Is it safe to go to a holiday get-together?

“This is not going to dig us out of what’s ahead this next month,” Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, warned about Thanksgiving and the coming holiday season.

If the preparations for vaccines don’t hit any major snags, we can realistically hope for large-scale distribution to begin in the spring.

But with exploding cases across the country

right now, we have to take immediate measures. The only way to drive down infection rates for now will be to avoid large indoor gatherings, wear masks, practice physical distancing and use other public health measures.