What a public health expert is grateful for this Thanksgiving
As Americans head into the Thanksgiving holiday, I know everyone talks about being grateful, and that can feel rote or even cruel during a pandemic when so many and much have been lost. But I am truly grateful.
I am grateful for the scientists who worked so hard for decades, hoping that their research would one day be useful to the world; for the people who kept my elders safe during the pandemic; for my family, friends and spiritual leaders who reminded me we've fought big battles before; for my child's teachers, coaches and administrators who kept educating middle schoolers -- who were so incredibly lost in the middle of the pandemic. I'm grateful for the courage of people who lost loved ones and spoke up so that we'd remember them.
I'm also grateful for CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, who has so many medical and CNN network responsibilities, and still finds the time to do a weekly Q&A with me. She helps us all sort out what we can safely do -- for school, visiting family, celebrating the holidays and more. I wanted to ask her what she's thinking about this Thanksgiving.
Wen is an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She is also author of a new book, "Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health."
CNN: What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving holiday?
Dr. Leana Wen: There is so much that I'm deeply grateful for. First, I'm grateful for my family. My husband, Sebastian, and I have two lovely little kids, a 4-year-old son, Eli, and the "pandemic baby" Isabelle, who is now a year and a half.
Sebastian contracted Covid-19 last year, just a month before the vaccines were made available. He became quite ill, though he was never hospitalized, and it has taken him months to regain his sense of smell and taste. He still has some brain fog and fatigue, now nearly a year after contracting coronavirus. We feel very grateful that he survived Covid-19, and we mourn the over 750,000 Americans and millions of people around the world who have tragically succumbed to the pandemic.
Of course, we are very grateful to the international collaboration of scientists who have worked together to deliver on the incredible medical advance of the coronavirus vaccines. These vaccines are saving countless lives and are allowing so many families to now get together over the holidays.
I also want to express my gratitude to public health workers. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other frontline health care workers deserve our thanks, and so do those who work tirelessly in city, county and state health departments around the country. These are individuals who were already overstretched and overworked before the pandemic, who then had to take on the responsibility of setting up testing, standing up contact-tracing operations, then running the most expansive vaccination effort in recent history.
On top of that, they battle constant misinformation and disinformation. Many public health officials have faced harassment, even physical harm, just for trying to do their job. I give thanks to them, and to all the essential workers and their families who have sacrificed so much over the last two years.
CNN: How will you celebrate with your family?
Wen: This year, we have a series of Friendsgivings that Sebastian and I will be going to with our kids. On Thanksgiving Day, we are getting together with a group of other families to celebrate. All of us have extended families in other parts of the country and the world, and so it has been a tradition to get together with one another. The plan is to gather primarily outdoors, and we will also plan to do rapid tests the day of, so that we can reduce our risk of getting together if we need to move indoors.
I also want to express my gratitude to public health workers. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other frontline health care workers deserve our thanks, and so do those who work tirelessly in city, county and state health departments around the country. These are individuals who were already overstretched and overworked before the pandemic, who then had to take on the responsibility of setting up testing, standing up contact-tracing operations, then running the most expansive vaccination effort in recent history.
On top of that, they battle constant misinformation and disinformation. Many public health officials have faced harassment, even physical harm, just for trying to do their job. I give thanks to them, and to all the essential workers and their families who have sacrificed so much over the last two years.
CNN: How will you celebrate with your family?
Wen: This year, we have a series of Friendsgivings that Sebastian and I will be going to with our kids. On Thanksgiving Day, we are getting together with a group of other families to celebrate. All of us have extended families in other parts of the country and the world, and so it has been a tradition to get together with one another. The plan is to gather primarily outdoors, and we will also plan to do rapid tests the day of, so that we can reduce our risk of getting together if we need to move indoors.
That weekend, we will also be seeing other friends, including to host playdates in our backyard. We certainly miss having family nearby but are very thankful to this incredible community of wonderful friends in our area.
CNN: What precautions will you still take?
Wen: Because we have two children too young to be vaccinated, we are still trying to gather primarily outdoors. That's particularly important because we will be seeing multiple families, and many of them also have young, unvaccinated kids. Some of our closest friends have kids who are just getting their first doses of the vaccine since they are in the 5-11-year-old age range, and we want to be careful for them -- and for our kids.
