SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Despite the continued spread of new coronavirus variants, like the California Variant and the UK variant, some health officials in the Golden State are saying they expect some normalcy by Thanksgiving.
ABC10’s health experts say that timeline is reasonable.
“Actually, I’ve been saying that for some time," said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "If everything goes well, if we can keep vaccinating, I think we could be having a near normal Thanksgiving."
Dr. Payal Kohli said it’s possible but two things need to happen to return to normal.
“The first is the majority of us, we think 70 but maybe even up to about 85% need to get vaccinated to achieve that herd immunity threshold," Dr. Kohli explained. "And the second is that those cases in the community need to come down and to stay down."
Dr. Kohli says she believes the biggest threat to returning to our normal lives are the variants and how the vaccines are not as effective against. Fortunately, Dr. Schaffner says he believes the vaccines are doing a good job even with those.
“I’m encouraged that although there are any number of variants out there, most of them are still pretty well covered by the vaccine, according to what our friends in the lab are telling us,” said Dr. Schaffner.
Dr. Kohli says the one thing that matters is keeping people out of the hospital and that the vaccines are working where it matters most.
“With these widespread vaccinations, even though vaccines are not as good against the variants, they do have good efficacy and they keep people out of the hospital,” Dr. Kohli explained.
So, is it safe to book tickets for that Thanksgiving Holiday?
“It is very much a possibility," said Dr. Kohli. "But I would say be flexible."
Dr. Schaffner is cautiously optimistic. “Plan, but make sure you can cancel just in case.”
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