With covid cases surging across the country. You might be wondering how to handle the holidays whether you should be doing say a big Thanksgiving Gathering Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays to and I'm looking forward to it with our family vice president. Mike Pence for instance is being asked those questions
with a big with extended. I think that's a decision.
Every American family can make based on the circumstances in their Community the
Be of particular family members, you know days after this 60 Minutes interview taped five people who work closely with Pence head of the White House coronavirus task force tested positive for Coronavirus the vice president himself and his wife have tested negative so far. They're still campaigning, correct. So CDC guidelines say that vice president Pence should quarantine for 14 days. Now, I understand the White House is trying to get around that by saying the vice president is an essential worker, but Mark how is going on?
CNN's Jake Tapper talking with white house chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday Meadows defended Pence's decision to be on the campaign Trail CDC guidelines does say essential Personnel. Yes. It says they wear last cup if they wear a mask and and I spoke to the vice president last night at midnight and I can tell you that what he's doing is wearing a mask socially distancing and when he goes up to speak consider this last Friday the US hit its highest number of daily coronavirus cases yet.
Holiday travel could lead to even more drastic and deadly spikes will answer your questions about how to stay safe this season.
From NPR I'm ADI cordish. It's Monday, October 26th.
And I don't give a damn Miss representative
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now, it's consider this from NPR. We're all used to doing a kind of mental math by now.
Parent works from home one parent goes into a not particularly unsafe work
environment Maureen Arrigo is 72 lives in San Diego as the holidays get closer. She's calculating the risks of spending time with
family in particular her two grandkids and they children are not in full time school, but preschool and sort of a pod kind of learning
environment before the pandemic.
Macari go saw her grandkids every week. But since March they've only gotten together four times and when they do it's outside
you are playing in the water
kids playing a little wading pool. She keeps in her backyard
masks socially distance and as they say they're playing in water. So keeping Clean Hands is not a problem.
Go inside. Oh, yeah,
you need to stay
outside on the porch.
Are we go says it'd just be nice to have them come over like they used to the only thing she wants is for things to go back to normal
and to to interact normally. I mean it really is a loss not to be able to
share full facial expressions with the kids
and do little up close snuggles.
So that mental map
continues the chances that any of us are infected with this
strike me as
really remote, but
No, no sense.
Well in the spirit of salvaging the holidays as best we can and peers Allison Aubrey and David shape are here to answer some questions. You all had about travel and Gatherings right now. Hello to you
both. Hi there already. Thanks for having us
now. I think what's top of mind for a lot of people is whether there actually is a safe way for families to come together for the holidays. Here's one take on that question from Marina Rico who we heard from earlier.
I wanted to know when it was going to be
A for to get together with grandchildren particularly in my case where my husband and I are both in our 70s. We don't have any other vulnerabilities just our age
Allison,
you know, I think it was important to keep in mind right now D is that infections are on the rise and so many parts of the country. The virus is circulating widely and all of the Infectious Disease experts. I talked to say the next three months are going to be a big challenge. So the holidays just aren't going to be the same.
There's just no such thing as zero risk when we get together with family members. I mean age is a risk factor and though people who are 70 and healthy would likely do better than people with more risk factors and chronic diseases if they were to get infected. It's really a bit of the roll of the dice. I mean, the virus is unpredictable and I think bottom line if the grandkids have been exposed. We know it's possible for them to be asymptomatic and transmit it I mean
Maureen Arrigo says she's from San Diego given the whether their outdoor socially distanced visits would probably be lower risk in the best option.
We have a slightly different take on that same issue. It's from Emily daily in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. She writes. I want to visit my 97 year old mother in Miami. I feel she really needs a visit. Will she be safe seeing me David?
Well, the first thing to keep in mind is the CDC warns a travel any travel increases your
Chances of getting or spreading covid-19. So staying at home is the safest way to protect yourself and others but this is a tough one because I think a lot of people are in this situation not being able to see their older parents or grandparents in such a long time. So the first part of the answer is how would you get there? And you know, Miami is a long way from Pennsylvania, but if possible Emily might want to consider driving because Health experts say there's actually less risk driving. I talk to epidemiologists Mercedes car Nathan at Northwestern University.
