Stories like this are the main reason. Even if no one at the party gets very ill, the chance of further spreading it to others seriously scares me.
To answer the original question I don't plan to do anything for the holidays either. Our activities will be in-home with my wife and myself only. I don't really see that changing until vaccines are ubiquitous and the local R factor is well below 1. Unless the disease is eradicated which in the face of antivaxxers seems unlikely, I don't thinks things will ever entirely return to normal.
> Unless the disease is eradicated which in the face of antivaxxers seems unlikely, I don't thinks things will ever entirely return to normal.
I think you're way overestimating antivaxxers. They make a lot of noise on the Internet and in some media but they are far from being a majority. I'm confident we will be able to eradicate this virus with vaccines, like we have (mostly) done so in the past with diseases such as polio or tetanus.
No of course they're not a majority, but there are enough out there that it reduces herd immunity; I'm not epidemiologist so I can't really make an argument as to how much, but it will be > 0.
Yeah polio is unfortunately a perfect example of how one community for whatever reason choosing not to vaccinate leaves a reservoir for the disease and prevents total eradication. I'd be delighted if I'm proven wrong and we manage to eradicate Covid-19. I'm just personally skeptical compliance will be high enough to do it considering the anecdotal data just watching people wear masks now, which is frankly a much lower bar.
That process alleviates enough of the fear for us.
Edit: Why the downvote? This answers OP's question, and if I'm being downvoted due to concerns around spreading a virus then by all means, please feel free to start a discussion around why this option might be unsafe. Nobody in my family has traveled yet this holiday season and I'm not trying to be cavalier about this, so any additional input is welcome.
My wife has a pre-existing condition and we've been taking sheltering-in-place pretty seriously since the Bay Area shut down in mid-March. We've both been working from home and have only ventured out for walks, to sit in corners of parks away from everyone, or to go to a doctor. Groceries/food get delivered (I haven't even been into a grocery store since March, which feels weird) and we haven't hung out with friends in person or anything like that.
On the flip side, both of my parents are going into work and my mother works at a nursing home (which - so far - has not had a single case of the virus), so they come into contact with far more people during the day than we do. In addition, we have an eight month old which makes us doing a day-long road trip without stopping at a hotel next to impossible.
So since our contact with others remains next to 0, and my parents are totally cool with using the extra PTO to quarantine, get tested, then quarantine a bit more before driving down, we feel comfortable with it. Obviously I'm not going to view it through rose-colored glasses and act as though there's no risk, but there's a much, much smaller risk through this route than if they were to hop on a plane and come straight over sans negative test.
I carry rolls of dog poop cleanup bags. They make great temporary gloves that you can slip over your hand before touching the gas pump, and they slide off into the trash easily without touching the outside with the other hand.
Keep in mind that Clorox wipes still take 30 seconds to kill the virus (according to the manufacturer page). Most people don't tend to wait after disinfecting a surface before touching it, meaning the cleaning agent may become more diluted and less effective.
Better yet, disinfect and wear a baggie-glove while pumping. I don't disinfect the pump when wearing a plastic bag glove myself, but I do use hand sanitizer as soon as I'm done.
I want to have a big blowout party next year this time with all my friends and family, but in order to do that, this year has to be different.
This won't be our whole lives, this is temporary. One measly holiday season, that's what we're being asked to compromise. Surely we can manage that?
Think of our grandparents in WWII (or other wars) would have said: "just cancelling get-togethers for one single Christmas? And you're complaining? Ha! How many years we had to ration foods, gasoline, rubber, keep the lights off, curfews, etc?"
I weep for our society if we lack the personal discipline and civic pride to be able to handle this relatively limited set back responsibly.
The big extended family gathering (~40-50 people) at Christmas has already been cancelled.
Flying to Florida for a wedding in December, which I'm very unhappy with. But my wife's a bridesmaid, the bride's her best friend she hasn't seen for years, and the bride cut down on guests. She's doing a webcast for most family and friends. I wish they'd just delay it.
No Christmas gatherings.
And in a normal year, my wife would come down with bronchitis shortly thereafter. Recently we learned that's mostly due to a congenital immune deficiency that had been undiagnosed for years.
Given that, we'll of course be sitting this year out. We may do a drive-by visit to air-hug folks from the car or something, as long as they don't try to get to close to the window unmasked (as some have done in the past).
Make the choice that lets you sleep easy at night & be able to say "even though it was hard, I did the right thing." Standing up for what's right isn't always easy.
I'm afraid, quite a bit of people around me said that they will still do the same as usual. People that do care about Covid, that do talk about the risk and want to reduce the amount of propagation, but still won't make the concession of missing holidays. I'm from Quebec so it's probably that mentality that made us have more death per capita than the US.
Christmas is still being planned.
Almost none of my family have followed reasonable guidelines and I've seen snapchats, etc of them eating indoor at restaurants. There is zero chance I'm going in any of their houses even with a mask on.
Hell, I face a bigger risk coming in to work every single day because my employer insists on all hands on deck despite the pleading of my state's governor.
Maybe Goto the park a few times for my son.
Too much empathy to risk someone's life being selfish.
Pretty disappointing, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for seeing family.
In Denver, public and private gatherings are limited to 5 people. Statewide, gatherings limited to members from two households.
I'll wait for the vaccine before I pretend everything's normal again
There will be plenty of time next year when the vaccine comes out.
What about the news stories are overblown exactly? What's the motive for scaring people?