There may be a macro reason to worry about travel, but from the point of view of an individual’s risk, the one that hosted Thanksgiving for several households is much greater risk than the one that traveled privately and didn’t mingle households.
I feel like people told themselves they were safe because they didn’t go anywhere. But COVID isn’t “there”, it’s here, too.
Right but there’s no reason to compare them or laugh about the difference. You can’t realistically enforce 2 week quarantines for people having family dinners. You can for taking a plane out of state.
But then you have a set of restrictions that feel like theater, not an actual attempt to protect people’s safety. And you perpetuate the idea that COVID is a bigger problem over there somewhere, in foreign parts, not here at home. Not among decent folk. That attitude is exactly why people keep having social gatherings and going unmasked among friends and family.
You can take it that way but generally I think you should realize that some things are enforceable and some require public acceptance through education. That’s life.
That’s true, but it’s also true that my state ( NY) started imposing travel related quarantines back in June- long before Thanksgiving/Christmas was an issue. And I might think the focus on travel was amusing/ridiculous - but I remember how my essential co-workers behaved in March. One refused to come to work for weeks even though she had no symptoms, hadn’t tested positive, hadn’t had any known exposure to anyone who tested positive and stated she had no one at home she needed to care for. She was staying home because " the agency isn’t protecting me so I am protecting myself ". Another damn near had a full-on panic attack when she wasn’t put on a precautionary quarantine - she hadn’t had 15 minutes of contact within 6 feet of the co-worker who tested positive. Both of these people proceeded to travel on vacation to states where just about everything was open in June/July - while here in NYC restaurants had just opened outdoor dining in June. The issue is not just enforcement, and it’s not just a matter of it being a bigger problem in foreign parts - it’s also a matter of what those foreign parts are doing as far as open businesses. Sure, I might catch COVID if I go to an unmasked gathering of 10 friends and family members in the NYC area - but I’m guessing I had a much better chance of catching it if I traveled to Tennessee in July , stayed at a hotel for a week and spent every day at an amusement park.
Not just a Denver phenomenon, according to the BBC:
Steve Adler, leader of Austin, Texas, went on a family getaway to Mexico as he told people to keep indoors amid spiralling virus caseloads.
He recorded a video from the beach resort instructing residents back home: “This is not the time to relax.”
j
PS: my posting of this link should not be taken to imply that this sort of thing doesn’t happen on the other side of the Atlantic as well.