Gottlieb Backs Low Hantavirus Risk Assessment as FDA Faces Staff Exodus

Passengers from a cruise ship hit by a Hantavirus outbreak arrived this morning in Spain's Canary Islands. Small launch boats ferried them to land, where officials checked them for symptoms before evacuation flights. Nearly 150 people were aboard, including 17 Americans headed to a quarantine unit in Nebraska. No one has shown symptoms so far.

Margaret Brennan of "Face the Nation" turned to former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who serves on the boards of Pfizer and UnitedHealthCare. Three deaths are linked to the outbreak. Six U.S. states are monitoring potential exposures tied to the ship or flights of its passengers, including the 17 Americans.

Brennan asked if Gottlieb agrees with the CDC and World Health Organization that the public health risk is low. "Yeah, I do agree with that," Gottlieb said. The virus requires close contact for transmission, and people are typically not contagious until symptoms appear in the prodromal phase. Progression from symptoms to severe disease or death takes just days. "This is a very aggressive virus," he said, putting transmission risk low.

Past outbreaks in Argentina showed outlier cases of transmission without close contact. "We need to look at closely from the past experience and just be wary," Gottlieb said. The last death on the ship was May 2; that patient had symptom onset April 28. With a two-to-six-week incubation period, repatriated passengers are nearing the end of their transmission window. Additional cases from the initial outbreak should appear within two weeks.

Brennan noted the WHO's statement that this is not COVID all over again, though it has sparked skeptics who questioned government responses during the pandemic. The WHO said no research shows ivermectin works against the virus. Gottlieb dismissed calls for alternative treatments. "This is not COVID. It spreads far less efficiently," he said. Ivermectin fails because the virus replicates in the cytoplasm, not the nucleus. "We don't have an effective treatment for Hantavirus, and that's what makes this very menacing."

Brennan raised reports that current FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary risks losing his job. The agency regulates one-fifth of U.S. consumer spending, including medical products and food safety. "No one obvious to me" could step in quickly, Gottlieb said. He called the role difficult and controversial.

The FDA has suffered from upheaval, including thousands of medical reviewer departures through DOGE cuts, both voluntary and forced. The oncology division dropped from 100 reviewers to 50. The hematological group, which reviews leukemia and lymphoma drugs, fell from 21 to six. An entire breast cancer review team left. Political appointees now run career leadership positions in drug and biologics centers. "Cumulatively, that's taken a toll on the agency," Gottlieb said.

Brennan played a clip of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy discussing antidepressants. Nearly 17 percent of Americans use them. Kennedy called them overprescribed and compared a family member's SSRI withdrawal to his heroin withdrawal. The relative said daily, "I don't want to live," and stayed alive only for family.

Kennedy later clarified he was not telling people to stop the medication. Gottlieb said primary care prescribing includes some marginal cases, but the drugs are vital and sometimes life-saving for most users. Patients need weaning under medical supervision. "Nobody should just stop these drugs outright without being under the consultation of a medical provider," he said.

He worried Kennedy's remarks would discourage appropriate use, similar to past comments that cut Tylenol use in pregnancy. Kennedy aims to reduce prescribing through regulation.