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will omicron cancel christmas? from travel to dinner parties to diagnosing a runny nose, three experts weigh in on how to stay safe this holiday

'this is not the time to be attributing any kind of a runny nose to a cold,' says dr. susy hota. ' it's covid until proven otherwise.'

by maija kappler

dec 20 2021

8 minute read

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many people who canceled holiday plans last year assumed things would be better by now. (getty)

after more than a year of pandemic life — lockdowns, dodging germs, rising death rates — the last thing anyone wants to hear about is a new variant , especially since restrictions were lightening up and the world seemed headed back to some kind of normal.

yet, here we are, once again evaluating the risk of holiday gatherings and travel as omicron picks up speed across the world, and if we felt confident planning trips home or going to parties several weeks ago, these days, it’s looking like those plans are going to need some reconsideration — and it stinks.

“it’s exhausting. and it’s discouraging that we’re still in this pandemic,” says devon greyson , an assistant professor at university of british columbia’s school of population and public health. “omicron has thrown a wrench in a lot of people’s plans. and the most difficult part is we won’t know, for at least a couple of weeks, exactly how to interpret omicron because we just don’t have enough data yet.”

omicron means that a lot of canadians are now struggling to decide what to do. should they accept the risks that come with celebrating the holidays with friends and family? or should they opt for caution — again — and spend another december alone?

well, what are the experts doing?

healthing spoke to three experts in infectious disease and public health about how to make decisions around the holidays. are they travelling? two of them — greyson and dr. stephanie smith , a professor at the university of alberta’s school of medicine who specializes in infectious diseases — said they canceled their travel plans.

“personally, i’m choosing not to fly to see family this year,” says greyson. “all of my extended family is a plane ride away and my immediate family is staying home this year because of the risks.”

that doesn’t mean everyone else should make the exact same choice, said greyson, who uses they/them pronouns.

“it’s hard to make a hard-and-fast rule for everybody because there are a lot of individual variations,” they said. “i’m lucky that my parents are well, and i feel confident that i can visit them next year if i don’t see them this year.”

if greyson felt their time with a parent were limited — if a parent were hospitalized, for example — “my risk balance would be different.” in that scenario, they would likely board a plane, wearing an n95 mask that they wouldn’t take off for the whole flight, even to eat or drink.

“i, myself, if it were not an urgent trip, would be canceling interprovincial [travel],” greyson said.

smith, meanwhile, said her husband and children were getting ready to go to florida on friday, to see family in the u.s., but they canceled their trip after the government issued an advisory against non-essential travel.

the plane ride itself wouldn’t be that risky, smith said, due to health measures like airport testing and the advanced ventilation systems on planes. the major risk comes from what people do once they arrive at their destination.

“as soon as you start traveling, you’re going to increase the number of interactions with people outside of your household. it’s inevitable,” she says. “many people stay in hotels, and you have to eat out — that increase in interaction with multiple people outside your your household, that increases the risk.”

planes, trains or automobiles

dr. susy hota , an infectious disease physician at toronto’s university health network, echoes smith’s assessment of planes: they’re actually relatively safe, because “there are very frequent changes of the air, and hepa filters,” she says.

but it’s important to remember that there are risks associated with international travel: if you leave canada, it may be hard to find a flight back, or that you’ll have to quarantine when you return. “you have to be fully prepared for all of those different scenarios,” she says.

and keep in mind that other modes of transport might be riskier.

trains and buses “tend to have fewer people than a plane, which is a good thing, but they’re also tighter quarters,” says hota. “i’m not aware of what the safety parameters are for trains and for buses, but i suspect they might not stringent on those measures. [on trains or buses], air is circulating in a small space, so it’s tricky.”

if you are traveling that way, make sure your mask fits well, and ask if you can open windows.

taking rapid covid tests can provide added protection before a holiday get-together. (andrew vaughan / the canadian press)

there’s no question that with the pandemic dragging for so long, it’s becoming harder to continue to assess risk. so we asked greyson, hota and smith how to measure risk safe during the holiday period.

set expectations before you gather

before you meet up with people, discuss everyone’s comfort level with gathering. be clear about your expectations and your situation — remember that others might be more or less tolerant of risks than you are.

“it’s important to be clear and communicate ahead of time when you’re planning get-togethers,” says greyson. “is the expectation that we’re all going to be vaccinated? is the expectation we’re all going to wear a mask, or that people should bring some extra clothes because we’re going to be outside or have the windows open, and it’s going to be chilly?”

avoid public places like restaurants, bars, gyms and movie theatres

one way to reduce the number of people you’re in contact with is to avoid places like restaurants, bars, movie theatres or sporting events.

