Many families are struggling with how to juggle the desire to see loved ones with a need to keep everyone safe from COVID.
One Metro Detroit woman’s Thanksgiving plans have been deeply affected by a very personal loss. Terri Tolbert-Mial’s brother Tony Tolbert died this summer from COVID after refusing to get vaccinated.
That’s why the rules will be different in her home at at her dinner table. She is requiring family members who come for Thanksgiving be vaccinated.
Dr. Matthew Sims is an infectious disease expert with Beaumont Health. He said not taking simple and safe protocols at your table simply feeds COVID.
If everyone in the house is fully vaccinated there is less risk of breakthrough infections. But it doesn’t hurt to still be cautious.
The delta variant has been found in the nasal passages of people who are vaccinated and be transferred to someone who is unvaccinated.
Sims said you shouldn’t put older people or children under 5 years old in close eating proximity to those who are unvaccinated or work jobs that don’t require masks.
Read: Michigan reports 17,003 new COVID cases, 280 deaths -- average of 8,502 cases per day