Flagler Public Health Director Echoes Strong CDC Directives Against Travel at Thanksgiving as Covid Surges

“As cases continue to increase rapidly across the United States, the safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to celebrate at home with the people you live with,” the CDC said in a briefing. “Gatherings with family and friends who do not live with you can increase the chances of getting or spreading Covid-19 or the flu,” while travel “may increase your chance of getting and spreading Covid-19. Postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others this year.”

Local officials such as Bob Snyder, who heads the Flagler health department, have been warning for weeks that the combination of holiday gatherings, cooler weather and more indoor activities would result in quicker spread of the disease at a time when community spread is already out of control in much of the country and not exactly under control in Flagler, where cases have totaled more than 100 for four successive weeks and hospitalizations are again rising.

“With holiday time, I think it’s good guidance to avoid large crowds, keep holiday gatherings small and be careful,” Snyder said in late October. Today, in reaction to the CDC briefing, he said: “I think their statement is very wise and that people should listen carefully because indeed want to avoid large gatherings, we want to stick to very small gatherings, and small family household groups. We want to stick to our internal bubbles, people that we trust, that we know are also being careful.” He added: “If you’re going to have a gathering, have it outside. Outside is safer than inside, we’ve been saying that for a while now.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis has bucked guidance from public health experts, adopting instead a policy of no restrictions on restaurant or business capacity since late September, and no guidance about other gatherings.

Until he referred to efforts to get ready for rolling out a vaccine against the disease in a tweet on Wednesday, DeSantis hadn’t mentioned Covid-19 since Oct. 23 on his twitter feed–almost a month–even as the state’s case load has been growing steadily over that period. The state’s seven-day average is at 6,748 and is on a trajectory to overtake the peak average in early July. Hospitalizations in Florida have increased 33 percent in the last 14 days. On Oct. 26, the number of people hospitalized at AdventHealth Palm Coast with a primary diagnosis of covid-19 was four. Today it’s nine, after reaching 11 on Nov. 17.

The CDC guideline, like other holiday-related directives to limit crowds or alter the configuration of holiday events, is certain to provoke a new round of protest and divide individuals and elected officials in by-now familiar camps, with those urging more safety-minded, life-saving restrictions and fewer gatherings on one side and those looking to holiday events as a way of combating the nearly year-long isolation wrought by the disease, even if at the risk of adding to infections and to the death toll.

The death toll exceeded 250,000 this week, or an average of 6,630 deaths a week since March–the death-toll equivalent of more than two 9/11’s a week. Unlike when the nation crossed the 100,000-deaths threshold in late May, the 200,000 and 250,000 threshold has come and gone with more indifference or jadedness than alarm–or empathy–except for those directly impacted by the disease. A few weeks ago the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida lamented the “Lethal indifference to Florida prisoners dying of Covid-19.” Brent Orrell, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, wrote of “the not-so-soft bigotry of Covid-19 indifference” and cited a poll that found nearly 60 percent of Republicans calling the death toll “acceptable” (90 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of independents said the death toll was “unacceptable”). National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci has been warning since last May of indifference toward the disease among the young.




Locally, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday was the scene of pleadings by some residents and a motion by one of its new council members to reverse the decision not to hold an in-person Christmas tree lighting. The event had drawn some 1,000 people last year. The city considered it irresponsible and potentially reckless to hold the event this year. Other events, such as the Starlight Christmas parade and the city’s Halloween events, had been cancelled. The court system continues to postpone trials that require 12 jurors. But as was the case at Tuesday’s council meeting, local officials are finding themselves battling strong currents of disapproval for their safety measures because state policy is undermining their message.

The CDC today also set out guidelines on how to travel for those who will, or who must, how to attend or host a Thanksgiving gathering, and so on. The briefing follows.