It is “too soon to tell” whether Americans should enjoy large family gatherings at Christmas, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci announced Sunday, saying Americans should focus on lowering the number of infections and hospitalizations.
Fauci and other health officials urged Americans not to have large family gatherings during the 2020 holidays, but with the COVID-19 pandemic slowing in early spring, few expected a repeat in 2021. CBS News Anchor Margaret Brennan asked Fauci on Sunday whether Americans could expect health experts to approve of their meeting with loved ones this holiday season. (RELATED: Dr. Anthony Fauci: Trump’s Decision To Stop Travel From China Helped Contain Coronavirus)
“You know, Margaret, it’s just too soon to tell,” Fauci responded. “We’ve just got to concentrating on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we’re going to do at a particular time. Let’s focus like a laser on continuing to get those- those cases down. And we can do it by people getting vaccinated and also in the situation where boosters are appropriate to get people boosted because we know that they can help greatly in diminishing infection and diminishing advanced disease, the kinds of data that are now accumulating in real time.”
WATCH 🚨 Fauci now says “too soon to tell” if people can safely gather together for Christmas
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 3, 2021
Fauci made the statement during a series of television appearances on Sunday, during which he also told CNN that he does not believe illegal immigration is to blame for recent COVID-19 surges in the U.S. (RELATED: Border City Declares State Of Disaster After Release Of 1,500 COVID Positive Migrants Last Week)
“The problem is within our own country,” Fauci said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Certainly immigrants can get infected but they’re not the driving force of this.”
WATCH:
Republicans on Capitol Hill have been heavily critical of what they argue is President Joe Biden’s lax approach to COVID-19 security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Joe Biden is trying to play politics with the pandemic even while he releases COVID-positive immigrants by the thousands into the state of Texas,” Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News in August.
Peter Doocy: Biden is mandating all Americans to get vaccinated but not illegal immigrants at the southern border.
Psaki: “That’s correct.” pic.twitter.com/eZpUw618d9
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 10, 2021
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy has also pressed White House press secretary Jen Psaki on the apparent disconnect between allowing unvaccinated illegal immigrants to cross the border even while the Biden administration requires U.S. employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated.