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Pre-Tour COVID strategy?

AlanS

So far it seems the Tauck "bubble" has been highly successful protecting Taucktourians from contracting COVID and testing positive during the current tours. Despite that, many folks are concerned about testing positive on tour and what will happen. However, how many are taking pre-tour precautions? All the best protection and precautions on tour won't help if you never get to go in the first place!

As I was reading the COVID statistics in the news today I started thinking about a pre-tour strategy and precautions. What about getting tested a week or so before departure, then essentially self-quarantining, or at a minimum significantly reducing your exposure to others, until you head to the airport? It won't guarantee that you won't be exposed and contract COVID enroute and therefore be unable to start or finish the tour, but at least it should guarantee you'll get to the destination area/country.

Comments?

Comments

British

Yes Alan comments of course.
This morning the suggestion from Drs was to test immediately before you go anywhere to an indoor gathering.
Here’s an example of real life that happened to us just last night. ….There are thirty homes in our development. The large majority are the original owners just like us, so last night we went to the development Holiday party. Several people had pulled out. We really wanted to see people. All are vaccinated, I don’t think everyone had had boosters. One friend, her husband has cancer, he’s on chemo, she didn’t wear a mask. He barely leaves the house. Former neighbors were there, the college age daughter has cystic fibrosis, she has been in hospital several times this year, and I think she told me she had had Covid…she wasn’t wearing a mask. There were probably more college age kids there than adult of similar age to us, can’t imagine what these kids have been up to.
It was crowded, no windows were open. My husband and I were the only people wearing masks. When we wanted to take a sip of drink, we stepped back from everyone, took a gulp and put our masks back on immediately. I don’t know what neighbors really thought, but they know my hubby has a pharmaceutical background and when people did comment we told them we had an Unvaccinated four year old grandson we wanted to spend Christmas day with, and we are going on our first tour abroad on January 10th.
We have two, two packs of self antigen tests, hard to come by, we are saving those to take on vaccination.
What are other people doing?

Smiling Sam

AlanS - That pre-tour strategy also often must include the pesky 72 hour or less test before arrival at the first tour stop.

Ken from Vegas

Yep. We isolated before our Canada trip. Too much at stake not to.

Sealord

We have no pre-tour strategy. We get tested and we go. In the mean time we have at least one social gathering per week, and we only wear masks in places that require them … that we cannot otherwise avoid. We are triple vaccinated as are all of our social contacts. If we get covid, we will deal with it. We are done with it …

alidor30

Also done! Got 3 shots, wear a mask and social distance. Done everything I can do and I’m just going to live my life!

Claudia Sails

I suspect the strategy/precautions will depend a lot on current conditions and requirements (at both travel ends).

As to what we did last summer -- in Jun our local numbers were down and mask mandates had ended. We went back to largely pre-covid normal. In particular going back to in person church services, not wearing masks indoors, etc. In July we flew to NY state to spend a week at a lake house well away from crowds. By early Aug numbers had ticked up a bit but we were still scheduled to fly to europe at the end of of the month so we decided to be more cautious. Back to zoom church, limited shopping trips, opted for outdoor settings, etc. We weren't so much worried about severe illness, but after waiting so long for out tours we didn't want to screw it up that close to the finish line by popping positive.

Our next bit of travel where I might be concerned won't be until the end of Oct 2022. Who knows what the world will be like then. Too far away to even think of a strategy beyond keeping up with what is happening then.

British

For those of us about to go on trips, and to celebrate with unvaccinated loved ones, we have to be extra cautious. I’m for the first time in this entire Pandemic, beginning to actually know people who have had Covid, had boosters and are testing positive, people who I would say are sensible, four of them in New York alone, never mind other locals here in PA.

AlanS

Claudia Sails
11:01AM
. . . . We weren't so much worried about severe illness, but after waiting so long for our tours we didn't want to screw it up that close to the finish line by popping positive.

My sentiments exactly.

I hope we reach a/the peak soon and that it will drop sharpely! 85 days til J&E.

British

Peak! I was talking to another retired nurse like me last week. She was saying that this is a generation thing, that is, we will be dealing with this for years. I do now tend to agree with her. Too many dumb people around. We will be dead before it goes away….yep, the kids will be millionaires with the money I saved for travel and can’t get out of the country to spend it. At least they inherited the love of travel and will get out there and see more of the world.

Smiling Sam

What does, “We are done with it” mean? If they come out and say another booster is recommended in the Spring/Summer since you’re Done with it, you won’t get any further boosters? Or does it mean you will do the minimum required to travel and nothing more, which could be a moving target based on where you are traveling.

NancyCohen

I agree with British. During tge first year plus of Covid, I didn’t know anyone who was infected. Now I hear of infected friends, family and acquaintances almost daily. All have been vaccinated and mostly boosted but many have let their guard down with social indoor gatherings with masks. Some have cold like symptoms - others suffer with fever and body aches. I’m in northern NJ where masks are highly recommended in stores. But in recent weeks, there are more and more without masks. Restaurants (indoor) are busy. We cannot let our guard down … I was so optimistic we had rounded the corner but not yet. We need to mask up!! And get vaccinated!!

British

I got a flag for my comment, maybe it was because I used the word dumb, maybe it could have been the word selfish instead.
Flagger, flag away.

OurTravels34

I'm not an expert by any means but from what I read the second year of the last pandemic of 1918 was the hardest and more people died during that specific time. We are currently in the second year and, again from reading, it will hopefully taper off from this point on. Fingers crossed.
It's kind of ironic that those that choose not to get vaccinated were probably vaccinated for TB, polio, measles, mumps and chicken pox. We all had those vaccines growing up and didn't make a fuss about it. Hence, those diseases are eradicated and don't exist anymore. It's not rocket science.
My point of view is life is just too darn short to say "oh I'll wait until the world gets better or that every duck is in the right row". I say this because I've had cancer and I'm young or at least I think I am. If anyone has had any life threatening disease or anything of the sort, you will know exactly what I mean. Nothing is taken for granted. I wish I had a crystal ball, but no one knows what tomorrow will bring. I love to have trips to plan and to look forward to. I'm looking forward to Bucharest to Budapest next May. Regarding medical advice, I listen to my physician husband, a graduate from Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Stanford.

British

Our experiences this year with travel have been less lucky…..first, we are about to go to.Costa Rica in less than two weeks. Costa Rica does not require any testing to enter the country and if you are vaccinated you no longer need insurance to cover Covid hospitalization costs. …..so we may be going there already positive and so could our tour companions
We don’t eat out much anyway and didn’t for a long long time in early pandemic days. Since, every place we have eaten in has had very well spaced out tables.
We have taken four flights, on two of them, people sitting next to us were not wearing masks. The first time, after the flight attendant had asked the man to put on his mask, she whispered to me that I should call her if he took it off again, he did, I was so scared he would create a scene, I said nothing! In general we saw quite a few people on the planes who had masks under their noses. Orlando airport was extremely busy and I would say only half the people were wearing masks.
We have been to the Movies quite a few times, most have had maybe four other people in there….except Spider-Man but everyone spaced out well…we kept masks on that day.
Been to the theater, center city Philly, everyone was wearing masks except the two woman who came in after the lights went down, yep next to us! No masks, feigned ignorance at interval when my hubby asked them to put masks on, even though everyone had gotten emails about masks…were quite rude to him, left, but came back with masks on.
We went to a neighborhood gathering before Christmas, we were so desperate to see everybody. House packed out with people, we were the only ones wearing masks….yes, they were well education sensible people. Their college age kids were also there in abundance, it’s a great neighborhood. I think they thought we were nuts and weird, but we kept masks on, stepped back from people while we took a sip of drink and then made sure our mask was snug beforehand approaching people.
Testing…..impossible to get testing round here right now unless you wait in line for hours. Even urgent care won’t test you unless you have symptoms You can’t buy tests anywhere. If Costa Rica changes it’s rules, we are screwed.
Spoke to a friend in England yesterday, everyone gets tested there all the time and it’s free….there was a shortage of appointments and testing kits for about half a day this week and everyone was in an uproar. Of course Latersl flow tests are popularly there too.
So many people I know of are now testing positive….it appears to be the younger people, by which I mean parents with young children and teenagers. My son’s best friend has a new baby with Covid.
Waiting for the next variant……

AlanS

Our activity has been similar to British- we still go to movies- in our little town there is only 1 - 4 people in the theater at most until yesterday when there were more including in the ticket and popcorn lines. We eat out regularly- we wear masks going in and coming out and where we eat wait staff is masked. So far so good. But, COVID appeared closer to home.

