Fauci gets hammered for saying it is 'too soon to tell' if American families can gather for Christmas: 'We are living in two different realities right now'

Dr. Anthony Fauci incensed people on Sunday with his comments about American families gathering for Christmas.

"Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan asked Fauci, "But we can gather for Christmas, or it's just too soon to tell?"

"You know, Margaret it's just too soon to tell," Fauci responded. "We've just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we're going to do at a particular time."

"Let's focus like a laser on continuing to get those- those cases down," the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden continued. "And we can do it by people getting vaccinated and also in the situation where boosters are appropriate to get people boosted because we know that they can help greatly in diminishing infection and diminishing advanced disease, the kinds of data that are now accumulating in real-time."

Casting doubt as to whether families could gather for Christmas was immediately met with resistance. Online commentators hammered Fauci for even considering the possibility of restricting Americans from freely gathering with loved ones on the cherished holiday.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham commented on Twitter, "That anyone would seek Fauci's advice about whether they can be with their friends and family is deeply disturbing."

Outkick founder Clay Travis reacted by saying, "Dr. Fauci said today it's too soon to know whether people will be able to gather for Christmas. Insanity. Who in the world is still listening to this dude?"

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh advised, "If you have family members who are still waiting for Fauci's permission to live their lives, they aren't worth inviting to your Christmas celebration anyway."

Entrepreneur Joe Pompliano pointed out the packed college football stadiums in recent weeks, "Alabama, Penn State, and LSU all had 100,000 fans packed into their stadium yesterday... Yet Dr. Fauci still says it's 'too soon to tell' if we can gather for Christmas this year. We are living in two different realities right now."

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) remarked, "I don't know what Fauci would do without COVID."

Radio host Buck Sexton wrote, "Anyone who still believes this evil megalomaniacal bureaucrat deserves a life of endless boosters and masking up between bites."

Conservative podcast host Liz Wheeler couldn't help but laugh, "Hahahahahah who listens to this guy?! I will be gathering with my family for Christmas, period. Fauci isn't my boss. If you obey this dimwit... I don't know a more diplomatic way to say this... is he really the dimwit then?"

Townhall writer Scott Morefield declared, "Fauci tripling down on the tyranny. You know, for our health (or something)."

Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross tweeted, "It's bad enough that Fauci says these ridiculous things, but it's worse that journos keep framing questions to him as if he has any say over whether we get together for Christmas."

National Review contributor Pradheep J. Shanker asked, "Does he believe he has ANY control over this at this point?"

The Spectator contributor Stephen L. Miller requested a comment from Fauci about the mostly maskless Emmy's award show and maskless Met Gala, "Has Fauci weighed in at all on the indoor maskless award shows? If not why not?"

U.S. Senate candidate Sean Parnell referred to the incident involving Dr. Deborah Birx — former member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force — flouting her own COVID-19 guidance to visit with extended family on Thanksgiving week last year, "Someone tell this guy that we celebrated Christmas together with our families last year & are going to do it again this year. Even Dr. Birx, at the height of the pandemic, blew him off & traveled to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. Dr. Fauci, please just go away."

Newsmax host Steve Cortes joked, "Someone needs to tell Fauci that elves don't get to cancel Christmas, only Santa can."

Even liberal CNN host Brian Stelter knocked Fauci, "This seems unhelpful from a public health messaging POV."

Also during the "Face the Nation" interview, Fauci said that he completely agreed with the vaccine mandate ordered by California Gov. Gavin Newsom requiring students over the age of 12 to be vaccinated to attend school.

"People need to realize that having a vaccine requirement for schools is not a new, novel thing that is very peculiar or specific to COVID-19. We've been doing this for decades," Fauci said. "My own children could not have gone to school if they had not gotten vaccinated with the measles, mumps and rubella. So when we see pushback on that, it's as if this never happened before. It's actually ongoing with other vaccines. So, let's do it with a virus that's very, very serious."

While grilling Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) noted a vast difference between the measles vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Even the CDC does not recommend measles vaccine if you have measles immunity. The same was true for smallpox," Paul said, highlighting that there is no COVID-19 vaccine exemption for those with natural immunity.