Thanksgiving.. what to do?
If you are in a high risk group (have a chronic disease, over the age of 45, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, etc.), Dr. Host would suggest not including anyone at Thanksgiving that you are not already living with.
Many people will not heed this recommendation, so there will be a continuing spike in COVID 19 cases clogging the hospitals, likely through December.
Most new cases these days are contracted in small groups, family, and friends. Up to 40% of the cases can spread it without having any symptoms.
The only way to be sure to not get Covid is to have a negative COVID 19 test, THEN totally quarantine for 14 days, then go to Thanksgiving with other people who have done the exact same thing.
Getting a rapid negative test on the day of Thanksgiving will also not work, as most rapid tests have a 30% false negative rate (meaning 30% of the time when it says it is negative, it really is positive).
With the vaccines coming, we can probably have a more normal Thanksgiving next year. Why chance it for one year?
Usually, at Whole Family Medical, we see a ton of colds, flu, and other viruses start in September, when kids go back to school, then a spike in Nov through Feb due to the holidays and family gatherings. COVID 19 will not be any different, if we don't modify our behavior.
