Gottlieb calls for 'aggressive' rolling back of COVID mitigation measures

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb this week argued that the United States should work methodically to roll back COVID mitigation measures, claiming that high rates of natural immunity and vaccinations mean the U.S. can return to a semblance of normalcy in as early as just a few months.

Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday, Gottlieb claimed that restrictions could be lifted by "hopefully this spring." He said that experts "don't see anything on the horizon that's going to dramatically alter that trajectory." 

"I think we need to prescribe very clear goalposts for how we take these mitigation measures off," he told host Willie Geist. "When do we lift the vaccine mandates? When do we stop using masks in schools?"

Daily COVID case rates have been dropping sharply over the past two weeks, suggesting that the current surge of the Omicron variant of COVID may have peaked in the middle of January. 

Gottlieb argued further that a clear plan to remove mitigation measures could serve in part to "preserve the authority among public health officials to reimplement some measures in the future," should another surge arise.