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Dr. Brix Shames Americans That Gathered For Thanksgiving — ‘Assume You’re Infected And Get Tested’

Dr. Birx said that many Americans “may have made mistakes” over the holiday weekend and she’s very concerned about another spike in the spread of COVID-19.

On Sunday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, was interviewed by CBS’s Margaret Brennan on Face The Nation. Dr. Birx had a message for anyone who gathered with friends and family for Thanksgiving. It was pretty much what you’d expect.

Dr. Birx wore a mask during the interview that was conducted via video feed. Of course, she did.

She said that anyone who traveled should assume that they’ve been infected with COVID-19 and should be tested. Dr. Birx said, “if you’re young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to 10 days later. But you need to assume that you’re infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask.” She added, “We’re really asking families to even mask indoors if they chose to gather during Thanksgiving and others went across the country or even into the next state.”

It wasn’t just a warning for the reckless young ‘uns, though. She had a message for anyone over 65 or anyone with comorbidities, “if you develop any symptoms, you need to be tested immediately because we know that our therapeutics work best, both our antivirals and our monoclonal antibodies, work best very early in disease.”

Watch:

Before the holiday, Dr. Birx was concerned about a spike in the spread of the virus after Thanksgiving. She was saying back then that she would prefer if everyone would forego the Thanksgiving gatherings this year and keep the celebration limited to people in your immediate household.

Here is the post-Thanksgiving message that Dr. Birx wants to get out to all Americans (emphasis added):

To every American, I know we have some incredibly independent and fabulous Americans, I’ve met them on my trips, that have spent a lifetime protecting their land, protecting their livestock and protecting their families. To every American this is the moment to protect yourself and your family. And so if your governor or your mayor isn’t doing the policies that we know are critical, masking, physical distancing, avoiding bars, avoiding crowded indoor areas, if those restrictions don’t exist in your state, you need to take it upon yourself to be restrictive. You need to not go to these places. You need to protect your family now and really watch. If your family traveled, you have to assume that you are exposed and you became infected and you really need to get tested in the next week and you need to avoid anyone in your family with comorbidities or- or over 65, because now is the moment to- what happened would have happened. I mean, we know that people got together in Thanksgiving. The moment now is to protect those from having secondary and tertiary transmissions within the family.
Source: CBS News

Now, I’m not saying that you should get all of your family together and give each other kisses, but I’m pretty darn tired of people telling me that I should forego celebrating with my family over the holidays because “you’ll always have next year.” Can that be guaranteed? No. There are no guarantees in life.

Sure, you might not spread the ‘Rona by celebrating only with those within your household, but not a single one of us knows how long we have on this earth. This was the last Thanksgiving or Christmas for many people and they didn’t even know it.

My father died when he was just 6 years older than my brother is now, and I regret the time that I could have spent with him and didn’t.

I don’t mean to discount the deaths due to COVID — whatever those numbers may actually be — I have family members that are at high risk and I don’t want them to get sick. I also have children that are being adversely affected by lockdowns with their education and socialization, and they have almost no risk if they were to contract the virus. Who knows — maybe they already had it.

Everything that we do has risk attached to it. The questions we need to ask ourselves as a society are:

  • What risks are worth taking and what aren’t?
  • Is this “new normal” worth the sacrifices for the end results?

K. Walker

ClashDaily's Associate Editor since August 2016. Self-described political junkie, anti-Third Wave Feminist, and a nightmare to the 'intersectional' crowd. Mrs. Walker has taken a stand against 'white privilege' education in public schools. She's also an amateur Playwright, former Drama teacher, and staunch defender of the Oxford comma. Follow her humble musings on Twitter: @TheMrsKnowItAll and on Gettr @KarenWalker

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