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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And we saw in some of those pictures that the first to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Monday was a front-line nurse in New York. And I just wonder. You said it’s — it can bring you some optimism even now. Are you going to get it? What’s the situation for people in your hospital?
DR. CORNELIA GRIGGS, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: Yes, my hospital started the vaccination process yesterday, and I should know tonight when I can make my appointment to get vaccinated. But I expect everyone at my hospital will be vaccinated, everybody who wants to be vaccinated will be vaccinated by the end of January. So, that timeline does give me a bit of hope. But, as you said, we’re seeing our beds fill up again with COVID patients. And we’re seeing a surge related to the Thanksgiving holiday. And with more holidays around the corner, I think a lot of health care workers here in Boston and New York and across a lot of hard-hit areas in the country are bracing for a really brutal winter, even with vaccines.
AMANPOUR: So, let me ask you, because you brought up Thanksgiving. And you famously tweeted — I mean, you begged people basically to cancel their Thanksgiving. You said you would even give them a medical note, so that they could bow out of their Thanksgiving. And you said it’s doable. It’s just a year. One can — one can just forfeit it this year. Do you — I mean, you’re saying you’re seeing the spike after that now? Do you think the same should happen over Christmas?
GRIGGS: Absolutely. I think that the risk is even higher now than it was in the spring, when we were all being told to bunker in our homes, and a lot of people accepted that that was — that was what was necessary. But now we have learned to ignore some of these appalling numbers, in terms of case counts and deaths. But the rate of community spread all across the country is really terribly alarming. And the way COVID seeps into your family is insidious. It arrives on the breath of the people that you love and their kisses.
About This Episode EXPAND
Pediatric surgeon Dr. Cornelia Griggs reflects on the past nine months she has spent on the front lines of the pandemic. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) explains where negotiations stand on a COVID relief bill. Former Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui discusses the struggle for democracy in his home country. Claire Babineaux-Fontenot and David Krepcho discuss food insecurity.
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