Americans who’ve rolled up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccine should feel safe to enjoy the holiday season with family and friends, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.
“If you’re vaccinated and your family members are vaccinated...you can enjoy the holidays. You can enjoy Halloween, trick-or-treating, and certainly Thanksgiving with your family, and Christmas with your family,” Fauci told ABC News.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said a key reason public health officials have consistently emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated is “not only for your own safety and for that of your family, but also for the good of the community, to keep that level of infection down.”
“When you do that there’s no reason at all you can’t enjoy the holidays in a family way, the way we’ve traditionally done it all along,” he added.
Fauci recently noted that the U.S. has turned the corner around a summer surge of the virus, particularly with the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, but that continued vaccination efforts heading into the holiday season are the best way to prevent repeat surges.
The country and Massachusetts have seen new cases and hospitalizations decline significantly over the last month.
The nation saw more than 160,000 new cases daily at the beginning of September; now about half that number are reported every day, The New York Times reported this weekend.
In Massachusetts, the latest surge peaked the week of Sept. 5 before several weeks of declines in new cases.
But public health officials are still urging people to get vaccinated and to wear masks in certain indoor situations, especially around vulnerable family members and friends during the holiday season.
Last year, before vaccinations were widespread, Massachusetts saw a surge at the end of October that took off after Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
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