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WASHINGTON: Millions of Americans appeared to be ignoring public health warnings and traveling ahead of Thanksgiving this week, likely fueling an alarming surge in coronavirus infections before a number of promising new vaccines become widely available.
With COVID-19 infections in the US reaching a record 168,000 new cases per day on average, Americans flocked to airports against the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ), the US Surgeon General, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious agent. disease expert.
For Americans, the long vacation weekend, which begins on Thursday, is traditionally the busiest travel period of the year, and 2020 may turn out to be no exception.
About 1 million passengers passed through the airport’s security gates on Sunday, the highest number since March. It was the second time in three days that air travel assessments in the United States surpassed a million, although the numbers are down nearly 60 percent from the same period last year, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said.
Likewise, the American Automobile Association has predicted that between 45 and 50 million people will hit the road during the holidays, up from 55 million in 2019.
Rising rates of coronavirus infections, deaths, and hospitalizations have not slowed.
The seven-day moving average number of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States increased for the twelfth day in a row, reaching 1,500 as of Monday, according to a tally of official Reuters data, while coronavirus hospitalizations nationwide they have risen nearly 50 percent in the past two weeks. .
A volunteer prepares bags of free Christmas food and Thanksgiving turkeys for those in need at the Central Family Life Center, as the global outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Staten Island, New York, on 19 November 2020. (Photo: REUTERS / Brendan McDermid
To date, the highly contagious respiratory virus has killed more than 255,000 Americans, with more than 12 million infected since the pandemic began.
State and local government officials have reimposed a series of restrictions on social and economic life in recent weeks to stem the spread, as medical experts warn that the increase is depleting the resources of the country’s health system.
Pleading with residents to stay home and avoid gatherings during the Christmas season, Governor Andrew Cuomo reminded New Yorkers of the grim early days of the pandemic, when up to 800 people died in a single day across the state.
HOSPITALS AND HOPE
Hospitalizations have soared 122 percent in New York state in the past three weeks, Cuomo said, prompting the reopening of an emergency medical center on Staten Island.
Health officials have urged Americans to resist temptations to lower their guard, noting that aid is on the way in the form of promising vaccines that are approaching initial distribution in the United States.
The head of the US campaign to quickly roll out a vaccine said the first injections could begin to be given to healthcare workers and other high-priority recipients in mid-December, within a day or two of receiving the vaccine. regulatory consent.
The freezer room where turkey meat is stored for distribution and cutting is shown before Thanksgiving and amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in LaGrange, Indiana, Michigan on 20 November 2020. REUTERS / Emily Elconin)
A vaccine from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech is expected to gain clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration, and a second vaccine from Moderna Inc will undergo FDA review before the end of the year.
Late-stage trials of both vaccines have been about 95 percent effective in preventing infections. The British manufacturer of a third vaccine, AstraZeneca, announced that its candidate has been shown to be 90% effective without serious side effects, and that 700 million doses could be ready globally by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
FEAR AND DETERMINATION
Still, family imperatives and fatigue with COVID-19 restrictions have left many Americans defying health advice that could save their lives.
“We are not going to let COVID scare us,” said Brian McDonough, 47, a construction worker and diligent mask wearer who plans to spend Thanksgiving with his sister not far from their home in Worth, Illinois. He will bring dessert cakes.
“We test ourselves, we are negative, so life goes on,” he said. “Thanksgiving is Thanksgiving Day. Christmas is Christmas. New Year is New Year. If people die, it will happen and there is nothing we can do about it until we get a vaccine.” .
A healthcare worker prepares sample collection tubes at a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test site in Houston, Texas, on November 20, 2020. REUTERS / Adrees Latif)
Edie Taylor, 29, a building design specialist in Oakland, California, was less optimistic as she prepared to board a flight to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, to attend a family reunion and then stay until the New Year. .
“It’s scary,” said Taylor, who said she would have changed her plans in light of the worsening pandemic, but after giving up her Oakland apartment “I had nowhere to live. I just have to get on that plane.”
To be sure, many Americans are acting more cautiously.
Donnalie Hope, 78, of Petersburg, West Virginia, plans to make fresh blueberries, mashed potatoes and her famous corn pudding for Thanksgiving, which she will spend with her visiting daughter and a neighbor.
Hope said they would try to socially distance themselves at home and that she planned to have rubber gloves and hand sanitizer on hand. She acknowledged that her guests could remove their masks at home.
“I’m trying really hard to comply because I want this country to go back to where it belongs,” Hope said.
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