{"id":282857,"date":"2021-03-22T14:15:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T18:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=282857"},"modified":"2021-03-22T14:15:40","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T18:15:40","slug":"former-fda-chief-science-behind-cdcs-costly-6-foot-social-distance-rule-not-fully-known","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-fda-chief-science-behind-cdcs-costly-6-foot-social-distance-rule-not-fully-known\/","title":{"rendered":"Former FDA Chief: Science Behind CDC\u2019s Costly 6-Foot Social-Distance Rule Not Fully Known"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-fda-chief-science-behind-cdcs-costly-6-foot-social-distance-rule-not-fully-known%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=282857&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-2687.jpeg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Sunday the science that was used to establish the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s highly influential six-foot social distancing decree isn\u2019t fully known.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\" readability=\"40.881776239908\">\n<p>\u201cMore distance is always better when it comes to contagion,\u201d Gottlieb <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/wheres-the-science-behind-cdcs-6-foot-social-distance-decree-11616358952\">wrote<\/a> at The Wall Street Journal. \u201cBut the 6-foot directive might have been the single costliest measure CDC has recommended, which have been largely followed over the past year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo what science went into making\u2014and, more important, sustaining\u2014the recommendation?\u201d he posed. \u201cNobody knows for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gottlieb wrote that the six-foot distance rule to ostensibly slow the spread of COVID was largely established based on information we know about the flu, not COVID, in addition to some old studies that were \u201chardly conclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"13\">\n<p><em>Most agree the guideline derives from a belief that Covid is largely spread through respiratory droplets, like flu. Old studies suggest that larger respiratory droplets are unlikely to travel more than 6 feet, and therefore close contact with an infected person is the primary mode of exposure. This research was hardly conclusive, but by most accounts it formed the basis for the initial Covid recommendations. More-recent research shows that the novel coronavirus can also spread through airborne particles, known as aerosols, especially indoors.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Gottlieb, writing for the Wall Street Journal, seemingly excused the bad CDC recommendations as a product of poor initial information, but hammered the agency for not sufficiently re-evaluating its guidance, which is likely tied to the CDC\u2019s relative lack of transparency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost planning for a pandemic prepared for a bad flu outbreak. Given how little was known about Covid, it was reasonable to base early assumptions on the flu blueprint,\u201d Gottlieb wrote. \u201cBut this doctrine wasn\u2019t revisited as more data became available about the novel coronavirus.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cExperts were trying to protect Americans, and we can\u2019t blame them for being wrong in the absence of good information,\u201d the former FDA head said. \u201cThe question is whether there is an effective process for establishing these measures and re-evaluating them as new information emerges. Science isn\u2019t a set of unchanging truths handed down by a government agency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/cid\/advance-article\/doi\/10.1093\/cid\/ciab230\/6167856\">retrospective study<\/a> cited by the CDC, shows similar virus transmission rates for school settings that have six-foot distancing versus three-foot distancing when people wear masks, and so long as community transmission is low and the school is taking sufficient safety measures. Updated CDC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/community\/schools-childcare\/operation-strategy.html\">guidance<\/a> says that elementary schools, as well as some middle and high schools, can operate with a minimum of three-foot spacing in the classroom, a change in recommendations that Gottlieb noted in his op-ed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe agency\u2019s guidance, even though it is nonbinding, has more impact than many regulations, but much less transparency and public scrutiny,\u201d wrote Gottlieb of the CDC\u2019s guidance. \u201cThere are no open dockets or opportunities for expert input, such as public advisory meetings.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\" readability=\"30.680412371134\">\n<p>COVID, instead, was both underestimated and overestimated by U.S. public health officials \u201cin important ways,\u201d shaping our response and the subsequent fallout, wrote Gottlieb.<\/p>\n<p>The World Health Organization, Gottlieb said, \u201chas allowed 1 meter of distance (around 39 inches) both in and out of school,\u201d and \u201cChina, France, Denmark and Hong Kong, among others, went with this spacing.\u201d The New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/16\/health\/coronavirus-schools-social-distance.html\">reported<\/a> that the<em>&nbsp;\u201c<\/em>American Academy of Pediatrics recommends three to six feet of social distancing in schools, but the World Health Organization recommends just one meter, or 3.3 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the U.S., the CDC\u2019s dubious six-foot recommendation set the tone for guidance in the private and public sector, crushing the economy and sparking other health issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Sunday the science that was used to establish the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s highly influential six-foot social distancing &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310930,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-2687.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Former FDA Chief: Science Behind CDC\u2019s Costly 6-Foot Social-Distance Rule Not Fully Known","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-2687.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Former FDA Chief: Science Behind CDC\u2019s Costly 6-Foot Social-Distance Rule Not Fully Known","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}