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When the Centers for Disease Control announced last week that Americans shouldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving with people outside their homes, officials working on the federal government’s COVID-19 response had already started planning for the inevitability of the family. and friends would do just that, according to two senior officials familiar with the situation.
The CDC’s Nov. 19 announcement was seen internally by health officials as a final attempt by the agency to try to convince Americans to stay home for the holidays and advise those traveling how to cut back. the transmission. And there is evidence that the advocacy has worked. A recent New York Times The survey showed that only 27 percent of those surveyed spent the holidays with people outside their household. But officials said they believed the CDC announcement came too late – people had already made their travel plans and those who had previously refused to comply with public health guidelines during the pandemic were not going. suddenly change their ways.
With hospitalizations and new cases on the rise in more than a dozen states across the country, doctors say the Thanksgiving holiday will likely worsen an already dire crisis. In the past week alone, 1.1 million Americans have been infected with the virus. About 1,200 people died on average per day, according to data collected by The New York Times.
“There is obviously the possibility, maybe even the probability, that there will be widespread gatherings in large groups with 18 to 25 people coming from all the different places, passing through stations and airports,” said the Dr Anthony Fauci, the biggest contagious in the country. disease specialist, in an interview with The Daily Beast. “If people ignore the CDC’s recommendations to really reduce the number of trips and people at these events and they do it anyway … it’s possible that this could lead to another push on the current outbreak than us. let’s cross.
Local health officials in places such as Wisconsin, Texas, California, Kansas and New Jersey say their hospitals and nursing homes are already overwhelmed by the third wave of the virus and are bracing for a rush to new patients. In El Paso, detainees work in temporary morgues which are, essentially, trucks filled with slabs of wooden beds and funeral homes are already booking through December with plans to be inundated with calls in the coming weeks. At a Wisconsin hospital, nurses are bracing for the possibility that their already-maxed hospital may have to start sending patients to makeshift facilities. And in Kansas, a rural county has already called on the state to help investigate the transmission of the virus which has spread uncontrollably in recent weeks.
For officials in New Jersey, where new positive cases have surpassed spring numbers in recent days, at least one official believes there isn’t much they can do to convince people to stay home. for Thanksgiving.
“We are realistic that people will not listen to state or federal directives. You are not going to get them to change their plans. People are going to make decisions with short term interests and that is exactly what people are doing. We’re not going to tell them that they’re not allowed to have people over on Thanksgiving. It’s not productive, ”said Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop. “Our goal is to have more people tested by the holidays.”
“We are realistic that people will not listen to state or federal directives. You are not going to get them to change their plans. People are going to make decisions with short term interests and that is exactly what people are doing.“
– Steven Fulop, Mayor of Jersey City.
One of the main problems for communities in the run-up to the holidays, a senior federal health official said, is that many states have either failed to launch an effective contact tracing program or have stopped using them altogether. attempt to search for contacts. For these neighborhoods, local authorities instead rely on infected people to find their own contacts.
In Madison, Wisconsin, authorities have halted contact tracing due to the large number of residents who test positive each day. A nurse said the hospital averages about 10 COVID-19 patients every day. Last week, the hospital was treating more than 85 patients.
And yet, a nurse working at UW’s University Health Hospital in Madison said she expected Wisconsin residents to gather in large groups for the holidays. She said dozens of her patients had arrived at the hospital convinced their symptoms were the result of something other than COVID-19.
“I live in a state where so many people don’t believe it,” she said. “I brought in a 13 year old girl with diabetes and she was showing all the signs of COVID. Parents said, “She doesn’t have it.” Of course the test came back positive and they asked, “Oh, is it that bad if she has diabetes? There is so little education here. This patient is still intubated.
The nurse, who said she had to wear the same N95 mask for almost three months over the summer due to shortages, spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity as she was not not allowed to talk about her hospital. She said she has seen a large number of children with COVID-19 in recent weeks, including many students complaining of chest pain long after infection. She also said she had treated a dozen babies under 60 days old who tested positive for the virus.
“I think our infection and hospitalization rates are at the highest level since the start of the pandemic. We’re not seeing any decline, ”said Dr Nasia Sadfar, medical director of infection control at UW Health. “We fear an additional increase after the holidays. One should assume that if you meet someone outside of your household, someone might have COVID and not know it. “
In Modoc County, California, a rural community of just 10,000 people in the state’s far northwest, cases of COVID-19 are on the rise. The county, once known as the only county in California without a coronavirus infection, implemented a mask warrant in mid-summer after an initial public reaction to the idea. Since then, locals say community members have refused to adhere to public health guidelines. A resident, Leigh, who declined to offer her last name for fear of reprisal, said she did not expect her neighbors to practice social distancing while on vacation.
On one of two Facebook groups for county residents, Leigh said residents continue to post debunked theories about the virus, fueling local understanding of the transmission of COVID-19.
“I remember on one of these groups people said that part of the reason we didn’t initially have a case of COVID-19 is that people in the community thought we already had it. caught… before the pandemic even started… and they had immunity, ”said Leigh, who has kept a diary of all new cases and deaths in the county.
Perhaps nowhere has the coronavirus been hit as hard in recent months as Texas, particularly the Rio Grande Valley, where local officials have been overwhelmed by the number of people dying from COVID-19. While states such as South Dakota are currently experiencing rising death tolls, the situation in El Paso – a municipality already struggling to stay afloat financially – has become so dire that authorities are paying detainees $ 2 l time to move bodies to makeshift morgues. The city’s funeral homes are struggling to keep up with demand and are bracing for a busy winter. A funeral home manager said his company expects an increase in the number of deaths by Christmas which is linked to the spread of the virus during Thanksgiving, so he is preparing by ordering more caskets and ensuring that staff are readily available.
“We’ve seen a lot of cases over the past few weeks, we’ve been very busy,” said a representative from a Hillcrest funeral home in El Paso, who said they were still holding small services despite the outbreak of COVID-19. “But people are not as sure as they are making themselves safe.”
One of the main concerns of health officials is that Americans who plan to travel for the holidays and celebrate with family and friends outside of their homes will not listen to recent CDC guidelines that advise people to wear a mask inside. Sections of the population are already so resistant to the practice of social distancing and wearing masks outdoors that health officials say they are unlikely to reverse their course indoors of the House.
“It will be the perfect storm,” said a senior health official working with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. “We expect everyone to listen to the call to stay home and celebrate with members of your household. And I think we’re going to see it get worse.
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