How Some COVID-Cautious Experts Are Celebrating Thanksgiving

America’s third pandemic Thanksgiving may feel like the most normal holiday gathering in a while. AAA expects travel over the long weekend to reach 98% pre-pandemic levels, with an estimated 54.6 million people driving and flying to see loved ones. In fact, 2022 is on track to be the third busiest Thanksgiving since AAA started tracking these travel numbers in 2000. At the beginning of the pandemic, celebrating Thanksgiving meant either virtual or very small in-person gatherings. Now that COVID-19 vaccines and medications are available, it makes it easier to see more family, “which is a beautiful thing,” says Dr. Juanita Mora, an allergy and immunology specialist at the Chicago Allergy Center and a national spokesperson for the American Lung Association. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your best to keep everyone safe this year—particularly since this Thanksgiving comes amid a new set of Omicron subvariants, a heavy flu season, and high RSV infection rates among children and older adults. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Mora tells TIME how she’s approaching this holiday season. “I’m trying to follow exactly what I’m telling patients,” she explains. “Our precautions should revolve around the most vulnerable person that’s going to be at our Thanksgiving table: so that grandparent who’s having chemotherapy, that parent with diabetes, or a child who has asthma, or that brand-new...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news