WHEELING, W.Va. (WTRF) – Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family and friends, but this year there’s the added worry that part of the tripledemic will be there too.
Cases of the flu are already on the rise and so is RSV. With COVID added to the mix, health officials say still get together, but be as safe as possible.
The flu vaccine takes two weeks to take effect, so it’s too late to be protected before Thanksgiving. However, Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department Administrator Howard Gamble still recommends getting the flu and COVID vaccines to give you protection during the rest of the winter.
His best advice for holiday celebrations is not to go if you are sick.
Whether it’s flu, COVID, RSV, pneumonia we feel that we don’t have it and as a result we go and feel like we’re going to be ok. It’s just my seasonal sniffles or I had this couth or it’s an allergy or it’s a change in temperature. Get tested.
Howard Gamble, Health Administrator, Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department
Gamble said once you put other people at risk, it just spreads the viruses within the community.
If anybody is sick either with a traveling family or family destination you may want to rethink how you’re doing your holiday event. Whether the sick is flu, COVID, pneumonia, RSV, these things can pass respiratory based very quickly around to other individuals.
Howard Gamble, Health Administrator, Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department
He explained that if we don’t get vaccinated or slow the spread by protecting ourselves, there will continue to be spikes in case numbers.
