Make a Plan

There are ways in which travel and Christmas gatherings can be done reasonably safely. As an example, two of my relatives quarantined strictly for two weeks, then drove straight through (pay at the pump to refuel, stop by the side of a country road to pee) to spend Christmas with two elderly relatives who have isolated strictly since early March.

If anybody in a gathering has risked exposure to the pandemic, everyone in the gathering shares that risk. Those four relatives can safely spend Christmas together because they have been so careful about avoiding potential exposure for so long. For example, the elderly relatives order supplies online, schedule curbside pickup, drive to the pickup point, pop the trunk open by remote control, get their supplies plopped in and the trunk shut, and drive home. They are ensconced in their cars the entire time.

The Bloomin’ Obvious

The USA’s post-Thanksgiving experience shows what to expect after Christmas in both of my countries. A friend of one of my siblings was the first among our social circles to lose someone (his stepmother) to COVID-19 that seems to have spread at Thanksgiving. The post-Christmas surge will be severe in the States. Hospitals there are already overwhelmed and many places aren’t even pretending to practice any constraints on public behavior.

But although the UK is better, it is still regarded as the sick country of Europe. People think they will be safe if they believe they are adhering to the rules, but the rules are relatively loose and sometimes their interpretation of the rules is even looser. In our village several households have put up an outdoor marquee that would ordinarily be used to shelter a summer barbecue from British rain. They believe socializing in a room made of fabric qualifies as socializing outdoors, so they believe it will be safe to visit with other people there. By constraining ventilation, they will essentially be socializing indoors. A room with fabric walls is still a room. We’ll have a post-Christmas surge in the UK. It may simply not be on the scale of the USA.

So why am I bothering to write about the obvious? To get you in the right frame of mind to make contingency preparations.

Make A Plan

My wife and I made a plan months ago in case either of us develops symptoms or gets a known exposure. We had to. She works in a hospital. Although she is admin staff, not frontline health care staff, working there involves some risk. I do our supply runs, which also involve some risk. Face masks help tremendously but are not perfect protection.

When the more contagious variant appeared, we updated our plan. Our basic outline is simple. The one that does not have symptoms or known exposure (let’s call her Person A) will have to quickly remove anything from the master bedroom and en suite bathroom that she may need (mostly clothes and personal sundries). Person B will stay in those rooms with the door closed. Person A will prepare all food, leaving it on a tray outside the door and picking up the tray of dishes to be washed, as well as any laundry, later.

It would be more complex without the en suite bathroom and a second bathroom in the house. Some people I know with that situation have decided to put a commode in the bedroom that the isolating person will be in. Alternatives include closed doors so that transit to and from the bathroom and using the bathroom are the only times when they will share air, mask wearing in the transit space, disinfecting the bathroom after each use, and each person having a dedicated towel that they carry to and from the bathroom for each use (and launder frequently).

There are preparations all of us can make. We have a pulse oximeter in our medicine cabinet. With COVID-19, that small gadget can be even more valuable than a thermometer. Those two devices will tell us whether our oxygen saturation is too low or pulse is dangerously high or we’ve got a high fever, any of which means it’s time to call a medical helpline to find out whether we need a hospital. We also have the basics for cold and flu season: ibuprofen, acetaminophen/paracetamol, decongestant, antihistamine, cough medicine, throat lozenges. Any of those can be useful with COVID-19 too.

You don’t need an exotic plan. But with so much socializing at Christmas, it would be good to have a basic plan. Making it will cause you to review what you have on hand and fill in any gaps. Perhaps most importantly, it will simply help you feel prepared. Having a plan is amazingly reassuring.

Best of all will be if you never have any reason to use your plan. But it’s comforting to have one. Just in case.