More than 50 million Americans are expected to ignore advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stay home this Thanksgiving holiday. This past Friday November 21, more than three million people had crowded into the “cluster-fu*kery” that is our nation’s airports during a holiday season.
That means hundreds of thousands of Americans in airports everywhere were probably waiting in long lines for TSA screenings, scarfing down cinnabons or chatting on the phone while sitting in the waiting areas.
That same day, the United States added more than 178 thousand new cases to the COVID-19 rolls. But those are just the cases confirmed by a diagnostic test. There are probably thousands of others who either aren’t yet showing symptoms or are asymptomatic and chose to bypass the long lines for getting a COVID test.
The national average of daily new cases is now more than 100,000 higher than it was in July and five times higher than it was during the initial peak in April.
It’s likely that more than a few of the passengers who have or will spend time in the nation’s airports during the Thanksgiving season are infected with the COVID-19 virus and don’t even know it. And although there is a lot that remains a mystery about this monster of a disease, almost everybody knows it’s airborne and can be transmitted by tiny little droplets that have the ability to linger in the air for hours. They also know it's even more of a lethal problem in enclosed spaces such as airports.
On the November 22 episode of the CBS News Sunday morning show Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan expressed astonishment at the number of airport travelers and asked Dr. Anthony Fauci—the nation's top infectious disease expert— what’s riskier, the plane or the crowd at the airport and the doctor didn’t hesitate.
“The crowd, clearly,” said Fauci “- you're in a crowded airport, you're lining up, not everybody's wearing masks, that puts yourself at risk."
Brennan pointed out that the CDC has specifically said people should only have individuals gathered for Thanksgiving who have been living inside your home, actively living there for at least 14 days. Millions aren’t listening though.
The increase in cases attributable to Thanksgiving gatherings won't be evident "until weeks later," Fauci said. "Those are the things we've got to realize are going to get us into even more trouble than we're into right now.”
“Please seriously consider decisions that you make,” he said.
Despite the pleas and red-alert warning bells to do the smart thing, vast swaths of Americans have and will continue to deem themselves invincible and will risk contracting or spreading this highly contagious virus. Sunday November 28 is expected to be the busiest day of the holiday period according to an Associated Press report.
Are we so needy, arrogant and short sighted that we aren’t capable of putting the welfare of the collective community above our addiction to individualism? Why not demonstrate concern for the people we love most by breaking with tradition—just this once—and not flying across the country for a gathering—which in the scheme of things, is just the blink of an eye? Why not show some love to the community where you live or the place you planned to visit, and just stay local?
Perhaps the White House is missing a more stern and instructive voice? Duh. The current president doesn’t even have the courage to enact a national mask mandate even though we're adding more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases each day.
Better yet, what if Thanksgiving were simply postponed? That’s certainly not going to happen.
So, despite the fact some doctors are saying travel this holiday season could lead to a humanitarian crisis, droves of Americans still plan to celebrate with relatives or friends on the other side of the country. We simply don't know how many of them will be bringing a little something extra home, or back to the places they live.
If current COVID trends continue, we’ll suffer the awful ugly consequences of our bad choices should there be an even more devastating surge after Thanksgiving as experts such as Dr. Fauci are warning.
This isn’t about shaming the masses or expressing some sense of moral superiority, but I’m choosing to stay put here in Brooklyn and celebrate the holiday with my household pod. And that's not because I'm excited about Junior's cheesecake for desert. This is about the fear of seeing and hearing freezer trucks full of bodies outside the local funeral home again.
My 81-year-old Dad lives in Alabama where he maintains a small blueberry farm. He’s physically active and in good health, but I’m his only child. My Mother passed away a few years ago. It pains me to not go and hang out with him over the holidays and maybe help him knock out some of the physically challenging projects he saves for my visits home. He's also an amazing cook who makes the most delicious southern style cornbread dressing on holidays.
We discussed renting a car and me making the long drive, but I backed out because what if I was an asymptomatic carrier and didn’t get tested in time or picked up something along the way? The best thing to do is to be patient, and figure out a way to recognize the holiday virtually, and celebrate later in the spring, perhaps summer. Thanksgiving in June has a really nice feel to it anyway.