Why Europe may no longer be a COVID-19 infection barometer for the U.S.

Scott Gottlieb.
(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/CBS)

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has looked toward Europe to get a sense of where the United States was heading in terms of COVID-19 infection levels. Generally, the U.S. was about "three to four weeks" behind the continent. But now it looks like the "tables have turned," Gottlieb told CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Sunday.

Several European countries, including Italy, are experiencing another surge in cases, but Gottlieb thinks the U.S. may avoid a similar outcome because "we're vaccinating so much more aggressively" than the European Union and some national governments in Europe, which have been slow to ramp up their rollouts. "I think we're in a different situation," Gottlieb said. Tim O'Donnell

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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.