How To Get Through The Holidays As Omicron Looms
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2021
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
As tests appear to be in short supply in places like New York City, the White House announced plans to send 500 million at-home tests to Americans who want them and new federal testing sites to meet the demand in the coming weeks.
But despite the rising cases and concern, Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, says this is not March 2020 all over again. And he offers some guidance to help us through the next few weeks.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Nick Russo lives in New York City, but he's planning to travel to Massachusetts for Christmas, |
| 0:05.4 | which is why a ringing phone recently brought some very unwelcome news. |
| 0:11.6 | Well, yeah, our roommate within the span of 20 minutes got two calls that he hung out |
| 0:16.8 | with someone that tested positive. |
| 0:18.3 | NPR correspondent Jasmine Garz spoke with Russo as he was in line to get a COVID test in Bushwick |
| 0:23.6 | Brooklyn on Monday. |
| 0:24.6 | It's been crazy over the last like week. It was calm for months now, but now it's been |
| 0:30.5 | like really acting up, I guess. |
| 0:33.0 | Maybe you've seen photos of testing lines in New York over the past few days. |
| 0:36.5 | I mean, some of them stretched down and around city blocks and maybe you felt that same |
| 0:42.2 | and very familiar anxiety. |
| 0:44.4 | The real moment when I was like, you know, maybe this isn't going to work. |
| 0:47.6 | It was really seeing all the lines for the testing. |
| 0:50.3 | Stacy Parker, Lemel and Harlem has already changed her holiday plans. |
| 0:54.4 | Along with her husband and 11 year old, she was planning to see family in Michigan and |
| 0:59.6 | Florida. |
| 1:00.6 | I wanted us to all get PCR tests before we went to Michigan Sunday morning and we'll |
| 1:05.4 | know by Monday morning and we can just get in the car. |
| 1:08.1 | You know, I realize it's not going to work that way. |
| 1:10.6 | While cases are rising quickly in the Northeast and pretty much all across the country now, |
| 1:15.4 | fear about what the Omicron variant might mean for holiday plans seems to be spreading |
| 1:20.8 | even faster. |
... |
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