This is the Coronavirus Briefing, an informed guide to the pandemic. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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In a raw, empathetic and optimistic address to Americans, President-elect Joe Biden urged them to “hang on” as they faced a long, hard winter and with coronavirus cases spiking across the country.
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The U.S. added more than one million cases in each of the past two weeks for the first time.
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Health officials are urging Americans to skip “Drinksgiving.”
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Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and vaccines in development.
A Thanksgiving like no other
Americans are preparing for what will be, for many, one of the strangest and most anxiety-filled Thanksgiving holidays of their lives.
They have agonized over travel plans, the size of guest lists, testing, ventilation and the health and safety of their friends and family — all while watching coronavirus cases and deaths skyrocket around them.
The holiday arrives as the surge in the Midwest this fall has grown into a coast-to-coast disaster and new infections soar in cities like Baltimore, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Miami. Across the country, the number of new cases has never been higher, with more than 175,000 a day, on average over the past week. Deaths topped 2,200 yesterday, the most since early May.
Public health experts are worried about a calamitous post-Thanksgiving bloat in infection numbers — and that may still happen — but a pair of surveys from The New York Times suggests that Americans are taking the threat from gatherings seriously.
In a survey of more than 150,000 people, conducted by the global data and survey firm Dynata at the request of The Times, only around 27 percent of Americans said they planned to dine with people outside their household. That number aligns with the results of a separate informal Times survey of epidemiologists. Out of 635 public health experts, only around 21 percent planned to celebrate Thanksgiving with people outside their household.
The Dynata survey, though, found big regional differences. In parts of Nevada, only about 9 percent of people planned to eat with someone outside their household, while in parts of North Carolina, more than 60 percent did.
There are also partisan splits similar to what we saw in surveys about mask-wearing this summer. People who identified as Democrats were much less likely to be planning a multi-household Thanksgiving.
As for what lies ahead for the country, that depends, in part, on what happens tomorrow.
With vaccines still months away, and hospitals in many areas already full, public health experts and local government officials continue to beg people to celebrate responsibly. The country is on pace to reach 13 million known cases in the coming days.
“Thanksgiving hasn’t happened yet,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. “People can still change their plans and change the outcomes. We don’t have to have superspreader events at homes.”
Enjoying a scaled-down holiday
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the nation’s top public health experts agree: Thanksgiving should ideally be with just your immediate family this year.
If you plan on staying home tomorrow, here are a few ways to make your holiday shine nonetheless.
Scale down: “Tiny is the new big for Thanksgiving 2020,” writes Melissa Clark, a Times food columnist. She has heaps of advice for downsizing traditional Thanksgiving recipes — like cooking turkey thighs instead of a whole bird or serving pumpkin sticky toffee pudding in place of pie. (Take a look at her suggested menu for two and other more manageable recipes.) Small-scale cooking is the perfect opportunity for children to start developing cooking skills. Here’s how to get them involved.
Keep a tradition alive: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is still taking place, albeit without a live audience and squeezed onto one block, instead of two miles. But for those enjoying it on television from home, the experience should be joyous. It runs from 9 a.m. to noon in all times zones.
Spice up your video chat. Here are some great conversation starters that have nothing to do with the virus (How are you dressing for the office or at home now?) and five games you can play with relatives before or after dinner.
Get in the holiday spirit while you cook (or wait for takeout): Ira Glass selected seven great episodes of “This American Life” for Thanksgiving listening, including what he called “my favorite interview, possibly my best, I’ve ever done.” We also have these best Thanksgiving movies to bring the holiday’s food and family traditions right to your screen.
Take a nap: Our restaurant critic Pete Wells makes the case for destigmatizing the post-turkey crash and shares these six steps to a great Thanksgiving nap.
Resurgences
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A company in Malaysia that makes disposable gloves for protection against the coronavirus has been hit by a major outbreak among its workers, many of them foreign laborers who live in crowded dormitories.
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The N.F.L. has moved the Thanksgiving night showdown between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers to Sunday afternoon after nearly a dozen players and staff members on the Ravens tested positive for the virus.
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The C.D.C. is urging Americans to avoid all travel to Mexico as the virus surges there.
Here’s a roundup of restrictions in all 50 states.
What else we’re following
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The New York Times created a tool where you can build a dashboard and track coronavirus cases in the places you care about.
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With the virus spreading rapidly in much of the U.S., overwhelmed local health officials are scaling back contact tracing efforts or even abandoning them altogether, saying they can’t keep up.
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A Chinese firm is seeking permission to market a vaccine in the country before it has completed trials.
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Doctors and nurses on the front lines are grappling with Covid combat fatigue.
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Filipinos are just 4 percent of the nursing population in the U.S., but make up nearly one-third of deaths among nurses, CNN reports.
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“I know I’m going to be lonely”: New Yorkers plan solo Thanksgiving holidays.
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Another member of President Trump’s campaign legal team, Boris Epshteyn, tested positive for the coronavirus.
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Nick Saban, the University of Alabama’s head football coach, tested positive, for real this time.
What you’re doing
We asked families to share how they’re adapting their Thanksgiving traditions this year. We included some of their responses in our newsletter last week, but the responses kept coming in. Here are some we particularly liked.
All year I look forward to Thanksgiving with my husband’s family, where we honor traditions we’ve built over the years. We make a delicious cornbread stuffing that tastes even better as leftovers. We spend all day cooking, drinking lattes, then switching to wine midway through the afternoon. This year, of course, those plans have changed. My sister-in-law, her husband, and our niece will be staying at their home in Denver, while we make the short drive to my husband’s parents’ house in San Jose, where we will eat outside, sit 6 feet apart, and wear masks when not eating. It wouldn’t be our family Thanksgiving without that cornbread stuffing, and I will making it with as much love as always.
— Karsyn Bailey, Foster City, Calif.
When we moved back to Vermont, we made a local community Thanksgiving feast our holiday tradition. Volunteers gather before Thanksgiving to prep vegetables, cook and organize the day. On the day itself tables are set in a church school cafeteria with volunteers to serve, wait tables and wash dishes. Musicians sign up to perform, so local performers entertain the diners: the elderly, the unhoused, the food-insecure, and townspeople who want to join the community at table. Not this year, though. Folks are cooking the food at home and then taking it to crews who will dish it up into deliverable containers and take it to the elderly and food-insecure sheltering at home. And all of us will celebrate community — masked, distanced, and nevertheless together in spirit. The music? In our hearts.
— Joyce Vining Morgan, Vt.
Our family of three usually spends the day with immediate family, and the day after with extended family. The holiday is marked with amazing food (and lots of it), games, and little kid antics. It all adds up to a lot of laughter and love. This year, we’re planning on a day at home with the three of us, cooking our own meal, relaxing, watching movies and most likely napping. It will be much quieter and more low-key than our usual holiday, and not without a measure of wistfulness for what could have been. But we’d rather have the quiet now, knowing that we are doing our part to protect each other, than planning funerals and memorials down the line.
— Stephanie Davis-Kahl, Bloomington, Ill.
Let us know how you’re dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter.
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Carole Landry contributed to today’s newsletter.
Email your thoughts to briefing@nytimes.com.
The Coronavirus Briefing will be off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. Before we go, we’d like to say that we’re thankful for the time you spend with us every day. Have a safe holiday, and we’ll see you again on Monday.
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