Well, the holiday season is here. You're probably starting to plan all of those trips and parties and all that fun stuff, right? Well, Dr. Fauci has some good news for you. If you're vaccinated and plan to be around other people who are vaccinated, he says you can all get together and do so safely.
"I believe strongly that it — particularly in the vaccinated people — if you are vaccinated and your family members are vaccinated, those who are eligible and that is, obviously, very young children are not yet eligible, that you can enjoy the holidays. You can enjoy Halloween trick-or-treating and certainly Thanksgiving with your family and Christmas with your families. That's one of the reasons why we emphasize why it's so important to get vaccinated," Fauci said.
Now, just a few weeks ago, Fauci had said it was too soon to tell whether or not holidays should go on as planned. As he stressed the importance of vaccines, he criticized bans on vaccine mandates like the one that we see in Texas. He said on Fox News on Sunday with Chris Wallace that the restrictions are not based in science and are harmful to the nation's fight against COVID-19.
"That is really unfortunate because we know how effective vaccines are in preventing not only illness for the individual, but for diminishing the dynamics of the infection in society," Fauci said. "The data are very, very clear. It doesn't matter what I think or not think of Gov. Abbott. The fact is, look at the data and look at the difference between people who get vaccinated versus the people who are unvaccinated in cases of hospitalizations and deaths."
Fauci said masks and vaccine mandates are important not only for protecting ourselves, but of course, the people around us as well.
