Dr. Anthony Fauci says families should "ask," and "maybe require" that guests be vaccinated if they come over for holiday celebrations.
"When you get vaccinated, and you have a vaccinated group, and you are in an indoor setting, you can enjoy, as we have traditionally over the years, dinners and gatherings within the home with people who are vaccinated," Fauci told the Washington Post Wednesday.
"And that's the reason why people should, if they invite people over their home, essentially ask and maybe require that people show evidence that they are vaccinated or give their honest and good faith word that they have been vaccinated," he continued.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday said the United States is averaging more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, the highest level in two months.
The seven-day moving average of new cases was 121,437 as of Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. last topped 100,000-plus cases a day in early October.
The new omicron variant has alarmed officials because early indications show how much more contagious it could be than the original strain.
Fauci said being vaccinated "puts you in a much different position than the extreme vulnerability of people who are not vaccinated because all you have to do is look at the data and look at those areas of the country, those states, those communities that are under-vaccinated," Fauci said.
"There's no doubt they have a much higher degree of infection, a much higher degree of hospitalization, and a much higher degree of death."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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