As Thanksgiving Approaches, U.S. Virus Cases Tick Upward Once More - The New York Times

Cases are rising again in parts of the country, but more people are traveling, and health officials have largely stopped telling people to skip celebrations.

But as Americans travel this week to meet far-flung relatives for Thanksgiving dinner, new virus cases are rising once more, especially in the Upper Midwest and Northeast.

Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, have mostly suggested this year that vaccinated people could gather in relative safety.

Most crucially, many Americans have been vaccinated.

But about 50,000 coronavirus patients are hospitalized nationwide, and tens of millions of Americans have declined to be vaccinated.

Many experts said the wide availability of vaccines, now authorized for everyone 5 and older, as well as at-home testing, made it possible for vaccinated people to host a relatively safe, though not fully risk-free, gathering?

Arwady said she planned to spend the holiday with extended family members, all of whom are vaccinated except young children who are not eligible.

While reports of new cases in Illinois have increased 62 percent in the last two weeks, she said she wanted vaccinated people to feel confident going about their life and to enjoy Thanksgiving?

Osterholm said he worried about breakthrough cases in vaccinated people who did not have booster shots and about the potential for future mutations of the virus.

Still, he too said he would gather for the holiday with vaccinated family members who live nearby.

In New Mexico, which is averaging 1,400 cases a day, Bernice Medina, 37, a food truck operator, said she was uneasy when she gathered with her large family for the holidays last year but felt safer now because she was vaccinated.

In Michigan, home to nearly one of every 10 new coronavirus cases nationwide, Dustin Johnston, 40, a photographer, said the vaccines made him confident enough to gather locally with older relatives.

“It’s really hard to tell people to stay away from their families,” said Mayor Katie Rosenberg of Wausau, Wis., where cases have surged to their highest levels since late 2020.

Rebecca Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois, said she planned to travel by vehicle with her children to see family but would get tested before and after.

Smith said she expected the outbreak in Illinois to continue to worsen as the virus rips across Midwestern and Northeastern states that largely avoided the worst of the summer surge.

Burrows, who described long ambulance rides with coronavirus patients being transferred to hospitals hours away, said he thought many people had let their guard down as the pandemic persisted.

James Volk, a vice president for Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D., where coronavirus hospitalizations have been persistently high, said he felt that fewer people were seeking medical advice about how to approach the holidays this year.

Volk, who said he planned to stay home for Thanksgiving because of concerns about the virus.

Michigan health officials issued a holiday mask advisory on Friday — recommending that people wear a mask at indoor gatherings regardless of their vaccination status — to blunt both Covid-19 and a rising flu outbreak.