On this week’s e-newsletter, I need to reply readers’ questions and supply 4 ideas individuals want to think about when getting ready for his or her Thanksgiving gatherings.

1) This isn’t the time earlier than COVID-19. Some individuals will need extra precautions.

Megan, from Virginia, is amongst these questioning how issues will likely be totally different this yr than earlier than the pandemic. “Earlier than the pandemic, there have been plenty of viruses round, however we did not cancel gatherings,” she wrote. “Are issues at all times going to be totally different due to COVID?”

For many Individuals, I feel the reply is sure. Previous to 2020, there have been nonetheless a lot of extremely contagious respiratory viruses that also exist in the present day. However COVID-19 has modified that and made us understand that we will take steps to scale back the unfold of those illnesses. Specifically, it makes weak individuals extra cautious; COVID-19 nonetheless poses a hazard to them, and different infections also can trigger critical sickness.

These organizing Thanksgiving occasions ought to concentrate on the truth that individuals have various ranges of consolation with gathering in small, enclosed areas. Organizers can set expectations and permit friends to decide on whether or not they need to attend. Those that need to be extra inclusive can ask friends in the event that they want to attend if there have been extra choices: maybe being outside for a part of the day, for instance, or having doorways and home windows open throughout meal occasions.

2) Respiratory viruses are troublesome to keep away from. Doing so requires plenty of proactive work.

Max, who’s from Indiana, is in his 70s, and so is his spouse. He was on dialysis and had simply recovered from a lung an infection. His spouse has two kinds of most cancers and is present process chemotherapy. “Our son and his household are coming to go to us. What, if something, can they do to keep away from spreading the an infection to us?” he requested.

Each Max and his spouse are extremely weak to critical penalties resulting from covid-19 and different diseases. Their guests could also be out and about steadily and steadily uncovered to pathogens. They now must take steps to reduce the prospect of catching and spreading the an infection to Max and his spouse.

I like to recommend that Max ask guests to not interact in high-risk actions for per week or so earlier than arrival. Particularly, don’t attend indoor gatherings, together with eating at different individuals’s houses, and put on masks in crowded public locations. They need to additionally take a speedy coronavirus take a look at earlier than visiting.

These steps is probably not sensible for some households and is probably not mandatory for individuals who usually are not as high-risk as Max and his spouse. Keep in mind, threat is cumulative. Taking steps like sporting a masks on the airport or foregoing massive gatherings earlier than household gatherings may help scale back your possibilities of contracting the virus.

3) Weak teams should be vaccinated. However to these round you, whether or not or not you will get a photograph is much less vital.

I’ve written earlier than concerning the significance of newer coronavirus vaccines, flu vaccines and the brand new RSV vaccine for weak populations. Those that have not gotten them but ought to get them as quickly as doable. If you happen to get vaccinated in the present day, you may have some additional immunity earlier than Thanksgiving.

However what if a participant isn’t vaccinated? That is the case for Carol from Washington, D.C., whose 84-year-old husband has a daughter and does not “imagine” in vaccinating herself or her youngsters. “Will we nonetheless should keep away from gatherings with them on Thanksgiving and Christmas?” she requested.

Will not. Whereas a coronavirus vaccine gives mandatory safety to people by decreasing hospitalizations and deaths, it’s not a software that may drastically scale back transmission to others.

That is totally different from the early days of the pandemic, when vaccines vastly decreased the chance of an infection and transmission. Current analysis suggests that is not the case. For instance, one examine discovered that bivalent vaccines decreased the chances of an infection by solely 4% to 29%. One other examine discovered that two months after the final shot, vaccinated youngsters had solely 16% to 24% fewer emergency care visits than unvaccinated youngsters. One other just lately printed JAMA Pediatrics paper concluded that there was no distinction in infectiousness between vaccinated and unvaccinated youngsters.

If avoiding an infection is vital to Carol and her husband, they will take different steps to guard themselves, together with protecting doorways and home windows open and asking friends to reduce their threat within the days main as much as their go to.

4) Make a plan to get sick earlier than and after the gathering.

Allen, who’s from Michigan, has two youngsters: one in day care and one in kindergarten. “I can not keep in mind a day when the opposite particular person did not have a runny nostril or a cough,” she wrote. “Can I take them to my aunt’s home for Thanksgiving dinner? There will likely be some aged individuals there and a new child.”

That is difficult. It is one factor to take a toddler with a relentless chilly to a celebration the place everyone seems to be wholesome; it is one other factor totally if somebody would possibly must keep away from a virus.

Ellen may contact her aunt for steerage. Maybe youngsters with sniffles may keep principally outside, enjoying and consuming in separate rooms. Or, her aunt could need to be additional cautious and ask individuals with signs to not attend. However the latter strategy deserves some nuance. Individuals could develop a cough lengthy after they’re contagious, and a few individuals could also be asymptomatic and unknowingly unfold the virus to others.

Subsequently, partygoers ought to be conscious that they could be uncovered to respiratory viruses. As I’ve written many occasions, weak populations ought to make plans to obtain Paxlovid or different COVID-19 antiviral therapies if contaminated. In the event that they get the flu, do not forget to take Tamiflu or one other antiviral flu medication. If they’re touring, they need to additionally contemplate the place they are going to go in the event that they want additional medical care.

Hopefully none of those surprising occasions will occur. However good planning may help you get pleasure from your trip with peace of thoughts.