NEXT AVENUE - SPECIAL SECTION
If you're on the fence about whether to get together in person, know that most experts recommend either canceling such holiday gatherings this year or being extremely cautious if you're having them. "You don't want to take a risk. The price to pay is far, far, far too great," says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "I have personally been involved with family situations where sons and daughters came home to celebrate parents or grandparents or be part of some joyous occasion. And somebody ends up in an intensive care unit for days to weeks or dies.". Tips on Safer Holiday Gatherings By Margie Zable Fisher
You don't want to take a risk. The price to pay is far, far, far too great.
Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) suggests considering the potential challenges for everyone who might be gathering. Questions he says that are worth asking: "Will there be people of advanced age? Relatives and friends who have chronic underlying illnesses of note? Will the people attending be on the same page as to how careful they have been? Is everyone's risk tolerance the same?"
This is the season, Schaffner says, where we have to have some honest and trusting conversations.
Options to Traditional In-Person Gatherings While you may not want to gather around your dining room table during the holidays, consider celebrating with family in other ways: gather outdoors if possible, celebrate virtually, or choose a different day or week to celebrate to avoid crowded airports, like our Managing Editor Richard Eisenberg and his family did. (“We Gather Together…in October?”)
Read the full story: You Asked, Experts Answered: Tips on Safer Holiday Gatherings on NextAvenue.org
13
NEXTAVENUE.ORG
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator