As Thanksgiving approaches, many have plane tickets, bags packed and their house clean to prepare for the holiday. However, this year will be different because of each states’ restrictions regarding COVID-19. 

Thanksgiving is one of the most common holidays in the United States for families to travel. According to the American Automobile Association Travel, an estimate of 55 million Americans had planned to travel this Thanksgiving before the recent spike in several areas. Due to the pandemic, families should forego that travel trend this year. Many states have a sudden rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases. This means that each state is going to have different restrictions. Regarding these restrictions, the best thing to do right now is to follow proper safety measures, which means that traveling is not an appropriate option.

While Thanksgiving break is the time where many get to reunite with relatives, it is very important this year to limit traveling as much as possible. Seeing family is very important to everyone, but we really have to think about other people’s health and safety before our own. 

Traveling this year means whoever goes to a different state will come back bringing whatever they were exposed to on their leave. This is what the governors of the 50 states are trying to prevent — a bigger outbreak then there has been.

This is why the agreement of The Mentor Editorial Board is that people should not travel during Thanksgiving break this year.

Preventing the spread of this deadly disease is crucial right now for many people, especially the elderly and people with underlying health issues. While some medical experts and scientists say that they are close on a preventative vaccine, that doesn’t mean that everyone is saved all of a sudden.

One of the biggest problems regarding COVID-19 right now is the damage it’s taken on businesses. This damage will keep happening if we aren’t careful. A largely affected sector of business is the food industry. Many food businesses have adapted and changed so that they can keep thriving, whether it be contactless delivery, making drive throughs less contact, take out, curbside pick up or all of the above. Many teens and young adults work at these kinds of locations and coincidentally, they are the age group that affects society the most. Many that attend MHS even work around town, and could have been asymptomatic already.

Teens and young adults will often carry the virus without actually getting sick or showing any symptoms. So, if they were to travel out of state and then come back to work, they wouldn’t only be exposing other employees, but they also would be exposing any and all customers.

Another big entity that is largely affected is collegiate and professional sports teams. As of now, many athletes are out sick or quarantined because of parties they’ve thrown or simply because of not being cautious enough. This is the same for Manhattan High School sports as well with all of the athletes being at a risk with everything they’re exposed to. Imagine if any or all athletes were to travel now, they’d go down and bring other athletes with them. Soon after, teams would have to cancel games, and maybe even the whole season because of the lack of players they have — all because one person traveled.

Everyone is exhausted from the rollercoaster this virus has taken us all on. Sadly, this rollercoaster won’t end unless everyone does their part this holiday season: be safe, mask up and social distance as much as possible. No one is alone in facing these hard times, everyone is experiencing the same difficulties. Everyone in this world has had their life flipped upside down, so it’s not fair to anyone when others travel and think this is over. Think of all the lives you’d be risking: your colleagues and employees at work, your family, your friends and even your community. Exposing someone to what they’ve been dodging all this time isn’t a good surprise to anyone.