Remember all those "6-feet" stickers you saw at the grocery store?
They're meaningless, according to former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
During a September 19 "Face the Nation" appearance, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb made some claims regarding the CDC guidelines that we all stand six feet apart to prevent the spread of COVID-19 via socia distancing.
"The six feet rule was arbitrary in and of itself," he told interviewer Margaret Brennan. "Nobody knows where it came from. Most people assume that the six feet of distance, the recommendation for keeping six feet apart, comes out of some old studies related to flu, where droplets don't travel more than six feet," he added.
Gottlieb, who published the "National Coronavirus Response: A Road Map to Reopening" with several other public health experts, a guide on how to manage the disease, also said the original recommendation was to keep people 10 feet apart, but that was shut down.
"The initial recommendation that the CDC brought to the White House ... was 10 feet, and a political appointee in the White House said we can't recommend 10 feet," he said. "Nobody can measure 10 feet, it's inoperable, society will shut down. So the compromise was around six feet," Gottlieb continued.
Photo: Getty Images North America
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 17: Workers use a tape measure mark spaces six feet apart for people to wait in line safely as they convert the outdoor plaza in front of celebrated Chef José Andres' Zaytinya into a grab-and-go meal restaurant in response to the novel coronavirus March 17, 2020 in Washington, DC. Andres, whose World Central Kitchen has set up disaster response kitchens to feed people in Puerto Rico, Indonesia, Mozambique, Guatemala and other countries, will convert all his Washington, DC restaurants into 'community kitchens' in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)