More narrative downsizing:
Ex-FDA chief Scott Gottlieb calls for END of 'divisive' mask and vaccine mandates as COVID cases plummet 12% in seven days
The surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron-variant has slowed dramatically, with cases falling 12% over the past seven days, leaving experts to call for 'divisive' pandemic restrictions, like mask and vaccine mandates, to be phased out in the United States just as they recently were in the United Kingdom.
America is averaging 682,374 cases per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JH), a 12 percent drop over the past two weeks.
Dr Scott Gottlieb, former director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and current board member at Pfizer, says that the declining cases should be a signal to officials that it is time to start lifting some pandemic-related restrictions.
'I think certainly on the east coast where you see cases declining dramatically we need to be willing to lean in and do that very soon I think as conditions improve we have to be willing to relax some of these measures with the same speed that we put them in place,' he told CNBC's The Squawk Box.
He compares the current U.S. situation to that of the UK. Across the pond, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set plans to drop all pandemic restrictions amid a drop in cases. Gottlieb said that America should soon follow, and pointed out masks in schools and vaccine mandates as particularly 'divisive' restrictions that he thinks should go.
'We haven't described clear goalposts for when we're gonna withdraw a lot of these measures and the two most contentious things right now in the U.S. are the masks among children in schools and the vaccine mandates,' he said.
FULL ARTICLEThe drop has Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, optimistic about where the wave is heading.
[What happened to the "we're only in phase one" fear porn he recently was spouting?!]
'Things are looking good. We don't want to get overconfident, but they look like they're going in the right direction right now,' Fauci told ABC's This Week on Sunday.
He notes that while cases are increasing in much of the south and Midwest, they are beginning to decline in northeastern states that were hit hard and fast by the new variant in December. It is likely that western states will also follow the same path as their east coast peers, with cases expected to soon crest before a rapid decline.
'If the pattern follows the trend that we're seeing in other places, such as the northeast, I believe that you will start to see a turnaround throughout the entire country,' Fauci said.
'Since it's a large country and a great deal of variation in the degree of vaccinations that we have in one region compared to another … there may be a bit more pain and suffering with hospitalizations in those areas of the country that have not been fully vaccinated or have not gotten boosters.'
The calls for restrictions to be dropped come as the overall infection rate has sharply declined in recent weeks. According to data from Our World in Data, 4,110 out of every one million Americans recorded infections on January 10 - by far the highest total. The rate was also 2,643 as late as Friday. That figure has dropped all the way to 615 per one million as of Sunday.