Former FDA commissioner is 'more concerned than I was 3 weeks ago' about coronavirus this fall

Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has grown increasingly concerned about the spread of COVID-19 looking ahead to the fall.

Gottlieb spoke with CNBC on Thursday as numerous states in recent days have set records for the number of new COVID-19 infections, including Arizona, Florida, and Texas.

"I'm more concerned than I was three weeks ago heading into the fall," Gottlieb said, saying that while "we expected numbers to tick up," the "outbreaks are higher than I expected" and are "on the cusp of getting out of control."

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Another reason for Gottlieb's concern, he said, is that although we now have "much better tools in place" to get coronavirus outbreaks under control, and "there's still time" to do so, there seems to be a "reluctance" to take action.

"The other thing that makes me more concerned is just the political landscape, and the lack of political will to take mitigation steps," he said. "There seems to be a political reluctance to step in with really any targeted measures right now," he continued, warning that unless lawmakers take "common sense measures" soon, "we're going to be stuck with a lot more spread."

Gottlieb previously noted that the "overall trend is favorable" across the country, but there are "states with bonafide outbreaks underway and they need to get it under control." Vice President Mike Pence earlier this week dismissed concerns over a second coronavirus wave, something Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, somewhat agreed with — in the sense that, he noted, "we're still in a first wave." Brendan Morrow