How to stay COVID-19 safe this holiday season? Yahoo News Explains

Former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden, and Yahoo News medical contributor Dr. Kavita Patel, explain some of the ways you can safely celebrate the holidays amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

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KAVITA PATEL: Many people are wondering how they can stay safe during the holidays, as we see cases increasing of coronavirus almost all over the country.

TOM FRIEDEN: Unfortunately, we're heading into a time of more cases, sadly more hospitalizations, and sadly more deaths. And this is bad timing. Because we're entering into the holiday season and death is not going to take a holiday this season. And it's going to be a question of, what are the risks? And what are the benefits?

KAVITA PATEL: First and foremost, try to do what you can to rethink your plans and potentially, stay at home with just the members of your close household. But if you are committed to either going to someone else's home or inviting others into your home, I would recommend what's considered the Swiss cheese approach to trying to stay safe.

First, make sure, if possible, that you can celebrate outdoors or at least with open windows to promote as good of an air circulation environment as possible. Second, if you are going to be inviting people who are traveling from another part of the country or you are traveling to another part of the country, consider having your own quarantine of sorts. At least 14 days where you are staying at home and avoiding other people and places so that you can guarantee that you are infection-free.

Then if you are going to have to drive or take a plane, make sure that you are taking as many precautions as possible. Avoiding using the restrooms. Avoiding touching handles without washing your hands. And wearing protective masks. And make sure they fit well.

TOM FRIEDEN: If you're going to see an elderly relative, you have to be really careful. Because you could be infectious, not know it, and spread that infection to them, and they could die from it. We don't want that to happen. You don't want to be thinking about that for the rest of your life.

KAVITA PATEL: If you are inviting people into your home to eat or you are going to be eating a meal in someone else's house, consider avoiding buffets. Try to think about having meals that you can either serve individually or if, even feasible, think about meals that can kind of be grab and go. And that you share by eating, but staying safely distanced.

And when you're not eating, consider wearing a mask inside. And make it just a routine part of habit. Remember, all of this advice is really if you are inviting people from outside your household or you are going into another person's household that you have not been spending time with over the last several months.

TOM FRIEDEN: I think we need to understand and really come to terms with the fact that COVID is here to stay for a while.

KAVITA PATEL: We received some incredible news this week. Developments on the vaccine front, which are incredibly promising from the early results. But make no mistake, some of these things are not going to be available to every American anytime soon.

TOM FRIEDEN: A vaccine is not going to bring a fairy tale ending to this pandemic. But there's a lot that we can do to make the coming months not as deadly and to get more of our economy and our jobs back.

KAVITA PATEL: The best thing we can do today is to continue mitigation measures. That means wearing a mask. That means staying distant when possible. And washing your hands.

TOM FRIEDEN: Numbers are not set in stone. We determine what happens. And for proof of that, just look around the US. You have differences in rates of COVID that are 10 times or even 50 times higher in some places than other places.

Policy matters. Public health matters. Following the science matters.