A woman stretches near a warning sign on the beach as new stay-at-home orders begin in Southern California during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Oceanside, California, December 7, 2020.
- “If we don't make the choice now to change the future, then what I'm worried about is we're going to see a Christmas Day and a New Year's wave in January, and hospitals will be beyond the breaking point," said Dr. Stephen Parodi.
- In California, the virus is spiraling out of control with almost 19,000 people hospitalized due to the pandemic and patients spilling into hallways of ICUs.
- Parodi said that he hoped the general public would prove those predicting another surge in cases wrong and stay home this year.
Dr. Stephen Parodi, director of Kaiser Permanente's nationwide Covid response, warned that new coronavirus case surges are imminent unless Americans change their behavior during a Tuesday evening interview on "The News with Shepard Smith."
"If we don't make the choice now to change the future, then what I'm worried about is we're going to see a Christmas Day and a New Year's wave in January, and hospitals will be beyond the breaking point, that's what we're really facing," Parodi said.
The United States once again broke coronavirus records this week, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Wednesday was the second deadliest day of coronavirus in the United States since the pandemic began, and on Thursday, the country hit record highs for hospitalizations with 117,000 people in hospitals due to Covid. In California, the virus is spiraling out of control with almost 19,000 people hospitalized due to the pandemic and patients spilling into hallways of ICUs. That's one out of every six people hospitalized around the entire country.
Parodi told host Shepard Smith that he is concerned about his staff, who continue to work overtime and are exhausted. Parodi said his staff was frustrated because the current surge in cases could have been prevented, but instead they are now grappling with it after the Thanksgiving holiday.
According to the Transportation Security Administration, air travel surpassed 1 million daily passengers in the U.S. throughout the weekend before Christmas, despite warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Parodi said that he hoped the general public would prove those predicting another surge in cases wrong and stay home this year.
"This year, we've got to make the sacrifice," Parodi urged. "What I tell my patients is that, this Christmas has to be different, so that next year all those people we like to gather with — will be here next year."
