After what feels like an extremely long term of taking class from my home in Eugene, I’m sure most students are ready to return to their families for the holidays. Sadly, going home after a term in Eugene is putting everyone you interact with at risk.
This holiday season, it’s better to stay put and yet again use Zoom to replace your traditional social interactions. Yes, we’re all tired of using Zoom, but I promise it’s better to video chat with your family than risk bringing them a case of COVID-19 or vice versa. Even if you have been extremely careful about who you see and where you go, living in a different city from your family means you’re taking a big risk by going home.
The easy solution to this problem should be to simply get a test before returning home, but that doesn’t quite cover it. Tests are most effective if they’re administered a little more than a week after exposure, according to experts. This means if you’re exposed the day before returning home, or even a few days, the test is somewhat likely to produce a false negative.
It’s also important to consider that if you’re coming back to Eugene for winter term you’ll be risking the health of others yet again. Especially if seeing family means getting on a plane, traveling right now is simply a bad idea.
The holiday season is beloved by most, and for good reason: It’s a time to be grateful for those that are close to us and celebrate family. This is still completely possible, but it should take the form of phone calls and Zoom calls.
Setting up a Zoom call with family can be difficult to coordinate but it is always worth it. Getting to see my grandparents who are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 this Thanksgiving was important to me, and Zoom made that happen. Our close family friends also had a Zoom cocktail hour with us where we made fancy drinks and talked.
Right now COVID-19 cases are on the rise again, especially in large cities like San Francisco and Portland, where many UO students will be returning home. It might be easy to think that COVID-19 is no big deal because it’s unlikely students will die from it, but their families can’t say the same. Young people are the most likely to cause a family outbreak, and returning home for the holidays is exactly how that happens.
It is possible to safely return home for the holidays, but that requires much more forethought and planning than most students can afford. To return home safely, you would have to quarantine two weeks before leaving and get one of the more reliable tests. This doesn’t seem too difficult, but many students work full time and can’t take the time off. Other students have also proven that they are not willing to be patient or considerate of others during this pandemic.
If you’re planning on traveling at all, be sure to do so by car. Flying anywhere is an incredible risk, but driving can be done relatively safely. If you’re driving and only stop when necessary you can be much safer while traveling. It does take significantly longer to drive long distances but with proper planning it minimizes the risk much more than a flight.
Maybe you think you’ve been doing a great job of quarantining and keeping your circle small, so you think it’s fine to go home — but can you really say you know everyone you’ve been exposed to? Your most brief interactions with close friends could lead to the death of your grandmother, or theirs. Stay home this holiday season.