On Thursday, just before XMAS our daughter-in-law, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, but works as an elementary school teacher, experienced possible COVID symptoms. On Friday she and our son took at-home antigen tests- she tested positive. Later that day they went for a PCR test but results would not be available for 2 - 5 days. We had planned to drive there on Friday and come home on Sunday. We were packed and the car loaded with gifts for our grandchildren. All Stop!

We agonized on Friday and over night about what to do. We eventually decided to drive there early on XMAS morning and come home that evening. By this time she only had sniffles. She stayed masked and social distanced as much as possible the whole time. Subsequently the result of her PCR test, which came back yesterday, was positive but our son was negative. Five days hence she was the only one to get COVID, and based on the most recent CDC info, we were are likely not infected. In hindsight we would do it all again, but maybe go on Friday so we could see the first round of gift opening on Saturday morning.

There is no guarantee that we will test COVID-free until then nor even during our upcoming J&E, but we can't wait! **75 days to go! **

British

We will travel. Only concerned about having to quarantine in a foreign country. At the start of the Pandemic when were marooned in a tiny hotel bedroom, one small chair, not allowed to leave the room, have to eat the pasta or pizza on offer, three days was like an eternity, I didn’t even know what hour it was, never mind the day. If I hadn’t had a whole book to read between only being able to watch twenty four hour news in English, I would have gone nuts.
Some people who had similar experiences, many far worse than mine, may be more cautious about travel out of the country. What about those Tauckers who flew to New Zealand and were sent straight home again! What about being on that first cruise ship that couldn’t dock for days and days, their risk tolerance may be way different.
Cathy, you have been lucky to pick a trip that has not been canceled. I know many of yours were canceled, but not one of our tours went ahead.
If all our planned tours go this year and next, we be looking at South America again, new itinerary that goes to both Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego, so I’ll be asking you for tips Cathy.
I just had to refill my meds and there is a message from our pharmacy to say they are not testing, have no testing kits and won’t be getting any more in the foreseeable future. Our next foreign tour is my much mentioned Israel and Jordan, then in the fall, after Alaska, it’s Singapore and Bali…..neither looking good right now.

SGF

So glad we were able to squeeze in our Morocco trip in November; now things are far worse. We visited our son and DIL and their newborn baby 4 days ago, and my son has now tested positive for Covid. So we are quarantined at home. Which is the least of our concerns. I'm petrified for that week old baby and mother.

On top of everything, they've had to postpone the bris, and we won't be present. I'm heartbroken.

This is a very virulent strain of the virus, and despite all of our precautions, we couldn't escape it.

Please...be extremely careful if you do decide to travel.

JanP

We are trying to live life as normally as possible. We are triple vaxed. We occasionally go to restaurants always masked as are the staff, the few movie theaters we’ve been to have been poorly attended — 4-5 others in the theater with us. We spent Thanksgiving in California (we’re from Chicago area) with my unvaccinated son and his unvaccinated family fortunately with no ill effects (he and his family routinely mask and are tested 1-2 times weekly). Everything today is risky, but at 70, we’re not willing to put our lives in hold any longer. We follow all of the local requirements and will do whatever it takes to travel safely and live life as close to normal as possible. If something should happen, we’ll deal with it then. We have Best of Hawaii in early February, Israel-Jordan in late April (hopefully), and Kenya-Tanzania in mid-August. Fingers and toes crossed that this latest surge dies down after the holidays. We can’t predict the future, but we can hope and plan for a better one than we’ve experienced in the past two years. Have a very happy new year, and hopefully 2022 will allow all of us to get back to doing the things we love.

British

Read this? Even I think this was overkill, couldn’t they put her at the back of the plane and double mask her?

Covid: Woman isolates in toilet for five hours after positive mid-flight test https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59833262