Yesterday we talked about the story of the brainwashed Trump-supporting gay Texan who finally believes in covid after his father-in-law and grandmother-in-law passed away from the virus. Tony Green, who cut cable and relies on Facebook entirely for his news, insisted on having a small weekend gathering with six family members in June. Everyone there caught coronavirus and went on to spread it. Tony was hospitalized and on the verge of a stroke, but recovered. After he lost family he decided to admit he was wrong, sort of, but didn’t say he’s not voting for Trump again and blamed the coronavirus panel for not handling the crisis better.
Unfortunately there are lots of idiots like Tony who haven’t experienced coronavirus personally and who are still planning on celebrating Thanksgiving as normal with family, maskless and not socially distanced. Dr. Anothy Fauci advises against it, but he’s not saying it directly unfortunately. CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield has said that these type of “small household gatherings” are causing a spike in cases. Dr. Fauci is saying we probably shouldn’t do traditional Thanksgiving this year.
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, Dr. Anthony Fauci is urging Americans to consider canceling the annual family celebration as COVID-19 cases continue to soar in most of the country.
With the rate of new infections once again trending upwards — there were 59,751 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. on Wednesday, and 20 states recorded their highest number of new daily cases in the last week — Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that gathering for Thanksgiving is “a risk.”
“That is unfortunately a risk, when you have people coming from out of town, gathering together in an indoor setting,” he told host Norah O’Donnell on CBS Evening News Wednesday night. “It is unfortunate, because that’s such a sacred part of American tradition — the family gathering around Thanksgiving. But that is a risk.”
Fauci said that people may need to cancel their Thanksgiving plans this year.
“Given the fluid and dynamic nature of what’s going on right now in the spread and the uptick of infections, I think people should be very careful and prudent about social gatherings, particularly when members of the family might be at a risk because of their age or their underlying condition,” he said. “You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering, unless you’re pretty certain that the people that you’re dealing with are not infected.”
Fauci’s own Thanksgiving plans are “going to look very different this year,” he added. His three children, who live in three different states, decided not to come home this year to keep their dad safe as he continues to work on the COVID-19 pandemic at age 79.
“They themselves, because of their concern for me and my age, have decided they’re not going to come home for Thanksgiving — even though all three of them want very much to come home for Thanksgiving,” he said.
The infectious disease expert also said that Americans have to “double down” on COVID-19 precautions like social distancing, masking and hand washing with cases already surging with the long winter months ahead.
“They sound very simple, but people are not doing that and that’s why we have an uptick in cases.” The rise in cases, Fauci said, is “not a good sign as you’re entering into the colder weather.”
It says so much to me that Dr. Fauci isn’t directly telling people to cancel Thanksgiving and is instead saying it would be wise not to have Thanksgiving this year. There’s so much misinformation and willful spreading of lies by the administration. Even though Fauci is measured and careful in his wording, Trump is either smearing him or using him to prop up his horrifically cruel covid response. I would like officials to very clearly and bluntly say “It’s extremely selfish to see family unless you are all tested a day before. It’s a huge risk and they could die. Don’t find out the hard way.” Now would be the absolute worst time to see family members. (Although it will probably be worse at Christmas, who am I kidding?) I miss my family so much, I miss hanging out with friends, but I’m just not seeing people until it’s safe. It may be six months or more before that happens and I’m frustrated as hell by that but willing to sit it out.
Fauci said this week that we may have a vaccine by April of next year, but that it depends on a lot of factors. Fingers crossed for that, and for a sane, competent leader. Biden has a plan for the pandemic, including mass testing and mask requirements, which he so cogently laid out last night. If we had decent leadership, if everyone wore masks and socially distanced months ago, we could have been back to normal by now. Instead, as Biden said, we have we have 4% of the world’s population and 20% of the deaths.
Photos credit: Pexels/Craig Adderley and Avalon.red
We just had thanksgiving in Canada and those of us in “red zones” (I’m in the Ottawa/Gatineau region) couldn’t have thanksgiving with people outside our household. We zoomed with our folks and had a quiet day – I’m ok with these kinds of sacrifices if it means we will be able to have a shot at the holidays.
stay safe friends!
probably not this year’s holidays though. if everyone wore masks and social distanced (and I’m not saying complete isolation, just some respect to the rules and actually trying to avoid getting and spreading this instead of just saying f__k it and going about their lives as usual), we’d all be able to have better lives. just look at new zealand.
I feel like any sane, rational person would have prepared for this eventuality, especially given how the U.S. has been handling coronavirus the last several months. I had to spend Eid alone, away from friends and family and with all local mosques closed this past May because of the pandemic. My advice if you have to spend the holidays somewhat by yourself or away from loved ones this year is to keep some traditions alive on your own. Cook two or three dishes that you’d normally have on the day, dress up for the occasion, play festive music. It’s really not that bad and before you know it, the day (and year) will be over.
That’s good advice, thank you. I’m going to watch the (virtual) Thanksgiving Day parade and make a couple of my favorite dishes.
