Should I skip Thanksgiving if I feel sick?

By Rose Hoban

The number of travelers on the move for the Thanksgiving holiday is up with airports expected to screen as many as 2.5 million passengers nationwide today, and possibly surpass that number on Sunday, Nov. 27, according to the federal Transportation Security Administration.

“We expect to be busier this year than last year at this time, and probably very close to pre-pandemic levels,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske. “We are prepared to handle the projected increase in travel volumes.”

People are eager to get back to their holiday rituals after years of pandemic restrictions, but what happens if just as the holiday approaches, you find yourself sneezing, sniffling, coughing and maybe even testing positive for a COVID-19 infection?

“The name of the game for the last couple of years has been COVID, COVID, COVID. And now there’s a lot less masking and a lot less distancing,” said Laura Murray, an intensive care medicine specialist from the Cone Health Medical Group in Greensboro. “People are, you know, rejoicing and being in public together, maybe not being as careful about covering coughs or masking.”

At this point in the pandemic, the worry is likely not so much about COVID, but about the other respiratory viruses that have been circulating with a vengeance. For older friends and family, or people who are immunocompromised, flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) are real dangers.

If you’re sick this week, it’s likely that you’ll be sick on turkey day. So, the question becomes, should you stay at home? Or go? And if you go, how should you act?

A surge in RSV, flu

Pulmonologist Brad Drummond who works at the main UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill said there’s a steady trickle of coronavirus cases in the intensive care unit, but it’s only one or two beds out of 30.

“During the Delta wave, it was ‘you’re young and healthy and sick as stink,’” he told NC Health News last week. “The COVID that’s being admitted now is ‘you’re on chemo or have chronic immunocompromised condition.’”

Instead, it’s Flu A that’s making people sick. To him, it felt like it was doubling every week.

He’s not far off. Positive flu tests went from being about two percent positive reported to North Carolina’s hospital-based surveillance network in the beginning of October to being 27 percent positive in the week ending Nov. 12.

“Not all of

Almost a third of Americans skipped essential healthcare care this summer season owing to price, foremost several to see their well being worsen, according to a new poll by the West Well being Coverage Center and Gallup.

Cheat sheets: Populace wellbeing

Poll specifics and crucial findings

For the poll, West Wellness and Gallup surveyed 6,663 American grown ups from all 50 states and the District of Columbia amongst Sept. 27 and Sept. 30 and Oct. 18 and Oct. 21.

Infographic: 7 excuses for not creating overall health equity a precedence in word and action

Total, the poll uncovered that 30% of respondents explained they did not seek out treatment method for a overall health challenge because of to cost—a important improve from the 10% who expressed a very similar sentiment in a West Wellbeing-Gallup poll from March. This fiscal influence of overall health treatment is also impacting homes of all revenue ranges surveyed, with 20% of homes producing extra than $120,000 reporting they delayed care because of to charge.

In addition, 30% of respondents explained they would not be ready to entry very affordable overall health treatment if they essential it nowadays, and 42% stated they nervous about not getting equipped to spend for needed medical care over the subsequent 12 months.

This postponement of health care treatment has negatively influenced people’s overall well being. For example, one particular in five respondents also explained they or a family member noticed their overall health deteriorate because of to delays in care. In unique, Medicaid beneficiaries (37%) and people devoid of insurance policies (39%) reported that their health circumstances, which are ordinarily continual, worsened about the earlier 12 months following postponing care.

Moreover, 1 in 20 respondents—equal to an approximated 12.7 million Americans—said they realized a good friend or relative who experienced died around the previous yr immediately after forgoing health-related care due to the expense. In accordance to the poll, Black Individuals ended up two times as most likely as white People in america to have experienced this knowledge.

According to Present day Health care, a lot of hospitals have also claimed fewer individuals coming in for care for specified circumstances. And when they do occur in, their health is worse than it was before the pandemic.

For instance, at Providence St. Joseph Clinic Orange, much less individuals are coming in for stomach issues, according to Glenn Raup,

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