Ex-FDA head urges states to focus on urban hospitals, warns feds won’t be able to backstop everything

A former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) encouraged states on Monday to direct their attention to urban hospitals, saying the federal government will not be able to support every location.

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called on state officials to stop low-census hospitals from “consuming supplies” by doing elective medical care and to redirect the resources to urban areas.

THREAD: The cities that face a growing risk of large epidemics are going to be pressed as many federal resources have been forward deployed to New York, and the federal ability to backstop multiple cities is going to be limited. There are things every city should be doing now.

— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) March 30, 2020

Gottlieb warned that the state governments “should expect urban centers to all be engulfed” by the pandemic. He urged urban medical centers to prepare for that possibility, adding that “Many still aren’t.”

“Hope for best. Prepare for worst. That should be policy in every community,” he posted

“We’ll see a spike in cases, and tragically deaths, over next few weeks,” Gottlieb added. “Some communities have a head start. They must use it.”

The former commissioner predicted that April “will be hard everywhere” as “multiple epicenters” of the virus will develop, which will “severely strain our system.” He added that state officials need to do everything to decrease spread, contain the virus, back providers, preserve life and “protect vulnerable financially, medically.”

The coronavirus has infected more than 153,200 people in the U.S., causing at least 2,828 deaths. A total of 5,545 people have recovered, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Governors across the country are dealing with increasing cases and a lack of medical supplies as they plead for more equipment. New York, including New York City, has been hit particularly hard with 33,768 cases and 790 deaths.