It makes it more difficult to accept when a good half the country is carrying on as usual, going to maskless rallies, etc.
Of course, MrsRobinson — i totally empathize! Like i said, I and many other people were in this position ourselves just a few months ago. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t a total despair either. I spent half the morning on Zoom with my family while eating the traditional Eid dishes I prepared myself the day before and spent the afternoon making Eid cookies with my roommates (who don’t celebrate Eid but celebrated with me to make it more festive for me). What the other half of the country is going to do, they will do. Don’t let them take one day of joy from you.
Unfortunately, some of them will be dead by Christmas. And I want to live to see a Biden/Harris administration. Others will get very ill, and spend time in a hospital and have longterm conditions. Just look at it that way.
That’s probably what pisses me off about this most. When we’ve gotten together with my family, it’s been eating outdoors, masked 100% while inside and going outside for walks and whatnot as much as possible, and now that we can’t really socialize that way, we’ll be cancelling get together altogether. Meanwhile, stupid people just keep keeping on, thereby prolonging the agony of this whole mess.
I’ve made it clear to my parents they shouldn’t even think of trying to have people over and that I refuse to do it. So far they seem to understand and plan on ordering a takeout Thanksgiving dinner. I’ll probably coordinate a number of family Zoom calls.
Vaccine may be approved. (Although probably not). But widely available? Obviously they don’t know how long it takes to manufacture anything in the hundreds of millions of units.
By this Thanksgiving? Oh no. Maybe by next Thanksgiving. As Fauci mentioned, and has been mentioned by other experts, the more realistic timeline to start rolling it out is spring, and that the first to get it will be front line workers and the most at risk.
I feel like most logical people have figured this out already. Things won’t magically be better in a month. It’s unfortunate, but a sacrifice I’m willing to make if it means my family will stay healthy!
It’ll be strange and a bit sad, but it’ll be kinda interesting to see what a quiet Thanksgiving (and Christmas) is like.
I wouldn’t be so sure and I’m speaking from personal experience. I consider myself a logical person, but was planning for Thanksgiving over the weekend with my family. It wasn’t until several days later that I remembered we’re in a pandemic (I’m not sure how I forgot!) and realized that my immediate family would not be partaking, so I’m going to have to cancel. If it didn’t occur to me and/or my extended family, how many other families are already making their typical arrangements? I’m glad Dr. Fauci has brought it to attention.
I’ll be happy for a low-key holiday. 🙂
We usually spend thanksgiving with a large group of friends in Philadelphia. We go out for dinner in Chinatown, Black Friday shopping the next morning. I look forward to it all year. Not this year. I will miss it but not more than I’d miss a dead friend or family member.
I had considered quarantining for two weeks and then going to see my parents but it’s not worth it! Data is showing that the US had a 20% increase in total deaths in the first part of this year and COVID only “officially” was counted for 60-70% of the increase. It looks like COVID deaths are significantly under reported. Unfortunately I know someone that had it in the spring and recently passed away from a pulmonary embolism… it’s suspected that long term clotting issues could be part of the side effects of this disease. There is so much we don’t know so best to stay safe this year and stay home, so we all have many more holidays to celebrate in the future!!
I’m actually loving shopping for awesome food gift baskets to send out. So many options from literally everywhere. This just might be my new thing lol. Three months of specialized food kits for one kid. French, Italian and UK charcuterie baskets for another. A muffaletta kit straight from the original New Orleans restaurant which invented it. Maine lobster dinners. It’s exciting lol!
this sounds amazing!
Even if people get tested before gathering with family, that doesn’t necessarily mean people are safe. Negative tests aren’t a Hail Mary. I read an article in WaPo yesterday about a family that took their teenage daughter on a road trip to visit family this summer. The daughter had Covid but tested negative. She spread the disease to multiple family members across 5 states.
There are false negatives, false positives….and what about what you could pick up on the way (a gas stop, diner, airport…). Too many chances. If you MUST go, go EARLY and quarantine THERE for the two wks, test and go straight to family after getting results. Nothing is 100%, but it’s closer than testing at home and THEN going.
We had to have a slimmed down Thanksgiving in Toronto last week. Thinking about it sucked, but doing it was actually ok on the day of. With less people, we experimented with new recipes and drank better wine. It was different, but still fun.
Ugh, I didn’t even think of Thanksgiving! People, even people who have been cautious, are going to get together, and it’s going to be BAD.
My family’s Thanksgiving is always small, just those who are already in our bubble, but I know people who have 20+ usually.
We usually host 30+ family members for Thanksgiving. Not this year. Everyone’s on notice we are not hosting and to stay home. We’re actually looking forward to a smaller Thanksgiving dinner with just the two of us and our 3 kids. No one else.
God bless us, every one.
Mika, it was the same for us and we are also in Toronto. We usually have a big gathering, but not this year. It was still a lovely holiday after all.
