Traveling for Thanksgiving this year might not be such a good idea, according to a number of experts.
What’s going on?
Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of Biden COVID-19 advisory board, recently told CNBC that Thanksgiving travel could provide a huge number of COVID-19 cases as the country deals with an exceptional spike.
- “Right now we have a fire blazing and to me traveling and spending time with people over the holidays is sort of like pouring gasoline on a fire,” Gounder told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “It’s just not a good idea in the middle of a pandemic, especially at this juncture.”
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, also told CNBC that the winter might be a lethal time for cases, especially with the holidays coming up.
- “The upcoming holidays of Thanksgiving, Diwali, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s create the potential for innumerable super-spreading events across the country,” he said. “This has the potential to introduce and reintroduce the virus to new areas and to further exacerbate community transmission.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that COVID-19 spikes might make Thanksgiving dinner less safe.
- “But what we’re starting to see now — and we can’t run away from it — we’re starting to see in the Midwest and the Northwest an uptick in test positivity which tends to be a predictor that you’re going to have surges. When you go into the fall and winter, the weather’s colder, you tend to be indoors. When you’re indoors it becomes more problematic to be able to block the transmission of infection.”
What you should do know, if you want to travel:
Experts recently told NBC News that Americans who want to travel for Thanksgiving should quarantine two weeks ahead of time. That means you should have started on Thursday, Nov. 12.
- “The two-week quarantine time frame is called for because that’s the length of the virus’ incubation period — that is, the time from when a person is exposed to when symptoms develop,” according to NBC News.
Some states also have rules about how you can travel there and how can visit. For example, California has specific rules about Thanksgiving that you may want to review ahead of time.