Gayle King Tells Dr. Fauci Unvaccinated Family Members Aren’t Invited to Thanksgiving

By Teddy Grant Published: July 15, 2021

Gayle King Tells Dr. Fauci Unvaccinated Family Members Aren’t Invited to Thanksgiving

FILE - This July 16, 2016 file photo shows "CBS This Morning" host Gayle King speaking at the 2016 Art For Life Benefit in Water Mill, N.Y. In the wake of a social media backlash, King says she is embarrassed and angry with how the network promoted part of her interview with WNBA star Lisa Leslie that concerned the late Kobe Bryant. A video clip distributed on CBS News' social media accounts, taken from a wide-ranging “CBS This Morning” interview that aired Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, focused on Leslie addressing a sexual assault charge that had been brought against Bryant and dismissed. In the interview, King asked Leslie whether Bryant's legacy had been complicated by the assault case. Leslie said it hasn't, and called on the media to be more respectful of Bryant's memory. Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)

By: Teddy Grant

Gayle King has a message for unvaccinated family members wanting to come around for Thanksgiving: Stay home!

The CBS This Morning host told Dr. Anthony Fauci that family members who don’t get the COVID-19 vaccine are banned from attending her Thanksgiving.

“I don’t know how many more times you can say to people, ‘Listen, it will save your life,'” she told Fauci on Monday. “I have this problem with some members of my own family, which I’m now going to ban for Thanksgiving vacation. That’s how strongly I’m taking what you’re saying.”

Fauci spoke to King about why people should get vaccinated, especially as the highly transmittable Delta variant spreads, according to PEOPLE.

“We really [need] to get more people vaccinated because that’s the solution,” he told King. “This virus will, in fact, be protected against, with the vaccine.”

King has opened up to The Late Show host Stephen Colbert about getting the vaccine and the sense of relief that she feels, PEOPLE reported.

“I was so afraid to leave the house, you’re right,” she said. “We were broadcasting from here, so I’d literally go from my bedroom to the TV room to the kitchen to the bedroom to the TV room. For excitement, I’d go stand in the living room and wave at the birds! ‘Hi, birds! Hi!’ I was so afraid.”