A handful of people on Twitter have shared why they’re disregarding the CDC’s warning and deciding to travel and hold Thanksgiving gatherings anyway.
Julie Powell, author of the cooking memoir Julie & Julia, is traveling during the holiday, explaining, “So I am doing this stupid thing. My husband is driving me to the airport. I have multiple masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, a face shield in the mail. Got my antibody test. Wet wipes. A place to quarantine for ten days once I get where I’m going.”
She continued, “The family I’m going to visit have been employing safe practices. We will push off Thanksgiving a few days, and probably do it outside. Still feels stupid.”
Kristin B. Tate explained to Fox Business that some folks are flouting lockdown orders because it’s unlikely and “absurd” that the police are actually going to enforce such order against large families during the holidays.
Some sheriffs have already said they won’t be enforcing such orders, though another has said his teams will “be out in full force.”
Conservative podcaster and author Phil Valentine thinks his own Thanksgiving gather can avoid municipal COVID-19 violations if he simply hosts a riot, a jab at this summer’s racial justice protests which flouted various cities’ social distancing requirement.
Despite Valentine’s allusion to riots, only 5 percent of this year’s racial justice protests resulted in any sort of violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
“I think I’m going to have a riot at my house for Thanksgiving, just to make sure I’m working within the law. #COVIDLockdown,” Valentine wrote.
Yahoo News medical contributor Uché Blackstock, MD said that numerous patients of hers are visiting home because they think a negative COVID test means they’re not potentially infectious to others. The CDC has explained that a person with a negative test result can still spread the virus to others.
“Ok, now I’m triggered,” she wrote. “So far this morning, I’ve seen a significant number of patients requesting testing because they’ll be traveling and seeing family members for Thanksgiving. It seems like the public is not getting the message that everyone needs to stay home.”
Country radio show host Sean “Bubba” Powell from Big D and Bubba explained, his “Dad said ‘your Mom & I aren’t getting any younger…y’all could come & give us the virus & we die…OR, you could stay home & we get the virus, or maybe we die anyway from something else. None of us are promised tomorrow, so get here as fast as you can & stay as long as possible’”, Bubba wrote in a tweet thread.
In a later tweet, Bubba added, “On a related note, when it comes to the government mandates & stay at home orders….You are American…You don’t need anyone’s permission to visit with anyone…ever. NEVER FORGET THAT, and never take it for granted. Be smart this year. Do what’s right for YOU & YOUR FAMILY.”
Curtis Houck, the managing editor of the conservative site Newsbusters, said he’s going to spend Thanksgiving with his family to combat his “crippling” depression and suicidal ideation.
“Sorry, but as someone who’s struggled with depression for five years and then occasional thoughts of suicide (and attempted suicide five years ago), I’m going to see my family at Thanksgiving. I live alone, two hours away. Try & tell me I have to spend it in crippling isolation,” he wrote.
New York Times writer Farhad Manjoo explained in a recent article that even though his COVID bubble with his wife and two kids is effectively exposed to over 100 people, he’s still traveling with his family to see his parents because he misses them. He added that his family members will get tested before their travel and will “probably quarantine for a couple of weeks after we return.”
Not everyone is pleased with his publicly stated decision though, including one medical worker who wrote in the Times’ comment section, “I can’t help feeling you’re making a mockery of our sacrifices.”
He responded, “I get everyone’s criticism and I am reading it / absorbing it.”
Finally, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who flew to Mississippi for the holiday despite suggesting that others avoid unnecessary travel for the holiday, explained his reasoning.
“I made my decision as a husband and father,” he wrote in the final tweet of a longer thread, “and for those who are angry and disappointed, I humbly ask you to forgive decisions that are borne of my heart and not my head.”
