Image by Gage Skidmore

In his Thanksgiving address, president-elect Joe Biden revealed that he will not be spending the holiday with his family due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The CDC has been pleading with Americans to stay at home in a response to rising cases of COVID-19 across the country. Hospitals are running out of beds while the number of COVID-19 related deaths is also spiking rapidly.

While there is some light at the end of the tunnel thanks to several vaccine makers claiming their shots will be at least 90 percent effective, public health officials are warning that this week is not a good time to gather in large numbers.

"We see in the most difficult circumstances, that the soul of our nation has been forged," Biden said in his address. "And now we face a long, hard winter... and we need to remember we are at war with the virus and not with one another, not with each other."

"America is not going to lose this war," Biden added.

Biden also said that "no one will be surprised if we reach 200,000 new cases of COVID in a single day," urging that "we have to try to slow the growth of this virus."

Unfortunately, millions of Americans have chosen to ignore public health advice and are currently traveling in large numbers, setting the stage for what will likely turn into an even steeper surge of new COVID-19 cases — and eventually deaths.

While we won't see COVID-19 cases spiking as a result of travel during Thanksgiving this week, lead infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told ABC Wednesday morning that he's worried about a surge during the following "three weeks when those new infections have manifested."

In other words, Biden is sending a clear message: the fight isn't over, and everyone can do their own part.

"Sounds trite, but we are all in this together," Biden said in his speech. "We still have months of this battle ahead of us."