Once again, although air travel is only half of what it was last year, more than three million Americans boarded planes in a three-day period that stretched last weekend. It was the busiest three-day trip this year, surpassing Thanksgiving, with more than a million people flying daily on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
ABC7 he caught up with passengers flying from LAX Airport in Los Angeles, and the attitudes of the passengers were genuinely awful:
“I’m traveling to see my kids and granddaughter and I’ve spent two days at Disney World, then I’m going to zipper back and go back to work,” said San Diego resident Suzi Lieber of LAX.
For the first time since the pandemic broke out, TSA agents examined more than 1 million people for three consecutive days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – the start of the holiday travel season. However, these numbers are much lower than last year – down 57%.
“Life goes on. Whatever we have to continue is what it is,” said Claudia Winton, a Clovis resident. “We’ll be careful and stay out of crowded places. The kids have to have fun.”
AAA says the vast majority of travelers will arrive by road.
Eighty-five million people are expected to travel between December 23 and January 3, the main time for Christmas and New Year travel – most do so by car. LAX, however, says they feel safe in flight.
“Take all safety precautions. I was on the front line for a while for that, and this is the time I needed to take a short break before I got back on the front line, ”said Reggie Jones of Long Beach.
Meanwhile, a man with similar COVID symptoms died last week while on a Los Angeles flight.
You read that right.
These knight quotes are from people flying from the same airport to which a passenger who could have died of COVID-19 went last week. It seems more likely that it was indeed COVID-19, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is contacting United Airlines passengers and employees who may have been exposed during the event, according to Fox 11.
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A United spokesman told Fox 11 that the man had been told he had died of cardiac arrest, but passengers close to the sick man and his wife heard the surviving husband telling emergency workers that it was symptomatic and complains of shortness of breath before boarding.
Some United passengers on the flight contacted the airline via Twitter:
Another passenger who performed CPR on the man for almost an hour now feels “symptomatic”
The CDC is urging Americans to stay home this holiday season or, if you have to travel, take the test before boarding a plane and after you arrive. If you have been in contact with anyone suspected of having COVID-19 or if you have symptoms of COVID-19 alone, please, please, stay home – even if you have plane tickets to a fun place.
As of this writing, COVID-19 has killed more than 318,000 Americans since March. Washington Post put these numbers in perspective:
For all the efforts of some to reduce the number of deaths and to shrug their shoulders at the ever-increasing saturation of American hospital beds, our country loses an American every 33 seconds to covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus which appeared last year.
Every time you listen to Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” about five people die of the virus between the beginning and end of the song.
Stay safe and stay home.