Invited to my cousin's for Thanksgiving. There will be a four NYC households: 14 people total, half kids under 12. All plan to take a Covid test this week or next. Would you feel safe?
Unless there is some earth shattering reason to be there (grandma attending and she might not be with us next year, or kids suffering emotionally and mentally and need to be around family, etc), I would not. It’s one Thanksgiving in a lifetime of Thanksgivings, and we are so close to a vaccine. I wouldn’t want to mess it up now ...
Nope, none of the above. I'm just always the one saying no in my family and I thought maybe, with tests, it would be okay to say yes. But I can't help but feel like it's a mistake. I go back and forth.
Testing is a false equivalence for safety. The only way to reduce the risk of exposure to yourself and others is to properly quarantine before and after.
No way. The Covid test is only reflective of the snapshot in time when they got it. All days after are fair game for contracting Covid. Are these households quarantining after their tests? Do you trust that they will?
if I sound a little alarmist it’s because I just spent an ER shift in rural northern New England where literally half my patients had Covid. We are screwed up here.
This is exactly what I keep running through in my head. Plus the test doesn't really show whether one was exposed in the days just prior to taking it. I just pulled the trigger on the "Sorry, we're not coming" email. I hate for my family to feel like I don't trust them and I would love to be with them, but "indoor dining" like this is just too much for my Covid-conservative nature.
My family wants me to quarantine with my three kids after taking a test. Is it wrong that I don't want to quarantine in our apartment for a week before Thanksgiving? We aren't planning on going to indoor events or anything, but I do take the kids to the park often. I would rather just meetup on zoom.
see? this is why no one can trust anything anyone says about thanksgiving preparations. they want you to quarantine. you will do your version of quarantine, which may or may not meet theirs. (and by "you", I really mean "people"). This is what has all the experts worried about surges after Thanksgiving -- few people will really do what's necessary before meeting up.
This is ridiculous, hard no to this entire thing. We normally host Thanksgiving, 20+ people, but not this year, not even a question. We know someone who was at a gathering in March, was sick but didn't tell anyone, infected at least 6 people with Covid, one of whom has been hospitalized twice and is still having effects. Do you really need to be at Thanksgiving so much that you would be willing to risk being part of something like that?
I'm not doing anything for Thanksgiving, and I think that's the smarter approach, but I wonder if similar to abstinence-only sex education that this zero tolerance approach taken by some posters is counterproductive. Yes, it's hard to be 100% safe from COVID in a Thanksgiving gathering, but there are steps to make sure that it is done safely. People should be encouraged to take those steps (which are often difficult as one poster notes)
@Anonymous You could switch to outdoor. You could have each family sit at their own table. You could all quarantine before. You could do tests leading up. And, just like you might still get pregnant having protected sex, you could still get COVID with those precautions. I'm just saying it's less likely.
I know so many people getting together with family for Thanksgiving and I am honestly shocked. It's such a terrible idea! Rates are already surging. It's going to be catastrophic after Thanksgiving. I understand people don't want to quarantine anymore, but there's a happy medium. We're doing a Thanksgiving get together with family outside with heat lamps where we can socially distance and then all go home to eat our own meals.
Just curious. How does that work exactly? Are you getting together in the morning/early afternoon? How is everyone cooking their own meals when they aren't home? Or, is the family who is hosting the outside event doing the cooking and everyone gets their food there, wraps it up and takes it home?
The thing about Covid testing is this. Let’s say you’re unknowingly exposed to Covid on day 0. On day 5 you get tested for Covid and it comes back negative. On day 8, thinking you don’t have Covid, you go to work and a family gathering. You are contagious days 8 and 9 (48 hours before symptoms) and expose 22 people. Then on day 10 you become symptomatic and finally test positive.
Unless there is some earth shattering reason to be there (grandma attending and she might not be with us next year, or kids suffering emotionally and mentally and need to be around family, etc), I would not. It’s one Thanksgiving in a lifetime of Thanksgivings, and we are so close to a vaccine. I wouldn’t want to mess it up now ...
