Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the decision for families to gather together for Thanksgiving during the coronavirus pandemic is an “individual choice.”
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that while Thanksgiving is a “beautiful tradition” of bringing families together, he cautioned that this year will be different than others.
“People have to make their individual choice, particularly who you have in your home. Are they vulnerable people? Are they elderly? Are they people with underlying conditions?” Fauci said during a Thursday interview with Yahoo News.
“It’s such a beautiful tradition, Thanksgiving, of getting family together,” he continued. “I think we just need to realize things might be different this year, particularly if you want to have people who are going to be flying in from a place that has a lot of infection — you’re going to an airport that might be crowded, you’re on a plane, and then to come in — unless you absolutely know you’re not infected. There are many people who are not going to want to take that risk.”
Fauci said that his three daughters have decided to avoid traveling home for Thanksgiving, given the risk of spreading the coronavirus that it entails.
“They’re adult women. I would love to see them, but they themselves are concerned about getting on a plane, being in an airport, coming in for a couple of days with their father, me, who is in an age group that is vulnerable, and they’ve made the decision that they are not going to do that,” he explained.
Fauci, who is also a member of the White House coronavirus task force, was asked about how many meetings the task force has been holding. He said that the number of meetings has drastically decreased from earlier in the pandemic.
“It used to be, when in the height of things, when we were concentrating very heavily on the issues of public health, we were meeting sometimes seven days a week. Then, it went down to five,” he said. “We’re down to I’d say a consistent one day a week. But in addition to that, we do have what’s called a governor’s meeting, where certain members of the task force are with the vice president.”
