Dr. Fauci Says Americans Should Cancel Thanksgiving Plans Amid COVID-19 Surge

If you’ve been looking forward to Grandma’s cranberry sauce all year, Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has a reality check for your Thanksgiving plans.

Due to cases of COVID-19—which continue to spike across the country, even as President Trump continues to hold large campaign rallies—Fauci is advising you rethink gathering around the table with your loved ones. “Given the fluid and dynamic nature of what’s going on right now in the spread and the uptick of infections, I think people should be very careful and prudent about social gatherings, particularly when members of the family might be at a risk because of their age or their underlying condition,” he told host Norah O’Donnell on CBS Evening News on October 14. “You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering unless you’re pretty certain that the people that you’re dealing with are not infected.”

Inviting people from out of town to come together and sit down, indoors, for hours does not exactly mix with a respiratory disease that’s already claimed over 217,000 American lives.

Fauci is encouraging everyone to “double down” on social-distancing protocols and mask wearing as coronavirus cases continue to surge in a majority of states. “[Protective measures] sound very simple, but people are not doing that, and that’s why we have an uptick in cases,” he said. “That is not a good sign as you’re entering into the cooler weather. It is unfortunate because that’s such a sacred part of American tradition—the family gathering around Thanksgiving. But that is a risk.”

Meanwhile, the ]resident told a crowd of thousands at his recent Florida rally, “I feel powerful,” after contracting COVID-19. “I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and everybody,” he said. 

In other words, if Christmas is cancelled too, you know who to blame. 

Originally Appeared on Glamour