Dr. Scott Gottlieb Warns Monkeypox Could Be ‘Disruptive’ in Places Where It Spreads

Appearing Monday on CNBC’s Squawk Box, former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned that Monkeypox could be “disruptive” in places where the virus is spreading.

A transcript is as follows:

JOE KERNEN: Are we going to be talking about [Monkeypox] in three months in your view?

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB: I think the risk right now is becomes a persistent risk, that we can’t fully snuff this out and cases continue to emerge. I don’t think this will be an uncontrolled spread in the same way we tolerated the COVID-19 epidemic. But there is a possibility that now that’s gotten into the community, if in fact it’s more pervasive than what we’re measuring right now, that it becomes hard to snuff out because a lot of these cases are mild, asymptomatic, patients might not present. Patients are going to be misdiagnosed because doctors aren’t used to evaluating this virus. If it is persistent, I think that could cause a lot of disruption and some people are going to have bad outcomes. It can cause a lot of disruptions. It could be disruptive in areas that this is spreading.