Health experts across the country, including the top infectious and disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that Thanksgiving could be the start of a darker holiday season for most Americans.

Experts warned the public to prevent large gatherings during Thanksgiving Day and the upcoming holidays. This also includes traveling from one place to the other to avoid the spread of COVID-19. 

Experts urged public to postpone gatherings

The country's leading disease and infectious expert Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested that Thanksgiving could be the start of darker holidays as millions of people have already traveled by plane to be with their families, according to USA Today.

As expected, Dr. Fauci was not happy with this report. He said that the surge of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the country are likely to persist or even get worse through December, January, and February.

"If the surge takes a turn of continuing to go up and you have the sustained greater than 100,000 infections a day and 1,300 deaths per day and the count keeps going up and up. I don't see it being any different during the Christmas and New Year's holidays than during Thanksgiving," said Fauci in an interview.

Read also: Dr. Fauci Admits Not Confident in Having an Effective Vaccine in the Near Future

Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluations and chief strategy officer for population health at the University of Washington, firmly believed that the reported number of COVID-19 infections and deaths are smaller. 

Mokdad explained that this is because only about a fourth of COVID-19 cases are recorded. After all, testing is still not readily available to everyone, and individuals who have mild forms of COVID-19 symptoms remained undetected due to lack of testing. 

"We should prevent getting COVID-19 especially at this time when we're about to get a vaccine rolling out. We need to be extra careful these upcoming extra couple of weeks in order to avoid pain and suffering," said Mokdad.

If people will continue to travel and hold large gatherings, it could be a factor in the swelling number of cases in the country.

States impose Thanksgiving restrictions

Jodie Guest, professor and vice-chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, said that people in the country should see the benefit of following the COVID-19 measures set by the CDC and public health officials.

As the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to swell in the country, different states across the country are imposing COVID-19 related restrictions. There are states that limit social gatherings, adding states to travel quarantine lists, mandating face masks, and encouraging residents to stay home.

Dr. Fauci concluded, "Given the cold weather and given the fact that these types of celebrations - as wonderful and beautiful and traditional as they are - are fundamentally indoor things with people who will be singing and laughing and eating and drinking ... you've just got to be careful."

Read also: Fauci Urges Continuing COVID-19 Measures Even if Vaccine is Already Approved