I was criticized for not gathering for a large Thanksgiving dinner with extended family.
One family member had this quick retort when I said I wasn’t coming, “It’s not a pandemic. It’s the flu and I am grateful for people who don’t live their lives in fear.”
Unfortunately, I think there are far too many people who agree with my relative, who I love but feel is misguided.
In one recent 24-hour period, 2,313 people in the U.S. died of COVID-19. That is 2,313 people who were planning on spending Thanksgiving with their families, 2,313 people who will never spend Thanksgiving with their loved ones again.
I do not live in fear of getting COVID. I live in fear of unknowingly giving it to someone else. Someone like my friend who has an immunocompromised child who, if I gave it to him and he gave it to her, could die.
I live in fear of unknowingly giving it to someone I work with who has a child with a heart condition, who if I gave it to him and he gave it to her, could die.
I live in fear of people unwilling to bear the inconvenience of wearing a mask giving it to me and then me giving it to my 80-year-old, diabetic father-in-law, who could die if he got it.
I think spending one Thanksgiving apart is worth the many future Thanksgivings we will get to spend together with people who didn’t die because we were inconvenienced.
Ron Ralston, Kaysville