Former President Trump’s coronavirus testing czar Brett Giroir warned Friday that lockdowns may be on the table again if more people don’t get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Giroir made the comments during a Fox News interview, after White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier Friday that the administration was not considering a lockdown.
The former four-star admiral said more people need to be vaccinated, but if vaccinations continue at their current place, masking indoors will be needed to help control the spread of the virus.
“If people don’t mask and they don’t get vaccinated, then unfortunately governments are going to be put into the situation of considering lockdowns, which I think would be a disaster,” he warned.
“I don’t think they work, I think they’re counter-productive and they’re really horrible for our children. The answer is get vaccinated,” he continued.
Giroir said until everyone can get inoculated, people in high-risk situations should wear a mask because “it will protect you and it will protect others from being infected by you.”
The comments come as officials seek to contain an increase in coronavirus infections fueled by the delta variant of the coronavirus.
Currently, 57.4 percent of the total population has received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 49.5 percent have been fully inoculated.
During a separate interview on Fox News’s “America Reports” on Thursday, Giroir warned that it was “just a matter of time” before all unvaccinated individuals become infected with the delta variant.
“If you have not been vaccinated, and you have not had COVID before, you will get the delta variant,” Giroir said. “This is so infectious that you will get it.”