The Risk of Seeing Family for the Holidays

The holidays are all about spending time with family and friends. Parties, dinners, traditions and reconnecting with those we care about.

Duke University medical experts admit that’s not easy to do in a pandemic and it might be something people want to modify or even avoid all together in 2020.

“It is a different and difficult year,” said Dr. Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, Duke University Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health on a recent Zoom call with journalists. “We need to plan properly and avoid large gatherings.”

All of the experts on the panel advised not hosting or participating in an in-person gathering if you or anyone in your household has symptoms of COVID-19 or the flu. They also advise if you are a person in quarantine or in isolation, you should celebrate only with those who you may quarantine with.

“If you have an infected parent or if one person in the family is infected and you have a fairly dense living situation with a lot of people in one house, the attack rate is much higher,” explained Dr. Emmanuel Walter Jr., Chief Medical Officer, Duke Human Vaccine Institute. “Most of the family unit will test positive.”

The virus can then spread quickly outside the home.

“It’s not just the household at that point but whoever anyone in the household comes into contact with,” adds Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an Infectious Disease Specialist with Duke Health. “That’s why COVID-19 spreads so fast and why household contact and close-contact transmissions is one of the things we’re trying to figure out.”

Lessons learned from college campus COVID transmission

The doctors say a lesson for the holidays can also be learned by looking at how COVID-19 spread on college campuses. Contact tracing revealed the most prolific shedders of the virus were completely asymptomatic.

“If there’s a message there, it’s please don’t fool yourself into believing you’re safe just because your symptoms aren’t there,” warns Dr. Wolfe. “If you know you’ve had an exposure … please take that seriously even if you’re feeling well. There’s a reasonable chance you can be infected and just not know. Isolate, get tested before you infect others.”

How to keep things safe

The best advice then is to avoid large gatherings this holiday season. So how can you celebrate the holidays? Here are some tips:

1. If you must gather with family, travel by car rather than flying if possible. If you must fly, wear a mask, wash your hands frequently, and keep a distance from people wherever possible. Maybe avoid that meal at the airport.
2. Delay the large family gathering until next year and have a small dinner with only the people in your house.
3. Have a virtual dinner party.
4. Shop online rather than in-person at the stores.
5. Get a flu shot.

“Whatever your plans are, you have to do the prevention and mitigation,” adds Dr. Bianchi. “We know that wearing masks, doing good hand-washing and keeping distance really helps, but the most important element we have right now is to wear a mask. Just do it.”