With the early September opening date for U.S. schools near, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was interviewed today on CBS News’ Sunday morning “Face the Nation” by Major Garrett, on Covid-19’s impact on school openings this fall.
Gottlieb, who is also on the board of Pfizer drug company, stated that about 4.2 million kids have been diagnosed with COVID, “but the presumption is that we’re diagnosing just a small fraction of the kids who are ultimately contracting the virus – maybe as low as 1 in 10, to 1 in 20 infections in kids being turned over right now. So there is far more infection among children than what we’re diagnosing, because most of the infection is asymptomatic or mild, and mild disease that doesn’t necessarily present to a pediatrician for testing.” Gottlieb emphasized, “This is really a critical question, because it gets to the heart of whether or not this new Delta variant is more pathogenic in children. We see rising numbers of hospitalizations and ICU admissions among kids. The question is, is that because this is a more dangerous variant in children, or are we just infecting a whole lot more kids?... I suspect it’s the latter. I suspect that the number of kids who are getting into trouble with Covid hasn’t really changed with this Delta variant. The reason why we’re seeing rising hospitalizations and ICU admissions among kids is because we’re infecting a whole lot more kids with it.”
