Fauci tells parents to skip seeing their kids this Christmas

Dr. Anthony Fauci turns 80 today – a Christmas Eve birthday. But it will be a quiet celebration in the Fauci household, says the the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease.

"I'm going to be with my wife, period," said Fauci in an interview with the Washington Post. 

"The Christmas holiday is a special holiday for us because Christmas Eve is my birthday. And Christmas Day is Christmas Day."

However, Fauci will not be spend the holiday with this three adult daughters with whom he has spent every Christmas since their respective births.

"They are not going to come home," he said. "That's painful. .. We don't like that. But that's just one of the things you're going to have to accept as we go through this unprecedented challenging time."

As he did on Thanksgiving, Fauci and his wife and family will follow the guidance set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that instructs all Americans to stay home and skip the travel and family gatherings this year.

Unlike some members of the coronavirus task force and various state leaders across the country, Fauci is holding fast to the rules he has been a part of developing for the American public to follow during the pandemic.

Coronavirus case rates have been spiking since late October, and despite the approval and dissemination process of two vaccines, Fauci says holiday celebrations could increase the spread rate of the illness even more than did the Thanksgiving holiday. 

As a result, Fauci is encouraging Americans to skip family time this very painful year, and maybe try again at Easter. 

"The numbers are really quite dramatic," he says.