Former FDA commissioner confidently predicts 'it's 6 months until' vaccine, treatment ends epidemic

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who was early in sounding the alarm bells about the coronavirus, began Sunday with a dash of optimism. While he is anticipating 2020 remaining a very challenging year in the United States, he appears quite confident that, within six months, some technological development — whether in the form of a vaccine or a treatment — will end the epidemic and turn COVID-19 into a more manageable threat.

Gottlieb said available data suggests a vaccine will come onto the scene in early 2021, echoing recent comments from Dr. Anthony Fauci, but he also added that therapeutic antibodies should be ready to go by the fall and produced at scale by the end of the year.

But it's precisely because he expects scientific developments to turn the tide by early next year that Gottlieb wants Americans to buckle down, work together, and — especially — wear masks to slow the virus' spread and preserve as many lives as possible for the time being. Read more from Gottlieb here.

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