Transcript: Scott Gottlieb on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," May 10, 2026
The following is the transcript of the interview with former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who is on boards the of Pfizer and UnitedHealthCare, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on May 10, 2026.
Updated on: May 10, 2026 / 1:15 PM EDT / CBS News
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face The Nation. Passengers from the Hantavirus stricken cruise ship arrived this morning in Spain's Canary Islands, where they were ferried onto land by small launch boats, then checked for symptoms before being flown on evacuation flights. Close to 150 people on-board the ship, and among them, 17 of them Americans. They're going to be flown to a quarantine unit in Nebraska. No one so far is showing symptoms. For more now we turn to former FDA commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb. He also serves on the boards of Pfizer and United Healthcare. Welcome back, doctor.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So there have been three deaths linked to the outbreak. Here in the US, there are six states monitoring potential exposure, all either linked to the ship itself or flights of people who have been on the ship, and then those 17 Americans. Do you agree with the CDC and the World Health Organization that the risk to public health is low?
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB: Yeah, I do agree with that. We have to concede that there's still things we don't know about this virus. We haven't had to grapple with many outbreaks in the past. There's been two large outbreaks in Argentina, but based on that experience, what we know is that typically for transmission, you have to have close contact. We also know that people typically aren't contagious unless they're showing signs of the infection itself, in what we call the prodromal phase, where they start to have an onset of symptoms. And the progression from that onset of symptoms to severe disease, and in these cases, death, is typically just days. This is a very aggressive virus, and so based on what we know, the transmission risk is low. Now, that said, when you look back at the past experience, there are these outlier cases where there appears to have been transmission among people who weren't perceived to be in close contact. And so there are these cases that we need to look at closely from the past experience and just be wary that, perhaps there's things we don't know fully about this virus. I will say that we are nearing the end of the transmission window for the people who are being repatriated here in the US. And so, it looks to me like the last death on that cruise ship was May 2. That patient had an onset of symptoms on April 28. If you believe that the incubation period is about two to six weeks, they'll be at the peak of that incubation cycle, some point this week. So I think we're about two weeks away from knowing whether or not there will be additional cases that come from that initial outbreak on the cruise ship.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So a key moment here, I mean, the WHO said it's very clear this is not COVID all over again, but as you know, it has ignited some of the very same skeptics who during the pandemic, really questioned our government institutions and the response. The WHO has said, there is no research that ivermectin is an effective treatment for the virus, but I'm wondering what you make of these calls for alternative treatments and resistance of government health advice?