Kamala Harris calls nurse on Thanksgiving to express gratitude in fight against COVID-19

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris called several front-line workers, including a nurse, on Thanksgiving to express her gratitude for their fight against COVID-19.

Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff made a surprise call to Chicago nurse Talisa Hardin, telling her, “You know I just — I wanted to see you to say happy Thanksgiving,” Harris said in a video. “And just for everything you do every day.”

“I’ve been reading about you and just all that you do in service of so many people,” Harris added.

The incoming vice president said the couple made the calls to thank front-line workers “for everything they have done in the fight against COVID-19.”

“We won’t be able to get through this without them,” she tweeted. 

Earlier today @DouglasEmhoff and I called Talisa, a registered nurse in Chicago, and a few of our nation’s frontline workers to thank them for everything they have done in the fight against COVID-19. We won’t be able to get through this without them. pic.twitter.com/YKdLK0IKi1

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 26, 2020

The calls came on the same day that current COVID-19-related hospitalizations in the country reached more than 90,000 for the first time during the pandemic. Out of those, 17,802 people are in the intensive care unit for coronavirus, the highest amount documented this year.

The U.S. has confirmed more than 12.9 million COVID-19 cases and 264,241 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

For his Wednesday Thanksgiving address, President-elect Joe Biden called on the country to unite ahead of the holiday. 

“I know the country has grown weary of the fight, but we need to remember we’re at war with a virus, not with one another. Not with each other,” he said.