DR. FAUCI is warning Americans the Christmas season would be an even bigger threat of spreading the coronavirus than the Covid cases surge seen after Thanksgiving.
“My concerns,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told John Berman while appearing on CNN’s New Day, “are the same thing of the concerns that I had about Thanksgiving, only this maybe even more compound because it’s a longer holiday.”
The nation’s leading infectious disease expert sounded the alarms as Covid-19 cases surge across the country and as the holiday season nears.
“For Thanksgiving, it was just the end of the week and you go back to work next week,” Dr. Fauci said. “With Christmas, it starts several days before, it goes through Christmas, the week after Christmas into New Years and into the New Years holiday.”
“I think it could be even more of a challenge than what we saw with Thanksgiving,” Fauci continued. “So I hope that people realize that and understand that as difficult as this is, nobody wants to modify or if not essentially shut down their holiday season.”
Fauci left with a stern warning to Americans as they enter the holiday season.
“We’re at a very critical time in this country right now,” he said. “We’ve got to not walk away from the facts and the data. This is tough going for all of us.”
Cases have surged across the country following the Thanksgiving holiday, with daily Covid cases nearing 200,000 as over 282,000 Americans have lost their lives to the virus.
In the country alone, over 14.6 million cases have been reported, and on Sunday, the country has surpassed over 100,000 daily hospitalizations for the fifth day in a row.
Even as the Covid-19 vaccine nears its distribution into the United States, officials have warned Americans to continue social distancing and avoid activities that can spread the virus.
White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said “the vaccine’s critical” on NBC’s Meet the Press, “but it’s not going to save us from this current surge. Only we can save us from this current surge.”
The FDA is scheduled to look into a request to authorize the emergency use of Pfizer’s vaccine on Thursday, with vaccinations expected several days later through limited supply.
The vaccine is not scheduled to become widely available until the spring.
