Travelling plight
Thanksgiving is bound to cause a spike in America’s covid infections
Blame resistance to getting jabbed and a lack of home testing
THE THREE-DAY festival in November 1621 that gave rise to the American holiday of Thanksgiving was a celebration of survival. Through the generosity of the Wampanoag Native Americans, about half the English religious separatists who arrived in Massachusetts the previous year had overcome scarcity and disease and lived to see their first successful corn harvest. As Americans prepare for their first Thanksgiving of the covid-vaccine era, disease is once again on their minds.
Surges of coronavirus infections in America tend to follow waves in Europe. Death rates in Europe rose by 5% in the week of November 8th, and, sure enough, covid case rates are now climbing in America too. On November 15th it reported almost 150,000 cases, the most in two months.
This does not bode well for Thanksgiving. Some 53m people are expected to travel for the holiday, up 13% from 2020—close to pre-pandemic levels. Air travel is experiencing a particularly large jump. It is forecast to rise by 80% compared with last year. A covid surge is all but certain.
Although jabs are available for all Americans who want them, many are heading into the holiday unprotected. Only 59% of Americans are fully vaccinated compared with 68% of Britons and 76% of Canadians. New antiviral drugs are expected to become available shortly, though probably not soon enough to contend with a Thanksgiving wave.
Americans are struggling to get their hands on another effective tool: quick testing. Rapid antigen tests, though less foolproof than PCR ones, can provide reliable results in minutes. People can administer their own examinations at home, with a nasal or throat swab. Testing before mingling with friends and family would help Americans control infections. Yet these kits are still hard to come by in local pharmacies, and they are costly. The Quidel QuickVue test is priced at $23.99 on Amazon, and the On/Go one at $34.99—and even then they are not available until after the holiday. A family of four would need to spend about $100 or more.
By contrast, in Britain the National Health System allows each person, every day, to order a pack of seven rapid tests free. “In other countries, we see it’s become the norm for friends and family to get tested before a party, before dinner, before celebrations,” says Leana Wen, a former health commissioner of Baltimore. “We need to get to that point in this country.”
Some say the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has unnecessarily delayed authorising rapid antigen tests with a regulatory process that is too stringent—“letting perfect be the enemy of the good” in the words of Dr Wen. The FDA has taken steps to streamline its authorisation process. However the focus should be not on the number of authorised test developers, but on the number of tests available, says an official at the administration. For that, he says, the federal government is responsible.
In October the Biden administration announced its intention to quadruple the supply of at-home tests by the end of the year, providing greater access and potentially reducing cost through a $3bn investment. Rapid antigen tests could be readily available in time for Christmas. By then, perhaps, Americans will be able to give thanks for the freedom to gather with less fear of contracting covid.