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Americans travel home for Thanksgiving despite coronavirus surge

Millions of Americans took to the skies and the roads ahead of Thanksgiving at the risk of pouring petrol on the coronavirus fire, disregarding increasingly dire warnings that they stay home and limit their holiday gatherings to members of their own household.

Those who are flying witnessed a distinctly 2020 landscape at the nation’s airports: plexiglass barriers in front of the ID stations, rapid virus testing sites inside terminals, masks in check-in areas and on board planes, and paperwork asking passengers to quarantine on arrival at their destination.

While the number of Americans travelling by air over the past several days was down dramatically from the same time last year, many pressed ahead with their holiday plans amid skyrocketing deaths, hospital admissions and confirmed infections across the US.

Some were tired of more than eight

Travel

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November 26, 2020

Cult favorite brewery moves to online sales amid coronavirus pandemic, but there’s a catch

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Everything’s going digital, even beer.

Beer fans have very specific tastes, so when they find a drink they like, they stick with it. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, however, one popular, yet limited, brew won’t be able to make its traditional debut. To make up for this, the brewery is offering the beer online… but with a catch.

Beer fans will normally travel to Russian River Brewing Co. to purchase its highly popular triple IPA called Pliny the Younger, which is released in limited quantities, SF Gate reports. Unfortunately, this year, the brewery won’t be selling the cult favorite in person, for obvious reasons.

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According to the news outlet, this will be the first time the brewery has sold its popular beer online. While this would normally

Travel

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November 26, 2020

Americans ignore coronavirus warnings as millions travel home for Thanksgiving

More than 88,000 people in the U.S. – an all-time high – were in the hospital with Covid-19 as of Tuesday, pushing the health care system in many places to the breaking point, and new cases of the virus have been setting records, soaring to an average of over 174,000 per day.

Deaths have surged to more than 1,600 per day, a mark last seen in May, when the crisis in the New York area was easing.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local authorities have begged people not to travel and urged them to keep their Thanksgiving celebrations small.

“That’ll make sure that your extended family are around to celebrate Christmas and to celebrate the holidays next year,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said.

But even Denver Mayor Michael Hancock flew to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with his wife and youngest daughter despite sending messages on

Travel

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November 26, 2020

Coronavirus in N.J.: What’s reopened, what concerts, festivals and shows are rescheduled, canceled. (Nov. 25, 2020)

The ReelAbilities Film Festival New Jersey will make a virtual visit to Bridgewater on Monday, Nov. 30.

The Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center will host a pair of online screenings as part of the annual traveling festival, which is dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities.

The noon showing will present two short films: “The Matchmaker,” directed by Leonora Pitts, follows a man who recently put his mother in a retirement home and becomes an eHarmony anti-Alzheimer’s matchmaker.’ “Sock Guys,” directed by Katie Turinkski, looks at a father and his down syndrome who run a successful business.

The 7 p.m. screening will be “Code of the Freaks,” a full-length documentary for adults only directed by Salome Chasnoff that critiques Hollywood’s representation of disabled characters.

Tickets for each screening are $5. Visit ssbjc.org/reelabilities or call 908-443-9018. A Zoom

Vacation

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November 26, 2020

Coronavirus Upends Thanksgiving for Many, While Others Ignore Warnings

Romeo Garcia waits in line to receive a COVID-19 test prior to the Thanksgiving holiday in Washington on Nov. 19, 2020. (Jason Andrew/The New York Times)

Ginger Floerchinger-Franks typically invites 10 people to her home in Boise, Idaho, for Thanksgiving dinner and cooks the entire meal herself, including her specialty: pumpkin soup.

But the pandemic has forced her to devise a new plan: a socially distant potluck. Three households will each prepare a dish, and Floerchinger-Franks will shuttle the platters between their homes. Then they will gather on Zoom to savor each other’s food.

“This is kind of an adventure,” she said.

Adventure

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November 23, 2020

Should N.J. casinos close as coronavirus cases spike? We asked 3 experts.

