Fauci Warns of Holiday Covid Superspreader Surge
The nation’s leading health advisor and expert on COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, beginning with Thanksgiving, this year’s holiday season could mushroom into a superspreader across the country because coronavirus infection rates are increasing too quickly to control in hotspots or isolate spikes as they occur. Dr. Fauci said our country is in a vulnerable place and it is likely to only get worse with people not heeding warnings and taking precautions as the weather gets colder.
Despite Dr. Fauci and the US Centers for Disease Control urging people to stay home for the holidays, several million people have traveled by air for Thanksgiving. Experts are imploring all Americans to remain vigilant as vaccine roll-outs will take time to implement. On Thursday 100,000 new cases were confirmed with 1,200 deaths, not including the 20 states which did not report their COVID-19 case data on Thanksgiving Day.
Black Friday is also different in a pandemic-ridden holiday season. The CDC is advising against shopping in stores, which they have listed as a “high risk activity.” Some major retailers, such as Macy’s, Best Buy and Walmart, are offering “grab and go” sales sections for shoppers to spend limited time inside their store locations to mitigate the congregating of crowds. Retailers are also promoting online deal extensions beyond Friday, which some companies, such as Kohl’s and Target, began offering in October. Some of the major retailers have also expanded their curbside pickup areas to accommodate more customers and encourage shopping online.

Ann Sullivan is a contributing staff writer covering national and world news topics. She brings dedicated experience having written international and domestic news, blogs, and web content for over 20 years. She’s also a published poet and graphic designer with degrees in Business and Graphic Communications and has been a music distributor, music industry sponsorship sales director and band manager.