(Photo : Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE - DECEMBER 08: Appearing via video link, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been tapped by President-elect Joe Biden to be his chief medical adviser on COVID-19, speaks during a news conference at the Queen Theater December 08, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. With the novel coronavirus pandemic continuing to ravage the country with daily records for infections and deaths, members of Biden's health team said they will make fighting COVID-19 the priority.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States' leading infectious disease expert, warned on Monday that Christmas could result in a COVID-19 surge. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the past three decades advised people to avoid travel this month.
COVID-19 Surge Possible During Christmas
Fauci stated his holiday plans "dramatically changed" this 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. According to Fauci, "For the first time in more than 30 years, I'm not spending the Christmas holidays with my daughters," reported CNBC.
He persuaded others to do the same as coronavirus cases continue to spike in the US.
Although he deems the decision as "painful," he needs to accept it through this unprecedented situation.
As the conclusion of this year is fast approaching, people are weighing travel plans to join family and friends for the holidays against the backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases. Gathering with other people is probably the universal holiday tradition, and now, it has never required so much meticulous foresight, reported CNN.
The United States has not witness the full impact that of Thanksgiving gatherings on bolstering COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, according to Fauci.
At this point, it's too soon to fully see the effect that Thanksgiving travel and gatherings had on infections. He stated the "full brunt" will not be felt until the succeeding or week and a half, considering the virus' incubation period, reported ECWA USA.
The US could witnessed an appalling surge in COVID-19 cases in December and January as people congregate for Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and other nearing holidays in the winter season.
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According to Fauci, during the Milken Institute's Future of Health Summit, "We have a baseline of infections that literally is breaking records every day. The numbers are really stunning," reported Web MD.
The initial shipments of the COVID-19 vaccines were disseminated late last week as onlookers cheered the trucks distributing the drugs across the nation.
On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hosted a live stream during which an ICU nurse from Queens named Sandra Lindsay became the first United States citizen to be administered the vaccine beyond clinical trials.
Fauci will be turning 80 on Christmas Eve; an occasion usually spent with his wife, Christine Grady, and daughters, and Alison, 28, Megan, 31, and Jennifer, 34. He explained he would just spend Christmas with Grady.
(Fauci had remarked the same thing in October, with Thanksgiving on the horizon, about gathering only on Zoom with the family, aside from his wife of 35 years.)
He said the post-Thanksgiving case increase is slated to transpire prior to the Christmas and Hanukkah probable surge.
Fauci cautioned Americans are facing a "critical time," and the succeeding potential surge over the holidays could result in a dark January, which may be more compounded because it is a long holiday.
He said 10 people gathered indoors amid the holidays is possibly too many and also underscored this to Americans in a video appearance with Gov. Cuomo on Monday.
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