Fauci won't be seeing his kids this Christmas, and he wants everyone to do the same

Dr. Anthony Fauci and his wife will be spending the holidays — and Fauci's birthday — alone this year.

Like he did for Thanksgiving, the nation's top infectious disease expert won't be seeing his three adult daughters this Christmas or for his 80th birthday on Christmas Eve, and he recommends other Americans remain similarly isolate, he told The Washington Post. "That's painful," Fauci acknowledged, but it's "just one of the things you're going to have to accept as we go through this unprecedented challenging time."

Many Americans didn't heed the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation to stay home for Thanksgiving, and we're now seeing "dramatic" increases in COVID-19 infections, Fauci acknowledged to the Post. "We're already in a very difficult situation, and we're going to make it worse" if Christmas holidays continue on as usual, Fauci added.

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So if your family members or loved ones won't take "no" for an answer, Fauci suggested putting it to them this way: "Keep yourself and your family healthy so that you'll have many more Christmases ahead of you." Remember "you've enjoyed many more Christmases before," and realize that with vaccines heading out now, it's "highly likely" things will be "back to normal by next Christmas," Fauci added.

COVID-19 case counts have dramatically surged in recent months. That's especially true in the past week, when an average of 211,629 cases were reported per day. Average daily death counts are also up, hitting a devastating total of 300,000 dead on Monday. Hospitalizations for coronavirus have surged, putting ICUs across the country at close to or over capacity.