佛罗里达州坦帕市-有些人年纪大了，他们认为圣诞节还剩很多。其他人则试图保持长途恋情。在过去的九个月中，有些人只是渴望与人类的联系。

尽管有公共卫生专家呼吁他们留在家里，以避免加剧肆虐的冠状病毒大流行，这种大流行已经在全国范围内造成320,000人死亡，但数以百万计的美国人还是在圣诞节和新年前夕旅行。

本周在机场的许多人对是否应该去某个地方进行了漫长而艰苦的思考，并找到了使其合理化的方法。

“我妈妈值得。她需要我的帮助，” 34岁的珍妮弗·布朗利，从拜尤拉巴特里，阿拉巴马州，谁在坦帕机场等候飞往俄勒冈看到她的母亲，谁只是失去了一条腿一个渔夫说。“我知道上帝救了我。他不会让我生病的。”

布朗利说，她会“出于对其他乘客的尊重”而在飞机上戴上口罩，但她的免疫系统和耶稣基督会保护她。

根据美国运输安全管理局的数据，在周五至周二之间，超过500万人通过了该国的机场安全检查站。

与去年同期相比下降了约60％。但这每天约有100万人次，或与感恩节前几天美国所看到的情况差不多，当时一些美国人同样无视警告，最终助长了全国范围的激增。

米歇尔·洛佩兹（Michelle Lopez）想知道她从休斯顿飞往弗吉尼亚州诺福克（Norfolk）的决定是否做出了正确的决定，在那里她的男友在海军服役。

“我不想走了，但是很久没见到他了，”这位24岁的年轻人说。他最后一次见面是在五个月前，当时她正试图维持他们的关系。

在飞行之前，洛佩兹接受了COVID-19测试，但测试结果为阴性。但是她乘坐的两架飞机几乎没有社交距离。一些乘客摘下口罩吃喝。并非每个人都使用航空公司提供的湿巾来清洁扶手和托盘。

她说，她在芝加哥奥黑尔机场的停留同样令人不安。它挤满了人，从太多的尸体中感到发烫。有些人的鼻子下面戴着口罩。洛佩兹说，在浴室里，并不是每个人都洗手至少20秒。

她在医生办公室担任医疗助理。她将必须在家中隔离10天，然后再次接受测试，然后再返回工作。

75岁的琼·克鲁克（Joan Crunk）和80岁的丈夫吉姆（Jim）来自密苏里州Grandview，星期二在堪萨斯城机场等着从乔治亚州萨凡纳（Savannah）起飞的女儿和女son，并计划待在一起直到1月2日。距离他们见面已经一年了。

琼·克鲁克（Joan Crunk）说，他们谈论了是否聚会。

“这很难，而且我们已经老了。我丈夫今年80岁。一年到明年都没有保证。”她说，“银铃”在机场的扬声器上弹奏。

美国外科医生杰罗姆·亚当斯（Jerome Adams）鼓励人们只与家中的人一起庆祝，但补充说，如果他们不能遵循指导，则应采取预防措施，例如确保良好的家庭通风。

他说：“我们不能让疲倦导致我们在这个假日季节做出错误的决定，最终使我们退缩，尤其是当我们非常接近使自己和其他所有人越过终点线时，”他说。 COVID-19疫苗接种。

总体而言，美国汽车协会（AAA）预计，在周三至1月3日之间，将有约8500万人出行，其中大多数人是开车。这将比一年前下降近三分之一，但在大流行期间仍是一个很大的数字。

珍妮·皮埃尔（Janeen Pierre）周二在整理一堆行李，并把两个小女孩送上了北卡罗来纳州夏洛特机场的洗手间，然后登上飞往佛罗里达州奥兰多的航班。

皮埃尔和她的丈夫原本计划在迪斯尼游船上度过圣诞节，但这种流行病改变了行程，改为在迪斯尼主题公园度假。

迪斯尼退还了我们所有的钱，但美国航空公司却没有。因此，我们将度过一个非常迪士尼的圣诞节，”她说，并补充说，她的女儿几乎无法忍受参观灰姑娘城堡的兴奋。

她仍然说：“随着新菌株的问世，我不知道这是否是最明智的主意。”

48岁的医生多琳·林赛（Doreen Lindsay）在亚特兰大的一家中转站上空，从圣地亚哥地区到田纳西州的孟菲斯旅行，在那里她与一所野战医院的COVID-19患者一起工作。她计划和她的儿子一起度假。

“确实是我儿子和我自己。是他和我。我们经历了很多事情。他很兴奋。你相信吗？她说：“有一个18岁的男人高兴地让他的妈妈回家。”

Lindsey说，完成任务后，野战医院的工人被隔离了，并接受定期检查，包括在离开前四天内进行了四次检查。

至于她的旅行，“不仅是'哦，娱乐'。” 我要回到我的家了。我不会再去了，”她说。“风险必须物有所值。”
 

'Mom's worth it': US holiday travel surges despite outbreak

TAMPA, Fla. -- Some are elderly and figure they don’t have many Christmases left. Others are trying to keep long-distance romance alive. Some just yearn for the human connection that’s been absent for the past nine months.

