Thanksgiving shows US learned few COVID lessons after Chinese New Year - Business Insider

Just a week ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Americans not to travel to see family or friends outside their households."The tragedy that could happen is that one of your family members, from coming together in this family gathering, actually could end up being hospitalized and severely ill and die," Henry Walke, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager, said on a call with reporters on Thursday.But although fewer US residents will travel over Thanksgiving this year than in a typical season, tens of millions still plan to drive, fly, or take a bus to mingle with extended family. A May study published in Science showed that without those restrictions and recommendations, the coronavirus would have spread far more quickly."The epidemic peaked in Hubei province on February 4, 2020, indicating that measures such as closing citywide public transport and entertainment venues and banning public gatherings combined to avert hundreds of thousands of cases of infection," the study authors wrote.Yet 10 months later, and with many millions more cases than China had during the winter, the US is not following that example.Travel ahead of the Lunar New Year almost certainly helped the virus spread among hundreds of cities and thousands of people in China and internationally, since many people traveled before regions and cities were locked down. But it could have been far worse.Typically, Chinese citizens make 3 billion travel movements over the 40-day Lunar New Year holiday period from January to February. Eli Perencevich, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Iowa, told Business Insider that even many of his patients who are sick with other illnesses, or at risk due to their age, also say they won't follow basic safety protocol."Many of them are like, 'No, we're still having Thanksgiving with the family, and I'm not wearing a mask.' And it's just devastating," Perencevich said.If you do gather with people from other households for Thanksgiving, most experts recommend staying outdoors, keeping group size limited, wearing masks, and social distancing.