K A S H R U T . C O M©

The Premier Kosher Information Source on the Internet


HOME | ALERTS | CONSUMER | COMMERCIAL | PASSOVER | TRAVEL | ZEMANIM | LINKS | ARTICLES | RECIPES | HUMOR | E-MAIL LIST
x
Kashrut.com uses cookies. By using kashrut.com, you consent to the practices described in our Privacy Policy. That's Fine.

Subscribe to get e-mail when this site is updated
for: from:
to
 
Shop Artscroll and support Kashrut.com
 

Food News


THIS SECTION IS FOR NEWS AND INTERESTING STORIES RELATED TO FOOD, NUTRITION AND FOOD PROCESSING. THEY ARE NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO KOSHER BUT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO THE KOSHER CONSUMER, MANUFACTURER OR MASHGIACH.

Why Even A Small Thanksgiving (or Chanuka celebration) Is Dangerous

November 20, 2020 - from FiveThirtyEight:

"We all thought we knew what kinds of places to avoid: the ballparks, the Sunday services, the packed train cars. If we didn’t want to catch COVID-19, we should stay away from crowds. That was the mantra. So we skipped the summer street parties and we did virtual church. We had a nice little evening at home, ordering takeout and maybe inviting our closest friends and family over."

"But now, with COVID-19 rates on the rise basically everywhere in the U.S., those small gatherings are being blamed for spreading the virus, and experts say they don’t want us to have Thanksgiving celebrations with people outside our household bubbles. But experts are always telling us not to do the fun stuff that nourishes our souls — like eating huge meals or festively increasing our drinking — while the darkness of winter encroaches from every side. Having 10 people around a Thanksgiving table can’t be that much of a risk to society, right? Surely you can’t have a superspreader event without, at least, enough people to field a football team?"

"That’s because no matter how much we try to pretend otherwise, COVID-19 is a disease you get from being around other people. Technically, the size of the group doesn’t matter, said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. What matters is the likelihood that one of those people comes to the table infected."

"That’s because no matter how much we try to pretend otherwise, COVID-19 is a disease you get from being around other people. Technically, the size of the group doesn’t matter, said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. What matters is the likelihood that one of those people comes to the table infected."

"Risks are multiplied by dozens of dinner parties across town, and then grow over time as those dinner party attendees interact with other people in stores, waiting rooms and other small gatherings in the following weeks. This is how you get exponential growth, and it’s why experts are warning you against gathering a few loved ones at home now, even though throughout the summer all you heard about was the dangers of parties and rallies and protests and festivals, attended by dozens or hundreds or thousands of people instead of just the handful who might come to your dinner table. When there were fewer cases, it took a big gathering to make it likely that someone there was infected. But the water rose and now it’s threatening to drown us."

"t might seem unfair to ask people not to see relatives and friends they’ve missed, not to let a college student travel home for Thanksgiving dinner, not to enjoy this small pleasure. It might seem inconsistent to have focused on the dangers of large gatherings all year and begin warning about small gatherings just as they feel the most valuable. But this is a new phase of the pandemic. There’s more virus, in more places, and avoiding it has become harder. Even knowing where you caught it is harder. 'The prevalence is so high in the community right now,' Shah said. 'You have to see and treat everybody as infected.'"

The previous item can be cited with the URL: https://www.kashrut.com/News/?alert=W1125

The information posted is from secondary sources. We cannot take responsibility for the accuracy of the information.
Comments to webmaster@kashrut.com 
© Copyright 2024 Scharf Associates
Phone: (781)784-6890 
E-mail: ajms@kashrut.com
URL: "http://www.kashrut.com/"
 
Arlene J. Mathes-Scharf  
Food Scientist - Kosher Food Specialist
 
Scharf Associates
P.O. Box 50
Sharon, MA 02067