Fauci slammed for claiming it's 'too soon' to consider Christmas gatherings
Last year, Fauci said Christmas 2021 should be back to normal
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dr. Anthony Fauci was under fire on Sunday for suggesting Americans might have to spend Christmas alone in 2021.
On CBS’s "Face The Nation," Fauci spoke with anchor Margaret Brennan about the status of the coronavirus pandemic and what is expected in the months to come. Specifically, Brennan wondered if families can gather for Christmas.
"We can gather for Christmas, or it’s just too soon to tell?" Brennan asked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fauci responded it was "too soon to tell" if people could gather in groups by Christmas this year.
"It is just too soon to tell," Fauci said. "We have to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we’re going to do at a particular time."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Critics slammed Fauci for suggesting that families should spend Christmas apart.
"Dr. Fauci said today it’s too soon to know whether people will be able to gather for Christmas. Insanity. Who in the world is still listening to this dude?" OutKick founder Clay Travis wrote.
Contributing editor for The Spectator Stephen Miller tweeted "Has Fauci weighed in at all on the indoor maskless award shows? If not why not?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It’s bad enough that Fauci says these ridiculous things, but it’s worse that journos keep framing questions to him as if he has any say over whether we get together for Christmas," Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross wrote
Some Republican lawmakers also criticized Fauci like New York Rep. Claudia Tenney who said Americans are going to celebrate Christmas, regardless of what Fauci or President Biden say.
Dr. Fauci, who serves as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has made several predictions of when things can go back to normal. In December 2020, he previously faced backlash for suggesting that Christmas cannot be "business as usual" but predicted that holidays should be normal by 2021.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It is highly likely that with vaccines being distributed, that we will be back to normal by next Christmas," Fauci said last year.
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Fauci also used his appearance on "Face The Nation" to emphasize the need to get people vaccinated and receiving booster shots if appropriate.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Let’s focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down. We can do it by people getting vaccinated. Also, in a situation where boosters are appropriate, to get people boostered because we know that they could help greatly in diminishing infection and diminishing advanced disease, the kinds of data now accumulating in real time," he said.