{"id":1660,"date":"2020-10-28T13:55:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T13:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2020-10-28T13:55:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T13:55:08","slug":"experts-others-warn-against-thanksgiving-gatherings-during-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/?p=1660","title":{"rendered":"Experts, others warn against Thanksgiving gatherings during pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Thanksgiving approaches, experts are becoming more vocal about avoiding traditional holiday gatherings in order to limit the spread of COVID-19.\u00a0 In Illinois, the Chicago Tribune<\/a><\/em> reports Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the state\u2019s Department of Public Health, warned at a virtual event that if you want to see your loved ones at Christmas, don\u2019t see them at Thanksgiving. \u201cDo we want to sit with people at Thanksgiving, and weeks later attend their funeral?\u201d Ezike said. \u201cThen the funeral spreads the infection, and there are more funerals.\u201d\u00a0 Likewise, the Boston Globe<\/a><\/em> reports Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker urged people to stay home this Thanksgiving, declaring, \u201cThe holidays have to look and feel different this year if we\u2019re going to keep up the fight against COVID.\u201d\u00a0 And in Philadelphia, WPVI<\/a> reports Dr. Thomas Farley, the city’s health commissioner said his official recommendation is that everyone \u201ccancel their planned family holiday gatherings,” adding, “We are not going to get past this epidemic by Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas\u2026 Family gatherings right now are simply very dangerous.\u201d

However, President Trump\u2019s COVID-19 testing coordinator, Adm. Brett Giroir, was less severe in his warnings about the holidays in a Washington Post<\/a><\/em> live forum Monday. \u201cI’m not a party pooper, but having 20 or 30 or 40 people at your house for Thanksgiving, without appropriate precautions and being careful — that can be a recipe for spread too,\u201d said Giroir. \u00a0\u201cSo I’m not saying throw grandma out in the cold and not bring her in, but I am saying, be very careful about your hygiene hand washing, physically distance if you can, particularly those who are very vulnerable. That will save lives and save your family.\u201d\u00a0 Giroir also said he expects a COVID-19 vaccine will be available before the end of this year, but that most Americans won\u2019t receive it until the middle of next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Thanksgiving approaches, experts are becoming more vocal about avoiding traditional holiday gatherings in order to limit the spread of COVID-19.\u00a0 In Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reports Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the state\u2019s Department of Public Health, warned at a virtual event that if you want to see your loved ones at Christmas, don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dont-miss-this"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Blank-1000-x-50015.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660\/revisions\/1663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}