President Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, provided reassurance to Americans eager to spend time with relatives in the coming months, saying on Sunday that they could convene if everyone is fully vaccinated.
“I believe strongly that, particularly in the vaccinated people, if you’re vaccinated and your family members are vaccinated, those who are eligible — that is obviously very young children are not yet eligible — that you can enjoy the holidays. You can enjoy Halloween, trick-or-treating and certainly Thanksgiving with your family and Christmas with your family,” Fauci said on Sunday during ABC’s “This Week.”
Fauci said that when the level of COVID-19 transmission is down, fueled by the vaccines, “there’s no reason at all why you can’t enjoy the holidays in a family way.”
“That’s one the reasons why we emphasized why it’s so important to get vaccinated, not only for your own safety, for that of your family but also for the good of the community, to keep the level of infection down,” Fauci said.
Earlier this week, President Biden lauded the progress that the United States had made in vaccinating its population, noting on Thursday that, in the last six weeks, hospitalizations had declined 38 percent and COVID-19 infections had declined 47 percent.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 77 percent of Americans aged 12 years and older have been at least partially vaccinated, while 67 percent are fully vaccinated.