Millions of Americans are traveling ahead of Christmas and New Year’s, despite pleas from public health experts that they stay home to avoid fueling the raging coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 320,000 nationwide.

Many people at airports this week thought long and hard about whether to go somewhere and found a way to rationalize it.

“My mom’s worth it. She needs my help,” said 34-year-old Jennifer Brownlee, a fisherman from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, who was waiting at the Tampa airport to fly to Oregon to see her mother, who just lost a leg. “I know that God’s got me. He’s not going to let me get sick.”

Brownlee said that she would wear a mask on the plane “out of respect” for other passengers but that her immune system and Jesus Christ would protect her.

More than 5 million people passed through the nation’s airport security checkpoints between Friday and Tuesday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

That is down around 60% from the same time last year. But it amounts to around a million passengers per day, or about what the U.S. saw in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, when some Americans likewise disregarded warnings and ended up contributing to the nationwide surge.

Michelle Lopez wondered if she made the right decision after flying from Houston to Norfolk, Virginia, where her boyfriend serves in the Navy.

“I didn’t want to go, but I haven’t seen him in so long,” said the 24-year-old, who last saw her boyfriend about five months ago and was trying to maintain their relationship.

Before flying, Lopez took a COVID-19 test that came back negative. But the two planes she took offered little room for social distancing. Some passengers removed their masks to eat or drink. And not everyone used wipes that airlines offer to sanitize armrests and trays.

Her layover at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport was equally unsettling, she said. It was packed with people and felt hot from too many bodies. Some people wore their masks below their noses. In the bathrooms, not everyone washed their hands for at least 20 seconds, Lopez said.

She works as a medical assistant in a doctor’s office. She will have to quarantine for 10 days at home and get tested again before heading back to work.

Joan Crunk, 75, and her husband, Jim, 80, of Grandview, Missouri, were at the Kansas City airport Tuesday, waiting to pick up their daughter and son-in-law, who were flying in from Savannah, Georgia, and planned to stay with them until Jan. 2. It had been a year since they had seen each other.

Joan Crunk said they talked a lot about whether to gather.

“It is very hard, and we are older. My husband is 80. There is no guarantee from one year to the next,” she said as “Silver Bells” played over the airport speakers.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams encouraged people to celebrate only with people in their households, but added that if they can’t follow the guidance, they should take precautions, such as ensuring good home ventilation.

“We can’t let fatigue cause us to make poor decisions this holiday season that end up making us backtrack, especially when we are so incredibly close to getting ourselves and everyone else across the finish line,” he said, referring to the start of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Overall, the AAA projected that about 85 million people will travel between Wednesday and Jan. 3, most of them by car. That would be a drop of nearly a one-third from a year ago but still a big number in the middle of a pandemic.

Janeen Pierre was juggling a pile of luggage Tuesday and getting her two little girls to the bathroom at the Charlotte, North Carolina, airport before they boarded their flight to Orlando, Florida.

Pierre and her husband had planned to spend Christmas on a Disney cruise, but the pandemic changed their itinerary to ringing in the holidays at Disney’s theme parks instead.

“Disney refunded all of our money, but American Airlines did not. So we’re going to have a very Disney Christmas,” she said, adding that her girls could barely contain their excitement about visiting Cinderella’s Castle.

Still, she said, “With the new strains coming out, I don’t know if this is the smartest idea.”

Doreen Lindsay, a 48-year-old doctor, was on a layover in Atlanta, traveling home to Memphis, Tennessee, from the San Diego area, where she worked with COVID-19 patients in a field hospital. She planned to be with her son for the holidays.

“It’s my son and myself, really. It’s he and I. We’ve been through so much. And he’s excited. Can you believe it? An 18-year-old man happy to have his mom coming home,” she said.

Lindsey said workers at the field hospital were isolated when they completed the assignment and were tested regularly, including up to four times in a span of four days before leaving.

As for her travels, “it’s not just ‘oh, recreation.’ I’m getting back to my place. I’m not going to another,” she said. “The risk has to be worth the benefits.”