Pediatricians with kids speak out about delta surge fears

Pediatricians who have children of their own speak out on how they're feeling during delta surge.

When Dr. Keila Rodriguez comes home, her 3-year-old daughter knows she has to wait to hug her mom.

"After the pandemic started, I would tell her, 'You can't hug mom right now, I have to shower and I have to change because I was around sick people all day and I don't want to get you sick," the Texas pediatrician told ABC News. "She knows now -- I come home and she says, 'Mom, how are you? I'm so happy to see you.' But she'll stay far away and she'll say, 'Go shower and change because I want hugs."

Rodriguez's hometown of McAllen, in the Rio Grande Valley, was especially hard-hit by COVID-19. Multiple people in her father's family died from the virus, she said.

"It quickly became personal for everybody in the community," she said. "Almost everybody knew somebody who had been very, very sick or died."