Holiday travelers take risk in stride
Despite warnings, many fly to families for Thanksgiving
Tommy Cooper waited just 15 minutes at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday to get the results of his coronavirus test.
Cooper, 27, flew in from Hawaii to pick up his 5yearold daughter, who lives in the Bay Area with her mother. The father and daughter then headed back to Hawaii to spend Thanksgiving with Cooper’s family.
Cooper wasn’t too worried about the risk of flying amid a massive national surge in coronavirus cases, though he found the testing process — required by Hawaii officials for travelers to the island — “kind of a pain.”
“I might take a little break before I travel again,” he said. “I’m probably going to wait until everything settles down.”
Weary of months of lockdown and isolation, many people, like Cooper, are flying in or out of the Bay Area to see family over Thanksgiving. Government officials have begged Americans not to travel for the holiday as daily coronavirus cases reach unprecedented levels in California, and some passengers backed out of
flights as warnings sharpened. But many pressed on.
At SFO, travel was down 70% compared with Thanksgiving last year, according to airport duty manager Russell Mackey. But with about 615 flights per day, “it’s still the busiest time period probably since the pandemic began.” he said.
On Friday, more than 1 million people nationwide passed through U. S. airport security screening, the secondhighest figure since mid-March, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration.
Shelev Kancepolsky, of Israel, traveled to Hawaii on Sunday with his father and cousin for a surfing trip. The three had just vacationed in Mexico. He said he contracted the virus a few months ago in Israel and took the rapid test only because of Hawaii’s requirements..
“I don’t think it’s too risky, this virus,” Kancepolsky said.
His cousin, Enev Rubinstein, was not worried either.
“We’ll be in the open, in the water to surf,” said Rubinstein. “We’re not meeting a lot of people. Just us. We’re family.”
The number of cases in California has topped 13,000 per day three times in the past week, the highest levels since the start of the pandemic. COVID19 hospitalizations in California are at their highest in three months, and hospitals are increasingly worried about their ability to handle the influx of patients.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious diseases expert, says he’s worried that crowding at U. S. airports from Thanksgiving travel could be disastrous.
People flying “are going to get us into even more trouble than we’re in right now,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Some people canceled flights as officials sounded increasingly dire warnings.
Ethan Hammerman, a senior Esports partnerships manager at Twitch, booked a plane ticket from San Francisco to Connecticut two months ago. On Friday, he canceled his flight — two days before he was to board — due to the risk.
“While I've been in quarantine for an extended period of time, I can’t guarantee that the same can be said of everyone with whom I'd be traveling cross country,” he said. “My family is thankfully fairly healthy, but if I happened to accidentally infect my parents or brother because of a rogue passenger at an airport, it would weigh heavily on my conscience.”
His family will hold Thanksgiving over Zoom instead. “I want to be able to spend 50 or 60 more Thanksgivings with my family in person at least,” Hammerman said. “If one Thanksgiving over Zoom is necessary to ensure that happens, I'll make that trade in a heartbeat.”
The number of late cancellations
“I might take a little break before I travel again ... wait until everything settles down.”
Tommy Cooper, traveling to see family in Hawaii for Thanksgiving
is unclear. But overall travel demand remains at a historic low, according to spokesperson for United Airlines, the largest carrier at SFO. The airline expects to see about half of the number of customers that it saw during Thanksgiving week in 2019. The airline has added 47 flights from San Francisco and 6,600 additional seats — about 14% more capacity — during peak travel demand days this Thanksgiving, the spokesperson said.
Amanda Borman of Dignity HealthGoHealth Urgent Care, which conducts rapid coronavirus tests at SFO, said more people are expected to take advantage of the tests during the coming week. Though they are optional for most domestic travelers, many people want peace of mind, she said.
“We’ve already seen higher numbers just because of — we can already tell — because of Thanksgiving. We’re seeing more people,” she continued. “We’re a little bit nervous about ( this) week getting closer to Thanksgiving.”
A negative test does not always mean a person does not carry the virus. False negatives are possible, and also a person’s viral load can rapidly increase, such that a negative test could flip to positive hours later.
Jan de Gier planned to travel to the Netherlands Sunday for three weeks to visit his mother for her 93rd birthday. He has not seen her in about a year.
“It’s a huge risk you take,” said de Gier, who got a rapid coronavirus test at the airport. “At the same time, not going makes her depressed. It’s one of those things.”
“She’s in her 90s, so it’s important,” de Gier continued. “Although I’m compromised as well. My lungs are an issue. I just have to take that risk.”