Tips for a Safe Fourth of July Weekend during the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Robin G. Jordan

On holiday weekends Americans like to cut loose. As a consequence they are apt to throw caution to the wind and to act recklessly. There is typically an increase in drinking and drug use on holiday weekends and corresponding increases in traffic fatalities, homicides, child abuse, and domestic violence. When I was involved in child welfare work for the state of Louisiana, public holidays (and full moons) were marked in red on our calendars. There was invariably an uptick in referrals on those occasions.

In the midst of a pandemic we can anticipated that there will be further increases in COVID-19 cases that will be traceable to what people did and did not do over a holiday weekend. In Kentucky where I live gatherings of up to 50 people are now permitted. Restaurants and bars have also been allowed to open. While the governor of Kentucky has been urging the wearing of face masks and the observing of social distancing and other precautionary measures at these gatherings, a mixed response is highly likely, based upon the behavior of Kentuckians to date. The reopening of bars has been implicated in a surge of COVID-19 cases in Texas.

I have put together a list of tips for a safe Fourth of July weekend during the present emergency. Yes, folks, we are still in the midst of a public emergency despite the decisions of a number of states to reopen. The COVID-19 coronavirus has not gone away. Most of these suggestions are what I would regard as common sense.

1. Avoid gatherings which are held an enclosed space and in which the participants are not wearing face masks and observing social distancing. Such gatherings have a strong likelihood of become a super-spreader event.

2. Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages or taking drugs that impair one’s judgement. When under the influence people are apt to do things that might otherwise not do. Staying sober enables people to keep their wits about them and avoid circumstances that might endanger themselves and, or others.

A young man of my acquaintance sustained a serious brain injury when he dived off a pontoon boat into shallow water. He and his fraternity brothers had been drinking beer. He ignored the old adage to look before you leap. He dived headfirst into a ridge of gravel lying just below the surface and visible from the pontoon boat.

When they are under influence or intoxicated, people are more likely to dismiss the need for precautionary measures and their drinking companions are more likely to encourage them to do so.

3. Avoid family get-togethers, including those which are held outdoors. Family members and other relatives are apt to disagree on the need for precautionary measures such as face masks and social distancing. The result will be a gathering where some people are playing it safe and others are not—a definite opportunity for the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus which will take advantage of every opportunity to spread.

Those who dismiss the need for such measures may needle those who take the pandemic with more seriousness and may pressure them into not wearing a mask or not keeping an appropriate distance between themselves and others.

The relatives who dismiss the need for precautionary measures may have traveled from states and counties that are experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases. They may have contracted the virus but experienced only mild symptoms and therefore chose not to defer their plans to attend the family get-together.

4. Avoid traveling from a state or county that is experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 coronavirus cases. Avoid traveling to a state or county that is experiencing such an uptick. The best thing to do is avoid unnecessary travel altogether.

5. Avoid sustained contact with anyone who is not a member of one’s immediate household and who is not wearing a face mask even though he or she is standing or seated six feet (or two meters) away.

Depending upon the type of face mask, face masks offer a measure of protection against the inhalation of airborne COVID-19 coronavirus particles. Their chief purpose, however, is to reduce the exhalation of such particles.

Duration and intensity are factors in the transmission of the virus.

An individual who is infected with the virus and who is not wearing a face mask will be exhaling droplets containing the virus. While he may maintain an appropriate distance of six feet from other people, he will be creating a cloud of these particles around himself through coughing, sneezing, loud talking, or shouting. These particles can travel as much as sixteen feet.

The length of time these particles will remain suspended in the air depends on a number of variables such as air movement. However, one study found that the longer one had contact with such an individual even though he was six feet away, the more likely one would breathe in the aerosols containing the virus that he was breathing out.

The same study also did not rule out the possibility that one might become infected from a cloud of droplets lingering in the air if one remained in that cloud for any length of time even though the individual who produced the cloud was no longer present.

6. Wear a face mask and observe social distancing and other precautionary measures. For maximum safety “layers of intervention,” precautionary measures used in combination with each other, work best. No one measure is an impenetrable barrier against the COVID-19 coronavirus. However, when they are used together, they significantly reduce the risk of transmission of the virus—from oneself to other people and from other people to oneself.

7. If you must go out, keep on the move. Do not linger in one place for any length of time.

8. Avoid public restrooms. They are often poorly ventilated. The toilets frequently do not have lids. They are apt to accumulate concentrations of COVID-19 coronavirus particles from urine and feces as well as exhaled breath. Some people will go to the restroom to cough or sneeze. In the UK and the European Union governments are now tracking the spread of the virus from sewerage and wastewater.

9. Avoid eating food from the same container as other people.

10. Clean and sanitize surfaces that are likely to accumulate virus particles.

11. Wash your hands frequently and repeatedly. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, using plain soap and water. Counting to 20 in thousands or rhinoceroses is equivalent to 20 seconds. “One thousand (or rhinoceroses), two thousand (or rhinoceroses), three thousand (or rhinoceroses)…” and so on. I picked up that tip from watching a military training film for throwing hand grenades and an early Dr. Who episode. Use hand sanitizer that contains 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol as its active ingredient. Did I mention “wash your hands?”

12. When confronted with circumstances for which no guidance has been offered, it is better to exercise prudence and err on the side of caution than put ourselves, our loved ones, and our community at risk.

As Dr. Antony Fauci reminds us, “We are all in this together.” We are not going to check the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus and the human suffering and death that the virus is causing until we join ranks and work together for its eradication.