Nope, none of the above. I'm just always the one saying no in my family and I thought maybe, with tests, it would be okay to say yes. But I can't help but feel like it's a mistake. I go back and forth.
So you usually decline but the one time you’re going to say yes is in a deadly pandemic? Ok. :)
@Anonymous No, no. I meant that I've said no to every potential get-together during the pandemic.
Well at least you’re being consistent. The time to change your mind isn’t at an hours long indoor eating extravaganza with people from hither and yon.
Testing is a false equivalence for safety. The only way to reduce the risk of exposure to yourself and others is to properly quarantine before and after.
I wouldn't say it is worthless, but it's just a data point. All you can do is approximate your risk given a series of data points.
No way. The Covid test is only reflective of the snapshot in time when they got it. All days after are fair game for contracting Covid. Are these households quarantining after their tests? Do you trust that they will?
if I sound a little alarmist it’s because I just spent an ER shift in rural northern New England where literally half my patients had Covid. We are screwed up here.
This is exactly what I keep running through in my head. Plus the test doesn't really show whether one was exposed in the days just prior to taking it. I just pulled the trigger on the "Sorry, we're not coming" email. I hate for my family to feel like I don't trust them and I would love to be with them, but "indoor dining" like this is just too much for my Covid-conservative nature.
No just binge watch Netflix and drink some bubbly. It sucks but were all making sacrifices
Add champagne to pretty much anything and I'm happy. Excellent plan.
My family wants me to quarantine with my three kids after taking a test. Is it wrong that I don't want to quarantine in our apartment for a week before Thanksgiving? We aren't planning on going to indoor events or anything, but I do take the kids to the park often. I would rather just meetup on zoom.
see? this is why no one can trust anything anyone says about thanksgiving preparations. they want you to quarantine. you will do your version of quarantine, which may or may not meet theirs. (and by "you", I really mean "people"). This is what has all the experts worried about surges after Thanksgiving -- few people will really do what's necessary before meeting up.
Do zoom and don’t feel guilty about it.
This is ridiculous, hard no to this entire thing. We normally host Thanksgiving, 20+ people, but not this year, not even a question. We know someone who was at a gathering in March, was sick but didn't tell anyone, infected at least 6 people with Covid, one of whom has been hospitalized twice and is still having effects. Do you really need to be at Thanksgiving so much that you would be willing to risk being part of something like that?
DO NOT GO. people be crazy.
I'm not doing anything for Thanksgiving, and I think that's the smarter approach, but I wonder if similar to abstinence-only sex education that this zero tolerance approach taken by some posters is counterproductive. Yes, it's hard to be 100% safe from COVID in a Thanksgiving gathering, but there are steps to make sure that it is done safely. People should be encouraged to take those steps (which are often difficult as one poster notes)
Indoor gatherings while eating, with multiple households around one table? There really aren't.
@Anonymous So this.
@Anonymous You could switch to outdoor. You could have each family sit at their own table. You could all quarantine before. You could do tests leading up. And, just like you might still get pregnant having protected sex, you could still get COVID with those precautions. I'm just saying it's less likely.
No!!!!!!!!
I know so many people getting together with family for Thanksgiving and I am honestly shocked. It's such a terrible idea! Rates are already surging. It's going to be catastrophic after Thanksgiving. I understand people don't want to quarantine anymore, but there's a happy medium. We're doing a Thanksgiving get together with family outside with heat lamps where we can socially distance and then all go home to eat our own meals.
Just curious. How does that work exactly? Are you getting together in the morning/early afternoon? How is everyone cooking their own meals when they aren't home? Or, is the family who is hosting the outside event doing the cooking and everyone gets their food there, wraps it up and takes it home?
How is this a quandary?! It's a no.
The thing about Covid testing is this. Let’s say you’re unknowingly exposed to Covid on day 0. On day 5 you get tested for Covid and it comes back negative. On day 8, thinking you don’t have Covid, you go to work and a family gathering. You are contagious days 8 and 9 (48 hours before symptoms) and expose 22 people. Then on day 10 you become symptomatic and finally test positive.
OP: Yup, that's a big part of why I cancelled; you really need to do two tests, with quarantining in between.