Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday he thinks many Americans will start holding group gatherings well before President Joe Biden's target of Independence Day.

In an interview on "Squawk Box," the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said he believes the timeline Biden laid out in his primetime address Thursday was too conservative compared with how people will actually behave.

"I think the majority of Americans are going to be getting together long before July," said Gottlieb, who led the FDA during the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. He now serves on the board of Pfizer, which makes one of the three Covid vaccines cleared for emergency use in the U.S.

Biden's speech Thursday night on the pandemic sought to highlight the collective toll Covid has taken over the past year, while also offering two forward-looking public-health targets. The first: Directing states to make all adults eligible for coronavirus vaccines by May 1. The second: A goal for Americans to safely gather in small groups with friends and loved ones to celebrate the Fourth of July.