Thanksgiving week is here and with it, comes relief and yet still some worry.
This will be the first Thanksgiving holiday since 2019 when things were normal then and families got together as they normally do for the annual day of thanks.
But the pandemic happened, and Thanksgiving get togethers didn’t happen much at all in 2020. Thanksgiving of 2021 was better. Vaccines were being shot into millions of arms and mask rules and social distancing guidelines were eased.
Now here in 2022, nearly three years after the coronavirus emerged, while COVID is far less of a problem, we still have a problem. Urgent care centers and hospitals are very busy places and lots of kids are missing school because of the flu virus or the RSV virus or other kinds of cold viruses that happen in the late fall and winter months.
Unfortunately, it appears that during the time we stayed away from each other, and most kids were out of school, some of the natural immunity that usually occurs as cold viruses come and go, wasn’t as robust.
While more people are vaccinated now, the numbers are fewer than most health officials and doctors would like to see.
The latest report from San Diego County shows only about 15 percent of people have received the new so-called bivalent COVID booster that targets the Omicron strains and only 24-percenmt of people in the county have gotten a flu shot.
So while we can be thankful that things are better this year, the viruses are still around, and to be careful so they don’t become unwelcome guests at Thanksgiving this year.
SEE TIPS FOR AVOIDING VIRUSES THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: Getty Images