A new reason for Americans to hang out despite the epidemic

More than 5 million Americans travel to celebrate Christmas and New Year, despite recommendations to stay home to avoid a pandemic.

One of the reasons many Americans give to family reunification vacations is "Because a mother is worth it." Jennifer Brownlee, 34, a fisherman from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, took a flight to Oregon to meet her mother - who lost one leg. She said that her mother was worth it for herself on a potentially infectious flight during a pandemic. She wears a mask on the plane "out of respect" of other passengers and believes that she is protected by God from CoV infection.

Michelle Lopez wondered if the decision to fly from Houston to Norfolk, Virginia, where her boyfriend was serving in the Navy was the right thing. She does not want to go, but has not seen her boyfriend for a long time. The 24-year-old female passenger last met her boyfriend 5 months ago.

Before flying, Lopez tested for nCoV and got a negative result. But the two planes she flew did not have too much space to carry out social distance. Some passengers remove their masks when eating and drinking and not everyone uses the towels provided by the airline to clean handrails, trays for food. The holiday crowd that filled Chicago's O’Hare airport also made Lopez worried. Many people do not wear masks, wash their hands properly. Lopez is a nurse and has to be on home isolation for 10 days and get tested for nCoV before returning to work.

Joan Crunk, 75, and her husband, Jim, 80, who lives in Grandview, Missouri, were at the Kansas City airport in late December. They waited to pick up the couple and their daughter flying from Savannah, Georgia. It's been a year, their family hasn't reunited. Joan said the whole family had a lot of discussion about whether to reunite on this occasion because of the epidemic. The couple worried that they were getting older, and it was uncertain whether next year they could see their children again.

Meanwhile, Janeen Pierre and her husband plan to bring their two children to Christmas at Disneyland in Orlando, Florida. But the disease prevented the park from functioning as it should. They were reimbursed by Disneyland, but not on air tickets. So the whole family decided to fly from North Carolina to Florida. The two little girls could not contain their excitement at being about to visit Cinderella castle. However, the Janeen and his wife still wonder if this is a smart decision or not.

Americans are rushing to travel before Christmas and New Year, despite advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stay at home, avoiding "abetting" a pandemic outbreak. Yet, more than 5 million people flew in the week before the holiday. This figure is down about 60% compared to the same period last year.

About 85 million Americans will travel through January 3, 2021, mostly by car. This is down by nearly a third from last year, but is still a very large number during the pandemic. Currently, the US has recorded 19.1 cases of infection and more than 337,000 deaths from Covid-19.