Holiday COVID Tips

An excerpt from NPR: "COVID is still around and there are precautions to take over the holidays"

"As the country enters its fourth holiday season with COVID-19, experts offer advice about how Americans should navigate the risks, and what precautions still make sense.

"STONE: More than 16,000 people are being hospitalized with COVID in the U.S. each week. Dr. Emily Landon at UChicago Medicine says the patients she sees in the hospital tend to be highly immunocompromised. They have multiple underlying health conditions. They're older.

"EMILY LANDON: That 75-, 80-year-olds are definitely at much higher risk than younger individuals, but that doesn't mean it's a death sentence at all.

"STONE: Thanks to early treatment and vaccines. Landon thinks about how to strike the right balance in her own life. After all, she has an autoimmune condition and takes medication that suppresses her immune system. Plus, her mother is 80 and undergoing cancer treatment.

"LANDON: We're definitely being careful, but, you know, we're still going out. I went to the opera this week. I wore a mask during the performance, didn't stop me from going and didn't stop my mom from going either.

"STONE: Her take is that most Americans can afford to get together for the holidays without many precautions, like testing or wearing masks at the table. Instead, she says try to focus on cutting down your risk ahead of time. Wear a well-fitting N95 or K95 mask while traveling and in crowded indoor areas. Justin Lessler is an epidemiologist at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. He says cases are starting to pick up in much of the country and will probably peak next month or in January.

"JUSTIN LESSLER: It's going to be a persistent threat with some variation, just like we see with flu.

"STONE: So what's he doing differently? Well, in years past, Lessler says he'd take a rapid test before Thanksgiving, maybe wear a mask, even if he was going to be around other people like him who are basically healthy and middle aged.

"LESSLER: Now, I probably wouldn't, partially because I have the reformulated vaccine, but also because I think the risk to those folks is a lot less now.

"STONE: But if you knew there was a relative there in their 80s?

"LESSLER: I'd almost certainly take a test before I went."

-----------------------------

Me? I'd rather be safe than sorry, and I'm continuing the COVID precautions that have worked since 2020.