Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warned Americans of "impending doom" as the country experiences a rise in COVID-19 cases, according to a March 29 NBC News report.
Citing the surge in cases due to SARS-CoV-2 variants, increased travel, and states relaxing mask mandates too quickly, Walensky sounded the alarm that the U.S. could see a surge in cases similar to last summer, the report said.
"I'm speaking today not necessarily as your CDC director, and not only as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter, to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer," Walensky said in a video released by the CDC and posted on NBC's website. "I so badly want to be done, I know you all so badly want to be done. We're just almost there, but not quite yet. And so I'm asking you to just hold on a little longer to get vaccinated when you can, so that all of those people that we all love will still be here when this pandemic ends."