The coronavirus — a devious parasite — doesn’t have to be the winner of the Super Bowl.
This virus preys on people gathering inside, talking, and eating. So as infections and hospitalizations have finally started dropping in the U.S., the nation’s overwhelmed doctors, nurses, and essential workers would greatly benefit if this year’s Super Bowl parties didn’t allow the virus to spread, multiply, and, invariably, mutate even more.
In many places, infections spiked after Thanksgiving and Christmas. On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, offered some simple, levelheaded advice to avoid another spike: “…just lay low and cool it.”
Laying low and cooling it simply means enjoying the Super Bowl with people you live with, rather than mixing households, Dr. Fauci said.
Gathering with people outside your home continues to be a serious, and for many a deadly, problem. Unlike a previous coronavirus outbreak (SARS) in 2003, where infected people became sick quickly, this latest coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has a prodigious number of healthy carriers.
With this virus, many infected people don’t know they’re infected, which could include you. Some 40 to 45 percent of infected people never experience symptoms, according to the CDC. And over half of infections are spread by people who either have no symptoms or don’t have them yet (presymptomatic).
Some recent variants of the virus that causes #COVID19 spread more easily, which may lead to more cases. More cases could put more strain on healthcare resources, lead to more hospitalizations, and potentially more deaths. pic.twitter.com/2AptA72nr4
— CDC (@CDCgov) January 28, 2021
The CDC has some specific Super Bowl recommendations, too. They’re basically Fauci’s suggestions. “Gathering virtually or with the people you live with is the safest way to celebrate the Super Bowl this year,” the CDC wrote.
If someone is compelled to gather with people they don’t live with for the Super Bowl, the CDC says to at least gather outside — where’s there’s some ventilation.
See Also: When it’s wise to wear a double mask
Even more reason to party carefully this Super Bowl season is that mutated, significantly more contagious coronavirus variants are now rapidly spreading around the U.S. If you’re not careful, it’s now easier to get infected.
“We need to double down on public health measures more than ever,” Dr. Thomas Russo, the chief of infectious disease at the University of Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, told Mashable earlier this week.
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