Since COVID-19 struck America, most of us have stopped lots of heretofore normal activities in an effort to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The curve has been flattened in most states and now the burning questions relate to when we can get back to normality.
Healthcare facilities have made the decision to resume most elective diagnostic procedures and are gradually moving from telemedicine to real in-person office visits. Hair stylists have gone back to cutting and colorizing hair.
For most activities, however, the decision to resume normality remains intensely personal and complicated.
For example, the Skeptical Cardiologist really wants to visit his 94-year-old father on Father's Day weekend.
lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, some 400 miles away, and I haven't seen him (excluding FaceTime sightings) since Christmas of last year.
How do I balance the risk of giving him COVID-19 versus the benefit of us spending time together? Would the risk/benefit change in 3 to 12 months? In a year or 2?
There is no CDC or state or WHO guidance on whether I should make this trip. However, the that sampled the opinion of 511 "epidemiologists" and offers some perspective on when it is right to resume certain activities.
The majority of the 511 epidemiologists, largely members of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, who responded to the survey felt comfortable currently bringing in the mail and getting a haircut.
My wife (the ex-eternal fiancée) and I still put the mail in quarantine and treat all packages as potentially contaminated. The epidemiologists were split on visiting hair salons or barber shops with 41% comfortable now and 39% saying they would be in 3 to 12 months.
We have acquired hair cutting equipment for her to use on me and home hair colorizing stuff (not for me) and neither of us has seen a barber for 3 months. We plan to continue that for the foreseeable future.
It is interesting that 60% of epidemiologists are comfortable seeing a doctor for a non-urgent appointment. My patients also seem comfortable now coming into the office. We take a lot of precautions, but ultimately exposure risk for both patients and physicians is higher than if they had both stayed at home.
Resuming Activities in 3 to 12 Months
The majority of epidemiologists felt comfortable resuming 10 activities in 3 to 12 months, although a substantial minority were okay with doing them now.
Two of the activities above are relevant to my "Pops Pearson visitation" decision.
Only 20% of the respondents felt comfortable visiting an "elderly relative or friend in their home" now, but this increased to 41% by 3 to 12 months. This surprised me and suggests that most Americans may not be going into their relatives' homes and/or spending significant time with their elderly parents.
Similarly, only 20% of respondents would travel by airplane now, but 44% would in 3 to 12 months.
A substantial minority of the respondents felt they would not be comfortable visiting relatives in the home (39%) or flying (37%) until over a year from now.
Of the other activities on the above list, I am uncomfortable right now with all except a "hike or picnic outdoors with friends." We have had close friends over to our house for outdoor, socially-distanced gatherings, two at a time. We have gone for bike rides with friends outdoors.
I'm not sure when I will feel comfortable attending an indoor dinner party, exercising at a gym, or eating at a dine-in restaurant.
To Visit or Not to Visit?
After much discussion with family and rumination, I have decided to drive to Tulsa and stay with Pops Pearson for Father's Day.
The decision to drive was an easy one. Although we usually choose the one-hour Southwest Airlines flight from St. Louis to Tulsa, we still consider flying a COVID-19 high-risk activity. The airlines have made considerable strides in reducing the possibility of transmission in-flight, but we still hear that it is not mandatory for fliers to wear masks.
The confirms that flying increases the risk of contracting COVID-19:
"Air travel requires spending time in security lines and airport terminals, which can bring you in close contact with other people and frequently touched surfaces. Most viruses and other germs do not spread easily on flights because of how air circulates and is filtered on airplanes. However, social distancing is difficult on crowded flights, and you may have to sit near others (within 6 feet), sometimes for hours. This may increase your risk for exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19."
For those of you with more distant relatives, the decision to fly or drive is more complicated. I know that when we visit my wife's relatives in Wilmington, North Carolina, in August (which will be a 14-hour drive), we are still planning on driving.
To minimize the risk of me transmitting coronavirus to my dad, I have put myself in a modified quarantine. I will be conducting office visits by telemedicine and one of my partners has kindly offered to cover my hospital patients during this time. In the 2 weeks leading up to the visit, my wife and I have agreed to avoid any activities that might increase our risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2.
Resuming Activities Beyond 1 year
When will it be safe to attend a large wedding or funeral service, go to church or attend a baseball game? Definitely not now.
Of note, the majority of the 6,000 epidemiologists invited did not respond to this survey and were uncomfortable making such predictions:
"Some said they were uncomfortable making predictions based on time because they didn't want to guess the timing of certain treatments or infection data. 'Our concern is that your multiple choice options are based only on calendar time,' 301 epidemiologists wrote in a letter. 'This limits our ability to provide our expert opinions about when we will feel safe enough to stop social distancing ourselves.'"
I, too, am uncomfortable making predictions and doling out advice on behavior during COVID-19. There is much uncertainty as evidenced by the reluctance of 90% of scientists to answer this survey. The pace at which important data emerges is dizzying. For many personal decisions like mine, we must make critical decisions based on imperfect guidance.
, is a private practice noninvasive cardiologist and medical director of echocardiography at St. Luke's Hospital in St. Louis. He blogs on nutrition, cardiac testing, quackery, and other things worthy of skepticism at , where a version of this post first appeared.