653010 external_news 1637261762 1637261762 <![CDATA[How to have a COVID-safe Thanksgiving gathering]]> As the country’s second COVID-19 Thanksgiving approaches, experts say the landscape of risk has changed. New variants have emerged, and tens of thousands of new infections are still occurring every day in the United States. Vaccines are available for everyone age 5 and older, but only 59 percent of people in the U.S. are currently fully vaccinated, and some populations remain at risk due to underlying conditions or compromised immune systems. Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure, says last Thanksgiving and Christmas coincided with a Covid-19 wave across the country. Weitz's Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool has added smaller group sizes so people can gauge their chances of being exposed at holiday family gatherings. 

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