continues to grow following a decade of no recorded US measles deaths
-
Shingles vaccine cuts dementia risk, study finds
Speed Read Getting vaccinated appears to significantly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia