Families face a dilemma this year: they itch to take a summer vacation, but their children are not vaccinated. What to do?
The mental gymnastics involved in answering this question is exhausting.
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Our decision-making is clouded by unanswered questions about immunity, virus mutations and what the numbers look like in the summer.
The most conservative approach would be to wait a while longer and see how things shake out. But people were burned out by locksmiths, and vacation rentals were sold out. At this point we just want to know: what can we do this summer?
That’s why our epidemiologists and other public health experts – a fairly cautious group – asked what they were planning for their own summer vacation. Here are some takeaways.
First, figure out what feels safe.
Do you allow the feeling of anxiety to get on a plane? Or are you itching 35,000 feet in the air? Each family must invent its own appetite for risk, the experts said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, president Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser to COVID-19, said in an interview Monday that he hopes to have a “family reunion” this summer with his adult daughters, after everyone has been vaccinated, “when things calm down” is as I think they will do. ”
“I have not seen one of them for more than a year. The others I had not seen for almost a year. I think it will be my big plan in July, “said Fauci.
Even among experts, there is some uncertainty about summer.
Jennifer Nuzzo, chief epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, plans to travel domestically with her family this year, though they no longer wanted to choose a place to gather information about locals who may be more or less at risk for exposure. does not hold.
In her ‘exposure budget’, she said she prioritises the risks that have a clear benefit to the health and development of her children, who are 4 and 7, such as visits to extended family.
The health of your family members is also a big consideration.
“We are very conservative when it comes to our risk level,” said Tara C. Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University College of Public Health in Ohio, who goes on vacation with younger family members who have not yet been vaccinated. health conditions.
It’s not clear why some children get very sick from COVID, and others do not, and the possibility of a COVID infection is “not something I want to deal with just because we were trying to have fun.”
After considering the options, she and her family decided to drive out of the state and stay in a hotel near a beach that would not be full of visitors.
If you are still trying to figure out what kind of risks you are willing to take, an online calculator can help.
Is it safe to travel?
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have spent most of a year discouraging non-essential travel to prevent further transmission of viruses, the agency recently announced that fully vaccinated people can now travel safely by mass transit. , including aircraft, in the United States.
But during a White House news conference announcing the new guidance, CDC officials hedged that they prefer people to avoid travel due to the increasing number of cases of coronavirus, although travel within the country is considered a low risk for those who have been fully vaccinated. Most experts we talk to plan to drive to their destinations, in part because their children are not vaccinated.
Sadie Costello, an occupational and environmental epidemiologist at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, planned two trips: a camping trip with friends where adults are vaccinated and the children not, and a family trip to rental house with a private pool.
“It’s a balance between COVID safety and mental health,” said Costello, who has two children, ages 10 and 14.
If your family does decide to fly, you should take precautions to reduce the risk of becoming infected. While traveling, make sure everyone in your group 2 and older wears a mask, stays 6 feet away from people outside your household, avoids crowds, and washes your hands regularly or uses hand sanitizer.
The CDC recommends that all non-vaccinated people get a COVID test one to three days before any trip and again three to five days after it is over. They must also be self-quarantined seven days after a trip if they are tested and ten days if they are not tested, the agency said.
Shorter flights where passengers remove their masks less frequently for snacks or drinks are likely to be safer, experts said.
“The only cases of documented dispatch on aircraft were long flights,” said Dr. Arthur L. Reingold, head of the epidemiology department at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, said.
The experts we spoke to are not planning to travel abroad, in part because business is still growing in many parts of the world and because there are strict protocols to re-enter the United States.
Where should you stay?
You do not necessarily have to get stuck in your hometown, go camping or rent a house with a private pool as you did last year – although these are good options with a lower risk. Hotels or resorts can also be safe for families, provided you ask yourself an important question: Can you take the right precautions and keep distance between your family and other people while you are there?
Think of the different places in a hotel or area where you or your family are likely to become infected, Dr. Abraar Karan, a physician for internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, suggested.
It can be in a busy elevator, an indoor restaurant or in the lobby. If you are traveling with people who are not fully vaccinated, try to avoid these areas as much as possible, he said.
Whitney R. Robinson, associate professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, hopes to vacation in South Carolina this summer with family members she has not seen in more than a year has not – provided that the number of numbers is low.
She plans to do mostly outdoor activities during the trip and said she and her children, 2 and 6, will avoid indoor eateries or long, meals.
But Robinson has already begun to suggest other potential scenarios: if it rains, for example, they can meet indoors but open all the windows. When I’m indoors, “I would probably try to wear masks and my kids wear masks,” she said.
If you live in a resort and plan to use a children’s club that offers childcare and organized activities, you need to ask a lot of questions beforehand, the experts said. Ideally, you want the children to wear masks, play in small groups at least 6 meters apart and spend most of their time outside.
“It’s similar to a school environment – but with the big difference that it brings together people from different networks from around the world,” Robinson said. “Personally, that would be ‘no’ to me.”
Do you need masks while on holiday?
If you are outdoors in a busy place where your family can keep no distance of 6 feet from people outside your household, wearing a mask is still a good idea for your children and yourself, even if you are completely vaccinated.
But if you are outdoors and can maintain distance from other people, the risk of infection is very low if you choose not to wear a mask outdoors, regardless of whether you have been vaccinated or not, the experts said.
“If you’re more than 6 feet away from someone outdoors, I do not think your mask is going to make a marginal difference at that point, because the risk is already so low,” Karan said.
“The pool is a question mark,” Smith said, adding that most of her vacation will be spent on the beach. “If it’s very crowded, we will not pay attention to it.”
What if you have to change your mind?
All the experts we spoke to said that you should be prepared to turn around if infections increase.
“Training can lead to more constraints,” which can be local or widespread and can affect mass transportation, said Karen Edwards, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, Irvine.
‘If you are planning to travel to specific destinations, including international destinations, then I am prepared to change the plans and have a backup that will still give you and your family a much needed respite and change of nature. She added.
Nuzzo agrees that everyone should be aware of the possibility of a fourth boom, but she remains optimistic.
“My spiritual image of the summer is that we are going to be in a much better place than now,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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