Since they were allowed to open July 2, Atlantic City’s casinos have been working hard to try to make up some of the millions in revenue they lost during the coronavirus shutdown. Another shutdown would put them even further behind and put thousands out of work again.

So far, Gov. Phil Murphy hasn’t given any sign he’s considering closing casinos again as the second wave of the coronavirus wallops New Jersey. The state reported 3,998 new coronavirus cases and 15 additional deaths Sunday, while hospitalizations rose for the 23rd consecutive day.

Asked last week about Philadelphia’s decision to close casinos, Murphy said Atlantic City casinos have been responsibly managing their gaming floors to mitigate the risk, though any indoor activity is not risk-free.

“There is not any evidence that there is either bad management of the floor or that there is a big outbreak coming from participating on the floor,”

Hotel

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November 23, 2020

The Day – Health officials make final pleas for holiday caution as coronavirus cases spike

WASHINGTON – With nationwide coronavirus hospitalizations topping 80,000 and case counts on the cusp of 200,000 a day, officials and experts are giving their final pleas for caution in the days before Thanksgiving.

Average cases reported each day in the United States have jumped nearly 15% in a week, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. Deaths are also on the rise, with some communities overwhelmed by the bodies – in El Paso County, Texas, the National Guard was called in to help the morgues. With the holiday travel rush underway, public health leaders warned this weekend that “herd immunity” from promising vaccines remains months away and that every American’s choices this week will shape the country’s virus trajectory.

In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said he understands that many Americans are experiencing “COVID fatigue” after months of pandemic

Travel

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November 23, 2020

Health experts urge against Thanksgiving gatherings as coronavirus cases explode nationwide

“If you look at the map of spread across the country, you can see the risk; it’s very visible. And moving through airports or travel hubs, I think that will increase people’s risk,” Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Even if they’re driving from point to point, unfortunately, we don’t know if we’re infected when we walk into a gathering.”

He referred to recent data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that said most infections are spread by people with no symptoms. The CDC, during its first news briefing in months on Thursday, recommended against traveling and gathering for Thanksgiving and said people should instead celebrate in their own households.

“The message for everyone is: You can’t assume you don’t have the virus, and you can’t assume the people whose homes you’re about to enter don’t have

Travel

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November 22, 2020

Coronavirus Upends Thanksgiving, While Some Ignore Travel Warnings

Ginger Floerchinger-Franks typically invites 10 people to her home in Boise, Idaho, for Thanksgiving dinner and cooks the entire meal herself, including her specialty, pumpkin soup.

But the pandemic has forced her to devise a new plan: a socially distant potluck. Three households will each prepare a dish, and Ms. Floerchinger-Franks will shuttle the platters between their homes. Then they will gather on Zoom to savor each other’s food.

“This is kind of an adventure,” she said.

The coronavirus pandemic has intensified across the country just as Americans are preparing to sit down to eat turkey and stuffing and to make their opinions airborne with parents, siblings, cousins, children and perhaps a friend with nowhere else to go. But now public health officials are warning against the very rituals many families take for granted: out-of-state travel and large, indoor gatherings.

The virus, and the precautions, have upended Thanksgiving in unprecedented

Adventure

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November 22, 2020

In Coronavirus Recession, the Out-of-Work Turn to GoFundMe

Jim Mimna, a concert photographer in the Denver area, was on the phone with a friend recently when the conversation turned to his finances. Mr. Mimna’s business was in free fall and he worried he would get evicted because he couldn’t pay the rent.

Shortly afterward, his friend, Joe Michaels, pulled up the crowdfunding website GoFundMe and created a page labeled “Our Fave Photog Needs Our Help.” He shared it on Facebook and, within days, the fundraiser surpassed its goal of $4,500.

GoFundMe has long been associated with life’s ups and downs—moonshot inventions and emergency-room bills alike. In the pandemic, it is also becoming a go-to place for people to get help with rent and groceries.

That so many Americans are now dependent on the kindness of neighbors speaks to the deepening inequality between those who can navigate the coronavirus recession and those who can’t. The government’s social-safety programs, such

Adventure

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November 21, 2020