Incoming CDC Director Warns of ‘Dark’ Days in January Due to Christmas COVID Surge

Incoming CDC Director Warns of ‘Dark’ Days in January Due to Christmas COVID Surge

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the incoming CDC director under the Biden administration, warns that "dark" days of the coronavirus will come around President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration at the end of January, following the Christmas and New Year's holidays."I think we all need to acknowledge that on January 21, things are going to be bad. It's going to be dark," Walensky told CNN's John Berman on Saturday. "Right now, we're already in some dark times. I do think that we're going to have more deaths, more surge after the Christmas and New Year's holidays. And all of those are going to manifest around the end of January."In the weeks following Thanksgiving, data suggests that there have been regional and isolated upticks in COVID-19 cases related to travel and activity surrounding the holiday, especially in Texas and California, reports The New York Times.

Walensky, who is the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says that medical professionals need to be prepared for the potential post-holiday surge, with a focus on the already overwhelmed hospitals across the nation."I think about the priorities, among the things that I think about are making sure that our hospital