MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For almost nine months, Doctors Manoj Jain, Jeff Warren and Stephen ThrelkelD have been three of the health specialists sounding the alarm on how to protect Memphis families from the spread of COVID-19.
“Thanksgiving is going to be super spreader event of unclear proportions,” Jain said.
We wanted to know what are these health experts doing this thanksgiving to keep their own families safe?
“We will have many a time to spend with family, but this holiday season is not the time,” Jain said.
Dr. Jain an infectious disease physician and COVID task force member said his family’s Thanksgiving will be different.
“The kids are together. The couples are together. We share our ideas, thoughts and our stories, but not this year,” Jain said.
Prior to traveling to Florida to pick up his mother-in-law, Dr. Jeff Warren, the Memphis city councilman, family physician, and COVID task force member said his family and others living on his street got pod tested for two weeks in a row.
“Now we’re down here doing the same thing we do in Memphis,” Warren said. “We’re going to the grocery store.. not really going to restaurants because we don’t know which ones are safe and keeping our social distance from people.”
Warren recommended others families do the same.
“The last thing in the world you’d want is get a whole bunch of people together and have the oldest people, your grandmother die because you came in and were infectious and didn’t know it,” Warren said.
Dr. Steve Threlkeld, an infectious disease specialist, at Baptist said he and his wife will have a quiet Thanksgiving.
“It’s just too important and too dangerous, and we want our family members to be here at Christmas, and we’ll connect with mom over technology, and she embraces technology,” Warren said.
It is advice he hopes others will listen to in hopes of being around to see another holiday.
“We want everybody to be around and safe because the vaccine will probably be delivered in December and people may have the vaccine in them by Christmas,” Threlkeld said.
