TAMPA, Florida. – Some are elderly and think they don’t have many Christmases anymore. Others are trying to keep the long distance romance alive. Some just want the human connection that has been missing for the past nine months.
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Millions of Americans are traveling before Christmas and the New Year, despite calls from public health experts to stay home to prevent the increase in the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 320,000 across the country.
Many people at airports this week have thought hard about whether they should go anywhere and have found a way to rationalize it.
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“My mom is worth it. She needs my help,” said Jennifer Brownlee, 34, a fisherman from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, who was waiting at Tampa airport to fly to Oregon to see her mother, who just lost a leg. “I know that God caught me. He won’t let me get sick.”
Brownlee said she would wear a mask on the plane “out of respect” for other passengers, but that her immune system and Jesus Christ would protect her.
More than 5 million people passed through the country’s airport security checkpoints between Friday and Tuesday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
This represents a reduction of about 60% compared to the same period last year. But it’s about a million passengers a day, or more or less what the United States saw in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, when some Americans also ignored the warnings and ended up contributing to the national increase.
Michelle Lopez wondered if she made the right decision after flying from Houston to Norfolk, Virginia, where her boyfriend serves in the Navy.
“I didn’t want to go, but I haven’t seen him in a long time,” said the 24-year-old, who last saw her boyfriend about five months ago and was trying to maintain the relationship.
Before flying, Lopez did a COVID-19 test that was negative. But the two planes she took offered little space for social distance. Some passengers took off their masks to eat or drink. And not everyone used handkerchiefs that airlines offer to sanitize armrests and trays.
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Her stopover at Chicago’s O’Hare airport was just as disturbing, she said. It was crowded with people and it was hot because of many bodies. Some people wore masks below the nose. In the bathrooms, not everyone washed their hands for at least 20 seconds, said Lopez.
She works as a medical assistant in a doctor’s office. She will have to be quarantined for 10 days at home and take the test again before returning to work.
Joan Crunk, 75, and her husband, Jim, 80, from Grandview, Missouri, were at the Kansas City airport on Tuesday, waiting to pick up their daughter and son-in-law, who were coming from Savannah, Georgia, and planned to stay. with them until January 2nd. They hadn’t seen each other in a year.
Joan Crunk said they talked a lot about whether or not to meet.
“It is very difficult and we are older. My husband is 80 years old. There is no guarantee from one year to the next,” she said as “Silver Bells” played over the airport’s speakers.
US surgeon general Jerome Adams encouraged people to celebrate only with the people in their homes, but added that if they cannot follow the guidelines, they should take precautions, such as ensuring good home ventilation.
“We cannot let fatigue lead us to make bad decisions this holiday season that end up turning us back, especially when we are so incredibly close to getting ourselves and everyone else to cross the finish line,” he said, referring to the beginning of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Overall, AAA projected that about 85 million people will travel between Wednesday and January 3, mostly by car. That would be a drop of almost a third from the previous year, but it is still a large number in the middle of a pandemic.
Janeen Pierre was juggling a pile of luggage on Tuesday and taking her two daughters to the bathroom at Charlotte, North Carolina airport, before boarding their flight to Orlando, Florida.
Pierre and her husband planned to spend Christmas on a Disney cruise, but the pandemic changed their itinerary to spend Christmas at Disney’s theme parks.
“Disney returned all of our money, but American Airlines did not, so we are going to have a very Disney Christmas,” she said, adding that her girls could barely contain the excitement of visiting Cinderella’s Castle.
Still, she said, “With the new varieties coming out, I don’t know if that is the smartest idea.”