Fauci worries Thanksgiving will help spread COVID infections

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The country’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says Thanksgiving may have to be called off since indoor gatherings have increasingly become the source of COVID-19 infection spread.
• In addition, Fauci also said to expect rough times ahead because the winter cold and upcoming festivities will drive people indoors further increasing infection rates.
• Fauci further suggested rethinking about bringing family and friends together on Thanksgiving where infection in people’s homes is at its highest.

Small gatherings especially indoors are increasingly becoming a source of COVID-19 infection around the country, and that has alarming implications for the coming festivities, says Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious disease.

In recent days, coronavirus cases in the United States have hit record highs with average daily cases amounting to around 70,000. Such an increase doesn’t bode well for the coming festivities.

“You don’t want to be the Grinch that stole the holidays,” Fauci told the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association Dr. Howard Bauchner, in a live stream interview.

“We’re going into a precarious situation,” added Fauci who said that a combination of cold weather and holidays is what he calls a “bad recipe for tough times ahead” since the winter weather will push people to stay indoors and festivities bring people together in groups.

He further suggested that families should think twice about the risks of a gathering come Thanksgiving especially since many infections are transmitted in people’s homes.

“You get one person who is asymptomatic and infected, and then all of a sudden, four or five people in that gathering are infected,” Fauci said, describing the scenario that one should expect on Thanksgiving.

While this doesn’t mean everyone across the country should cancel Thanksgiving, Fauci cautions that if you have people living with you who are vulnerable, you might want to rethink about bringing them into a big dinner or gathering where risks of infection are at its highest.

“You might want to take a couple of steps back and say, ‘Is it worth it for this year to bring those people together when you don’t know what the status of everybody in that pod that you’ve created is?’” Fauci added.

Source: NBC News