2020 just keeps getting worse.
CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner appeared Saturday on the network to declare that “we just can’t do” Christmas “this year” because of COVID-19.
“So the next big holiday is obviously the Christmas, New Year’s holiday where people tend to travel, want to travel, want to be with family, but we just can’t do it this year. We’re going to cause needless deaths and particularly that’s among people we really care about, you know, our most vulnerable, our grandparents, our parents, our neighbors,” Reiner said.
“We can’t travel this year. We need to stay home. This is a sacrifice that Americans can make and we should be making it for each other. Stay home, mask up, we’ll have a great series of holidays next year. We’ll really have something to celebrate next year,” he said.
Reiner also said anyone who traveled for Thanksgiving “should be quarantining.”
“They should be quarantining for probably seven to 10 days and then getting tested. That’s what they should do. If they just go back to what they were doing — going back to work, they are going to spread the virus. So much of this virus is spread by asymptomatic folks. So stay home for more than a week, get tested, then go back to work,” he said.
“This virus is, you know, no longer isolated to certain enclaves in the United States. It’s all over the country. And when people travel from place to place, they just further that spread,” Reiner said.
Other top officials hit the Sunday talk shows to declare that the rise of COVID-19 cases will likely spike higher after families gathered for Thanksgiving, with Dr. Deborah Birx saying everyone who traveled should “assume” they have the virus.
“We know people may have made mistakes over the Thanksgiving time period,” Birx, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “If you’re young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to 10 days later. But you need to assume that you’re infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask.”
“To every American, this is the moment to protect yourself and your family,” she said. “So if your governor or your mayor isn’t doing the policies that we know are critical — masking, physical distancing, avoiding bars, avoiding crowded indoor areas — if those restrictions don’t exist in your state, you need to take it upon yourself to be restricted. You need to not go to these places. You need to protect your family now.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who also served on the task force, said Sunday that current restrictions and travel advisories will be necessary for the Christmas holiday season.
“What we expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of weeks into December, is that we might see a surge superimposed on the surge we are already in,” Fauci said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I don’t want to frighten people, except to say it is not too late to do something about this.”
Related: GOP Rep-Elect Plans Turkey ‘Funeral’ To Bypass State Restrictions On Gatherings