Fauci: Christmas ‘More Compounded’ Than Thanksgiving ‘Because It’s a Longer Holiday’

Monday, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci voiced his concern about the upcoming Christmas holiday as the United States continues to battle the coronavirus.

Fauci told CNN “New Day” host John Berman that his concerns are similar to the ones he had heading into Thanksgiving. He noted that Christmas lasts longer than Thanksgiving, which he said makes the upcoming holiday “more compounded” and “more of a challenge.”

“My concerns, John, are the same thing of the concerns that I had about Thanksgiving, only this may be more compounded because it’s a longer holiday,” Fauci stated. “With Thanksgiving, you know, it was the end of the week and you go back to work the next week. With Christmas, it starts several days before. It goes through Christmas, the week after Christmas into New Year’s and the New Year’s holiday. I think it could be even more of a challenge than what we saw with Thanksgiving. So, I hope that people realize that and understand that as difficult as this is, nobody wants to modify if not essentially shut down their holiday season. But we are in a very critical time in this country right now.”

“We’ve got to not walk away from the facts and the data. This is tough going for all of us,” he concluded.

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