There is one occasion where we will be going indoors for a part of the celebration. Everyone doing so is reducing their risk for three days beforehand, and then taking a rapid test that morning. This doesn't remove all risk but does help to reduce the risk.
CNN: How do you keep the pandemic in perspective?
Wen: At this point in the pandemic, I think it's important to figure out how to live with Covid-19. We have to accept that we're not going to eradicate the coronavirus any time soon, but we also have to figure out a way to live with it so that it no longer prevents us from doing the things we most love.
Vaccines are key to living with the virus. There is a lot that we can do this Thanksgiving that we could not last year. We are not going to eliminate risk from Covid-19, but we can reduce it -- and manage it -- to keep our families safe while also regaining a sense of normalcy.
CNN: What do you wish for the coming year?
Wen: First, I wish for vaccines for younger children, so that Eli and Isabelle can have the protection afforded by the vaccines. Our family is still living with so much caution because of our children, and I cannot wait until our kids are able to be vaccinated. Hopefully, this will happen in the first quarter of the new year, and we can enjoy a much more normal spring.
Second, I wish for a lot more availability of Covid-19 testing. Testing is also key to us living with the coronavirus. I hope the United States learns from many parts of the world that have made rapid, home testing the norm, such that everyone getting together for dinner and social events will test right before seeing one another.
Third, I wish that we could take public health out of the partisan and ideological crosshairs. Issues like masking, vaccination, testing and treatment should not be political. I hope we can get to a place of valuing and truly investing in the lifesaving and life-changing work of public health.
公共卫生专家感谢这个感恩节
当美国人进入感恩节假期时，我知道每个人都在谈论感恩，而在大流行期间失去了太多太多东西时，这可能会让人感到生搬硬套甚至残忍。但我真的很感激。
感谢几十年来辛勤工作的科学家，希望他们的研究有朝一日对世界有用；为在大流行期间保护我长辈安全的人们；为了我的家人、朋友和精神领袖，他们提醒我我们以前打过仗；感谢我孩子的老师、教练和管理人员，他们一直在教育中学生——他们在大流行中非常迷失。我感谢那些失去亲人并站出来让我们记住他们的人的勇气。