“the larger capacity venues and events where you’re a bunch of strangers — those are the most important things to limit,” says hota. “staying away from places where you’ll be unmasked around people you don’t know is a good idea, especially before seeing friends and family over the holiday.

“the emphasis being placed on people reducing our contact — the implication is ‘don’t see [your friends],'” she says. “really, it can’t be: ‘don’t put yourself in those positions,’ if you can control it.”

smith says that’s probably a good rule of thumb, even after the holidays, until things calm down a bit.

“if we were just dealing with delta… i would say [going to these places] is probably reasonable,” she says. “but we know that [omicron] is incredibly transmissible, and is spreading fairly quickly, so i think that those are situations that are potentially a little more risky now than they were three weeks ago.”

stay home if you’re sick

this one’s basic, but critical.

“this is not the time to be attributing any kind of a runny nose to a cold,” says hota. “at this stage, it’s covid until proven otherwise.”

stick with vaccinated people

there’s still a lot we don’t know about covid, but we do know that people who are unvaccinated are much more likely to contract the virus and to require hospitalization .

“if you haven’t been vaccinated or you haven’t had your third dose [if it’s available to you], i can’t stress this enough: this is really the time to do it,” says hota. “even two doses of our current vaccines provide strong protection against severe infection with omicron, is what we we understand at this point.”

of course, there are some populations, like young children, who aren’t eligible for the vaccine. but greyson, hota and smith urged people to only see people who are fully vaccinated, as much as is possible.

people who have gotten boosters are even more protected. so, in a situation where a vaccinated person’s elderly parents have received their booster shots, for instance, the comfort level is a bit higher.

“i would feel comfortable visiting with them this holiday season, assuming that i hadn’t had any known covid exposure,” says greyson.

keep gatherings small

is there a number that constitutes a safe gathering?

“there’s no magic number,” says smith. “you could have lunch with one person, and if they’re in their pre-symptomatic period, you could get [covid] just from that one person… it’s a bit of russian roulette.”

where she’s based, in alberta, public health guidelines forbid indoor gatherings of more than 10 people. “i think that’s probably fairly reasonable,” she says.

rapid tests can be helpful, but don’t rely on them

if you can get your hands on rapid tests, testing right before seeing people can help reduce risk.

“[rapid tests] can also provide an extra layer of reassurance,” smith says. “if it’s negative, and you’re asymptomatic, that’s reassuring: you’re probably not bringing covid to the party.”

hota agrees. “especially if it is a shorter gathering, the chances of suddenly becoming sick and start shedding virus into the into the gathering is lower.”

but remember that rapid tests are most accurate when the viral load is highest. in other words, it’s possible to have covid and still get a negative result .

“i don’t want people to feel like this is the panacea,” hota says of rapid tests. “they have their limitations, like every other measure.”

open the windows and consider wearing masks

we know that good ventilation lowers the risk of covid transmission. if the temperature allows, open the windows to allow air to circulate. and while it would definitely feel weird to wear masks when you have friends over — it’s worth considering.

“i know most people won’t do that,” smith says. “but if you are someone who is severely immunocompromised, it may be something you should do to protect yourself and [help you to] feel safe.

take extra care around those who are elderly, pregnant, immunocompromised or too young to get vaccinated

“if we’re going to gather, we have to realize that there is risk,” smith says. “if you’re someone that is at a high risk for severe disease, then you need to look at what precautions should be taken.”

it’s important to remember that people who are pregnant are in this category too.

“the public isn’t aware enough of the risks that covid poses to pregnant people and their fetus,” says greyson.

vulnerable people should consider being even more strict with the number of people you see, wearing a mask when friends are over, keeping windows open, taking regular rapid tests, and scaling back plans.

this wave will end, like the others

it’s hard to still be in a pandemic after almost two years. but omicron anxiety is temporary, hota says.

“we’ve been in this position before, where we’ve experienced a bad wave,” she says. “this will probably be worse than any of the waves we’ve experienced before. [but it will end], whether it feels like it or not.”

maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing.

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will omicron cancel christmas? from travel to dinner parties to diagnosing a runny nose, three experts weigh in on how to stay safe this holiday

'this is not the time to be attributing any kind of a runny nose to a cold,' says dr. susy hota. ' it's covid until proven otherwise.'

omicron will mean a tough winter, but boosters are coming