Gottlieb says he thinks vaccinations going fast enough to prevent one

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday that he does not think there will be a “true fourth wave” of COVID-19 in the United States as vaccination rates accelerate.

The United States in recent days hit 4 million vaccinations in a day, and the numbers are on their way up as supply increases. Gottlieb said the increasing vaccinations combined with the existing immunity from people who have already had the virus should be enough to stop a major new spike in cases.

“I think that there’s enough immunity in the population that you’re not going to see a true fourth wave of infection,” Gottlieb said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“What we’re seeing is pockets of infection around the country, particularly in younger people who haven’t been vaccinated and also in school-age children,” he continued.

Don’t throw out all precautions yet though: The country is not out of the woods yet, as new cases per day have been ticking up, reaching about 64,000 per day in the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. As more vulnerable people get vaccinated, deaths are declining, though they are still averaging about 800 people every day.

“I think we should continue to be cautious,” he noted, especially given the spread of new variants that add an element of unpredictability.

This is the fourth straight week of increasing COVID-19 cases, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing Monday. She attributed the rise in part to new, more contagious variants.