我也很感谢 CNN 医学分析师 Leana Wen 博士，她肩负着如此多的医疗和 CNN 网络责任，并且仍然抽出时间每周与我进行问答。她帮助我们所有人解决我们可以安全地做的事情——学校、探亲、庆祝假期等等。我想问她对这个感恩节有什么看法。
Wen 是乔治华盛顿大学米尔肯研究所公共卫生学院的急诊医师和卫生政策与管理教授。她还是一本新书“生命线：医生为公共卫生而战的旅程”的作者。
CNN：你对这个感恩节有什么感激之情？
Leana Wen 博士：我非常感激。首先，我感谢我的家人。我的丈夫塞巴斯蒂安和我有两个可爱的小孩，一个 4 岁的儿子 Eli 和现在一岁半的“大流行婴儿”伊莎贝尔。
塞巴斯蒂安去年感染了 Covid-19，就在疫苗上市前一个月。他病得很重，尽管他从未住院过，而且他花了几个月的时间才恢复了嗅觉和味觉。在感染冠状病毒近一年后，他仍有一些脑雾和疲劳。我们非常感谢他从 Covid-19 中幸存下来，我们哀悼超过 750,000 名美国人和全世界数百万人不幸死于大流行。
当然，我们非常感谢科学家们的国际合作，他们共同努力实现了冠状病毒疫苗令人难以置信的医学进步。这些疫苗挽救了无数人的生命，让如此多的家庭现在可以在假期里聚在一起。
我还要向公共卫生工作者表示感谢。医生、护士、药剂师和其他前线医护人员值得我们感谢，在全国各地市、县和州卫生部门不知疲倦地工作的人也值得我们感谢。这些人在大流行之前就已经不堪重负和过度劳累，然后他们不得不承担起进行检测、开展接触者追踪操作，然后进行近代历史上最广泛的疫苗接种工作的责任。
最重要的是，他们与不断的错误信息和虚假信息作斗争。许多公共卫生官员仅仅因为试图完成他们的工作而面临骚扰，甚至是身体伤害。我感谢他们，感谢所有在过去两年中做出巨大牺牲的重要工作人员及其家人。
CNN：您将如何与家人一起庆祝？
文：今年，我们有一系列的 Friendsgivings，我和塞巴斯蒂安会和我们的孩子一起去。感恩节那天，我们和一群其他家庭聚在一起庆祝。我们所有人在该国和世界的其他地方都有大家庭，因此彼此聚在一起是一种传统。计划是主要在户外聚集，我们还将计划在当天进行快速测试，以便在需要移动到室内时降低聚集的风险。
我还要向公共卫生工作者表示感谢。医生、护士、药剂师和其他前线医护人员值得我们感谢，在全国各地市、县和州卫生部门不知疲倦地工作的人也值得我们感谢。这些人在大流行之前就已经不堪重负和过度劳累，然后他们不得不承担起进行检测、开展接触者追踪操作，然后进行近代历史上最广泛的疫苗接种工作的责任。
最重要的是，他们与不断的错误信息和虚假信息作斗争。许多公共卫生官员仅仅因为试图完成他们的工作而面临骚扰，甚至是身体伤害。我感谢他们，感谢所有在过去两年中做出巨大牺牲的重要工作人员及其家人。
CNN：您将如何与家人一起庆祝？
文：今年，我们有一系列的 Friendsgivings，我和塞巴斯蒂安会和我们的孩子一起去。感恩节那天，我们和一群其他家庭聚在一起庆祝。我们所有人在该国和世界的其他地方都有大家庭，因此彼此聚在一起是一种传统。计划是主要在户外聚集，我们还将计划在当天进行快速测试，以便在需要移动到室内时降低聚集的风险。
那个周末，我们还将见到其他朋友，包括在我们的后院举办游戏约会。我们当然想念附近的家人，但非常感谢我们地区这个令人难以置信的好朋友社区。
CNN：你还会采取哪些预防措施？
文：因为我们有两个孩子太小，不能接种疫苗，所以我们仍然试图主要在户外聚会。这一点尤为重要，因为我们将看到多个家庭，其中许多家庭还有未接种疫苗的年幼孩子。我们一些最亲密的朋友的孩子在 5 到 11 岁的年龄范围内刚刚接种了第一剂疫苗，我们希望为他们和我们的孩子小心。
有一次我们会在室内参加庆祝活动。每个人这样做都是在提前三天降低风险，然后在那天早上进行快速测试。这并不能消除所有风险，但确实有助于降低风险。
CNN：您如何看待大流行？
文：在大流行的这个阶段，我认为弄清楚如何与 Covid-19 共存很重要。我们必须接受我们不会在短期内根除冠状病毒这一事实，但我们还必须想办法应对它，使其不再妨碍我们做我们最喜欢的事情。
疫苗是与病毒共存的关键。这个感恩节我们可以做很多去年做不到的事情。我们不会消除 Covid-19 的风险，但我们可以减少它——并管理它——以确保我们的家人安全，同时也恢复正常感。
CNN：你对来年有什么期望？
文：首先，我希望给年幼的孩子接种疫苗，让伊莱和伊莎贝尔能够得到疫苗所提供的保护。由于我们的孩子，我们的家人仍然非常谨慎地生活，我不能等到我们的孩子能够接种疫苗。希望这会发生在新年的第一季度，我们可以享受一个更加正常的春天。
其次，我希望 Covid-19 测试有更多的可用性。检测也是我们与冠状病毒共存的关键。我希望美国向世界上许多地方学习，这些地方已经使快速在家测试成为常态，这样每个人聚在一起吃晚饭和参加社交活动都会在见面之前进行测试。
第三，我希望我们可以将公共卫生从党派和意识形态的十字准线中剔除。掩蔽、疫苗接种、检测和治疗等问题不应该是政治性的。我希望我们能够重视并真正投资于公共卫生领域的挽救生命和改变生活的工作。