I don’t know what to do about Thanksgiving. It’s usually just one of my brothers, his wife, their two kids, my parents, and my family (my husband, two kids, and me.) And none of us are really out of town – my parents live 90 minutes away but in the same state, with the same restrictions. I kind of feel like if we all quarantine before it should be okay? but my niece and nephew are in daycare, so they would have to stay home for two whole weeks, etc. I think my mom (who used to work with Fauci at the NIAID, so I trust her judgment) would be okay with it if it was the summer – like if Thanksgiving was in August, lol, and we could be mostly outside. but its going to be cold, I feel like thanksgiving is often rainy and gray here lol, so even the kids stay inside…..ugh.
I guess I feel about Thanksgiving like I felt about my August Disney trip. I knew I shouldn’t go as early as May, but it took me until mid-July to finally say, “okay, cancel it.” I *know* we shouldn’t get together for Thanksgiving, but I think its going to take me another two or three weeks to say, “okay, we need to do something different.” Maybe roast a chicken instead, lol.
My idiot, retired, Trump loving parents have decided to continue traveling during the pandemic, so my brother and I have told them that unless they stay home and quarantine for 14 days before Thanksgiving, we won’t be visiting.
Good call.
I know my dad’s wife is going to have her adult children over for Thanksgiving and her grandkids because they think it’s no big deal. So likely a group of 12-15 people that don’t live in the same household and most run around acting like everything is normal and the rest of us are overreacting. They all live within 15 minutes of each other as well. My concern is them inviting my Grandmother over and exposing her – she’s 90.
I’m a dog sitter so I work all holidays and have spent the last 10 years as the only human (surrounded by all my boarders) on holidays.
LOVE IT! Anyone who needs ideas of how to celebrate the holidays alone, I’m happy to suggest things. I don’t know how I’d actually celebrate with other humans now I’m so used to doing my own thing
Canadian here. We had our Thanksgiving last week with just my in laws. I’m not going to lie, it felt quite nice to scale it back and have a simple meal with just 2 other people. It was so much less stressful. And no one will die.
That being said, the extended family is in a tizzy over Christmas and the vast majority of aunts, uncles, cousins etc. are hell bent on the usual mass gathering of everyone under one roof. Family or not, anyone that participates in this holiday death fest is banned from my presence for the remainder of this pandemic.
The only silver lining to this year’s holidays is that my firm staying-home policy means I will be spared any face-to-face chats with Trump-supporting relatives. (My family is mostly pretty liberal, but there are a handful of vocal MAGA-, anti-mask types, and I’m just not up for arguing with them.)
I do wish people would stop asking Fauci about Thanksgiving, though. He’s been as direct as he can be: stay home. Barring a miracle vaccine, nothing is going to change between now and the end of the year, so I think we should all be thinking of fun ways to celebrate long-distance–care packages, beautiful cards, whatever–and planning unusually self-indulgent holidays for our immediate families.
Yet Tiffany Trump got to celebrate her maskless 27th birthday all over Florida with her equally maskless friends. Thanks a lot. It’s because of her and all the numbnuts out there that my folks can’t spend the holidays with their grandchildren.
I think this hurts the elderly a lot. Being shut in but choices and a lot of people here (the US) make the wrong one and here we are.
My aunts in LA and OC are always inviting me over for dinner or a visit, but I always have to tell them that it’s not a good idea.
Yeah, Thanksgiving will be different this year for responsible people. But there are a lot of people out there who don’t care and are meeting up anyways.
I usually go to my cousin’s for t-givz, but she won’t be hosting this year. Even if she did, I would decline.
I actually like the excuse not to get together with family this year… and we’re Canadian with a low infection rate in Vancouver (but still higher than the summer #s).
To be honest I’m gleefully cancelling my immediate family from events – and I make sure to tell my in laws it’s in part because they are mask deniers… boom! No grandchild IRL this year. And maybe not next year either if they refuse a vaccine.
Just me, my husband & three teens and a bowl full of buffalo chicken dip & Black Friday online sales.
Stay save celebitchies!
I understand that Thanksgiving is a largely U.S. holiday that has become one of the major “family” holidays, but what it originally (and often still) celebrates is really problematic colonialist history, just like Columbus Day. It’s not a religious holiday and can’t really be compared to that though *of course* it’s always good to be thankful. It’s a manufactured holiday that has become precious, but imo, mainly serves to add tremendous stress and obligation and largely a huge capitalist economic boost linked to the NFL and also poses an economic hardship and expectations (on all levels including emotional) for many right before the December holiday season. In the best of times, I don’t quite see the point of it but now? Why would people risk their lives for turkey, the stress of travel, etc. Yes, family. But why all of that is mashed up against the holidays when people will likely be seeing their families anyway and possibly also for new years. It’s just never made sense to me.
I agree with your take, Anna, Thanksgiving has always seemed overinflated and a little pointless to me. The preparations always put stress on the women in my family, while the men and kids get to just loaf around. I won’t miss celebrating it this year, there are lots of other ways to have fun.