By Mimi Huckins ’21
Features Editor
As the holiday season continues and classes end, COVID-19 safety is especially important. While the holidays often mean traveling and spending time with loved ones, limiting these actions as much as possible will save lives. It’s important to remember that these constraints are temporary and, if all goes well, this will be the only holiday season not spent around friends and family.
Fantastic news of COVID-19 vaccines has appeared within the past month, with health care workers and at-risk populations getting vaccinated in the very near future. We should be grateful for these things. Hopefully, they will help us acknowledge that the pandemic will soon come to an end, and next year we may be able to see our loved ones without fear.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend limiting your holiday gatherings to people within your household or celebrating virtually with others. Unfortunately, I know that a lot of college students will be traveling home, including me. Although I am traveling in-state, I am getting tested and limiting exposure to those within my current household before going home. If you are traveling far, maybe don’t. But, if you must, wear a mask, get tested before and after traveling and quarantine for 14 days. If you produce a negative test result, continue to quarantine for seven days, as recommended by the CDC. Also, make sure your family at home gets tested and tries to quarantine before and after you arrive.
Now, let’s say you are traveling in-state, and when you arrive home, your parents tell you that Aunt Kathy, Cousin Mark, Grandpa Joe, your neighbor Eugene and Rudy Giuliani are all coming over for a dinner party. First, let them know that almost 285,000 people have died in the United States from COVID-19 thus far, and you aren’t planning on contributing to the death toll. Next, try to escape. If none of these work, wear a mask, open your windows, stay 6 feet apart from others — maybe even 7 feet from Giuliani — wash your hands frequently and quarantine before and after the risky event. Try to end the party early by faking some sort of emergency.
The best thing to do is to stay put and hope next year is better than this one. If you do go home, take responsibility and keep yourself and those around you safe.