In Chicago and she says that's because so much of the time you're in your own personal vehicle either alone or only with those you live
with and it's really only those stops in the interim to get gas to stop to pick up food, which you hopefully consume only around your household and even interactions in a hotel if you have to stay overnight, so that's clearly the safest form of
transportation. And you know, keep in mind ADI incubation of the virus is up to 14 days usually
We it's shorter but up to two weeks. So if you're exposed during travel, you could become infectious During the period of your visit. Now, this might not be practical but the safest strategy is once you arrive to wait to have that visit for up to two weeks. The other option is to get frequent testing upon arrival what other thing to keep in mind. Is that some states require that you quarantine for 14 days upon arrival or that you show proof of a negative covid.
Before you arrived,
but David can we come back to Flying for a second? What is the guidance there? What do we know about what airlines are doing?
Well, you know the airline's do insist that it's safe. They point to studies showing that there are relatively few confirmed cases of in-flight Transmissions. There's a new study that was actually released by the defense department showing that the hospital grade HEPA air filtration systems on the plane and the way the flow downward from the ceiling to the floor makes transmission of the virus.
Through small Airborne particles very unlikely. Let's go back to dr. Carr Nathan at Northwestern. She says as long as everyone is wearing a mask and following proper protocols. She'd be comfortable sitting on a
plane that said there are many other areas that are you come in contact with to get onto an airplane such as the airport is it crowded moving around in an airport in different surfaces, but the actual plane flight does not trouble me.
Sonali.
Yeah, so there are others places in the airport where social distancing may be difficult when you're lining up to get a cup of coffee or even at security, you know, they'll space you out or try to tell you to stay on the markings on the floor. But some people may not follow those those guidelines.
I want to move on to another question this one from Jocelyn Nasser in San Mateo, California. This is a question about college visitors.
I'm just wondering how to handle having my two kids.
Come home for Thanksgiving and winter breaks. They both go to school in different states, and we've been very careful and I'm just concerned about having them come back into our home Especially since one lives in an area where people aren't wearing masks as much as we do here
schools have been all over the place in terms of guidance here Allison. What's the best approach for
parents, you know find out if the college campus where your kids are coming from has exit testing just as many
Is required entry testing at the start of the semester to make sure kids weren't coming in at the start with the covid infection. Some schools will give students test the day of or the day before departure. I spoke to Bill Miller. He's a physician an epidemiologist at Ohio State about this and he has another tip to gauge the risk
many many campuses have dashboards available. You can see whether there have been lots of cases or hardly any cases. The main reason for looking is
to give yourself some understanding of the risk that is about to be undertaken.
So if the level of spread within a campus has been load that is a useful data point and it's not unreasonable to ask your college age students to get a covid test. If the school isn't offering one up, especially if you have high risk people in your household,
we've been talking about people who need to travel to see loved ones, but there are listeners who are curious about getting together with people who live nearby here's
80 Cullen in Brooklyn. My question is I do not feel safe eating or doing any other activity indoors without a mask. What are some suggestions for safe winter activities once it gets too cold. How can we socially distance visit with friends safely when parks are an option Allison,
you know, I'd say rethink your idea of what is too cold. My that's a rough
answer.
My husband's family is of Swedish descent.
Ascent and they're you know, they're of the thinking you just get out there that there's no such thing as bad weather. There's just under dressing. So it's pie and I'm sure David has more suggestions given that you live in Chicago. Yeah, you know, we've been wearing scarves and balaclavas and ski masks for years before masking was cool. And we've been doing socially distance outdoor Gatherings masked up get-togethers with a handful of friends either on a patio around a fire pit fact. I just got an email from a friend who I haven't seen in a long time.
I'm to this morning saying that they're going to keep doing their little fire pit Gatherings well into the winter and so we should come over sometime.
That's NPR is David cheaper. He covers the Airlines and travel also Allison Aubrey from the health and science beat.
It's consider this from NPR. I'm ADI Cornish.
