By Estelle Rodis-Brown
If only COVID-19 would take a holiday. Then we could enjoy ours.
It’s the time of year when tradition takes us and our extended families back to grandma’s house (or someplace like it) for a fine family reunion, rich with shared spaces, long embraces and fancy feasting.
Not so in 2020! As COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Northeast Ohio and throughout much of the U.S., it’s time to tamp down your expectations and proceed with caution.
Keep Your Distance
Assuming a holidays-as-usual approach is a dangerous exercise in denial, especially if you’re accustomed to traveling long distances to celebrate together with lots of distant relatives. Travel and social interaction both increase the odds of getting and spreading the virus that causes COVID-19. So staying home and limiting contact is the best way to protect yourself and others.
The older you are, the more likely you are to have chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, heart or lung disease, or cancer that could result in severe complications if infected with COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that, while eight out of 10 COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. have been among those 65 and older, the greatest risk for severe illness from COVID-19 is among those aged 85+.
My newsfeed tells me that White House infectious disease advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and his wife are skipping Thanksgiving festivities with their grown daughters this year. My friends are planning to forgo big family gatherings this holiday season, opting for low-key get-togethers with a few family members or friends at a time. Many co-workers are hibernating through the holidays, waiting for a vaccine or unforeseen miracle to release them from pandemic-imposed solitary confinement.
While it will require vigilance, flexibility and patience, there is a safe way to pursue happy holidays in a pandemic. Everyone needs to avoid exposing themselves unnecessarily, but you can determine a well-informed way forward.
Local geriatric physician Ami Hall, D.O. says, “We must hope for the best but prepare for the worst this holiday season. Our COVID numbers are going up and this pandemic isn’t blowing over anytime soon. We’ve all got Pandemic Fatigue, but we’ve got to get creative this year to keep everyone safe.”
Dr. Hall practices medicine at Cleveland Clinic’s Euclid Hospital and the Beachwood Family Health Center. She also provides at-home acute medical care through telemedicine. She has a couple of ideas to help us to celebrate the holidays responsibly… avoiding both isolation on one extreme and a super-spreader event on the other.
Dr. Hall says it’s relatively safe to celebrate together under the same roof with your immediate family and anyone already “in your bubble” of weekly contacts. This can include close friends or even caregivers you have maintained connections with consistently.
On the other hand, if you have college kids returning home from out of state or other visitors coming in from out of town, you may want to turn your garage into a makeshift party room, invest in some good space heaters, and keep the door open for lots of fresh air circulation. Then you can enjoy a well-spaced (six-foot social distancing), open-air feast together with a wider circle of family and friends, she says.
Even better, Dr. Hall suggests that everyone you would like to share a feast with should each make a dish (one person bakes the pumpkin pie, another roasts the turkey, yet another makes their famous casserole, etc.). Then each cook/baker delivers a portion to each other person’s home. When all the food is delivered, meal participants can log onto a shared videoconference and eat together while keeping safely distant.
Ultimately, every individual has to be honest about their own risk-reward assessment. Dr. Hall acknowledges that some families feel this might be the last time they can all be together, so they’ll celebrate under one roof, despite the risks.
“We’re all adults here; we make informed decisions,” she says. “But we do have a responsibility to protect one another.”
So proceed with caution this holiday season. This is a time to reconnect and share happy memories but not at the risk of becoming part of a pandemic super spreader event.
Who knows? With the pressure off to go big this holiday season, maybe a less-is-more approach will prove to be surprisingly satisfying. As Dr. Hall says, “This will not be a normal holiday but we can make the most of it.”
GUIDELINES on GATHERINGS
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) considers large indoor gatherings with people from outside of your household a higher risk activity and suggests enjoying a small dinner party with only your household group.
Similar low-risk celebrations include:
- Preparing food for family and neighbors and delivering it in a way that minimizes contact with others
- Sharing a virtual Zoom dinner, singalong or gift-opening with friends and family
- Shopping online rather than in person
- Mailing homemade baked goods to friends and family
- Watching sports events, parades, religious services and movies from home. (Try online games via game apps or simultaneous movie-watching with Netflix Party.)
If you’ve got your heart set on hosting a small holiday gathering (5-10 guests), keep it short and sweet. Lingering longer increases the chances of viral transmission. And remind guests to stay home if they are sick, if they have been exposed to COVID-19 in the last 14 days or if they have COVID-19 symptoms.
AND DON’T FORGET TO…
Encourage social distancing. Assuming it’s too cold to host your gathering outdoors, ventilate your indoor space by opening windows or doors. Arrange tables and chairs to allow for social distancing. People from the same household can be seated together – just six feet away from other families.
Hug with caution, if at all. While the CDC recommends avoiding handshakes, elbow bumps and hugs, psychologists know that human touch is vital to emotional health. If you want to hug, Consumer Reports’ On Health newsletter recommends embracing outdoors while wearing a mask, turning your faces away from each other to avoid breathing on one another. Young children can feel free to hug adults at leg or waist height so you can pat their head. Then everyone should wash up.
Wear masks when less than six feet apart from people or indoors. Consider providing fun masks for guests as part of the holiday theme.
Wash & Sanitize. Provide conveniently-placed hand sanitizer stations in addition to hand washing areas. Wash hands for at least 20 seconds when arriving and leaving social gatherings. Alternatively, use hand sanitizer that’s at least 60% alcohol.
Provide sanitizing wipes so guests can wipe down surfaces before they leave the bathroom or kitchen. Provide paper towels so guests don’t have to share a cloth towel.
Control contact. Limit the number of people handling or serving food while encouraging guests to bring their own food and drinks. Put one person in charge of serving all food to avoid multiple people handling the serving utensils and other sharable items (salad dressings, food containers and condiments).
Use touchless garbage cans, wear gloves when removing garbage bags or handling and disposing trash. Wash your hands after taking off gloves. Clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces and any shared items between uses. Clean/sanitize reusable shared items (seating covers, tablecloths, linen napkins) after the event.
TRAVEL TIPS
If traveling is a must, know the risks involved. Wear a mask, wash hands and surfaces, and maintain social distancing. If possible, quarantine for several days or get tested a couple of times before you hit the road.
Short car trips (two hours or less) with household members and limited, short stops are considered the lowest risk. Air and rail travel are riskier due to the large amount of close contact with strangers in terminals as well as in planes or trains.
The CDC says renting a home or staying at a family member’s or friend’s home is less risky than staying at a hotel. Consider your destination’s infection rate. The more COVID cases in that region, the more likely you are to get infected during travel and spread the virus to others when you return home.
