'It'll be harder to hide': Ex-FDA chief warns mutant coronavirus strains 'may change everything'

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 11.1 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But the rollout is much slower than had been promised. And former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, in a Twitter thread posted over the weekend, expresses concerns that "persistent high infection" will continue "through spring" unless "we vaccinate enough people."

Highly infectious new COVID-19 variants have emerged in the U.K., South Africa and elsewhere. And Dr. Gottlieb notes that COVID variants have been making their way to the U.S.:

The U.S., Gottlieb warns, needs to do everything it can to decrease the spread of COVID-19 while getting as many Americans as possible vaccinated: