Former FDA Commissioner Blasts CDC Delta-Variant Modeling
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Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 to 2019, blasted the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) latest attempt at modeling the trajectory of the COVID-19 Delta variant in the United States.
“The wide dispersion in models forecasting the Delta wave, released by CDC, are deeply disappointing and not actionable,” he said, noting that the CDC seemed to have no ideas as to whether we should expect case numbers to spike or come back down over the coming month.
The wide dispersion in models forecasting the Delta wave, released by CDC, are deeply disappointing and not actionable. The huge variance in the estimates shows CDC doesn’t know how to model this wave, and has little practical idea whether we’re at beginning, middle, or end 1/n pic.twitter.com/FJvcjw6hVO
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) July 24, 2021
“For the week ending August 14, CDC estimates there will be either an average of 10K infections a day, or more than 100K. Either the infection wave will be largely subsiding, or will be raging out of control. The CDC isn’t sure,” Gottlieb added.
Gottlieb called this “another symptom of a more systemic bureaucratic disease,” which is a “retrospective mindset.” According to the former Trump administration official, either the CDC or a new agency should be geared more towards responding to and solving problems.
“We lack an organized infrastructure to mobilize a response to public health crisis,” lamented Gottlieb.
The seven-day average for recorded COVID cases per day was nearly 50,000 on Friday, an over 170 percent increase from two weeks ago. Hospitalization and death numbers have seen upticks as well, albeit much smaller ones.
