Columbia virologist: ‘Don’t make any plans’ for summer travel

With the coronavirus outbreak continuing without a clear end in sight, Columbia University virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen is cautioning against any long-term travel plans for the summer months.

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“The only thing I’m telling people for summer is ‘don’t make any plans,'” Dr. Rasmussen told KIRO Radio’s Gee and Ursula Show. “Don’t make plans to take a big international vacation; don’t make plans to go on a huge vacation anywhere.”

Despite a timeline from some modelers indicating that social distancing measures in some states could be lifted by June, she remains skeptical related to how safe traveling will be by then.

“I don’t know what lifting stay home orders in Washington, for example, is going to look like,” Rasmussen noted. “But I think that it’s at least safe to say that we probably won’t be able to do the typical summer travel vacation activities that many of us are used to doing.”

For states that might not be able to safely open any time soon, she warns residents to “prepare for the possibility” that some sort of a lock down might still be in place by the summer months.

This comes while some states like Georgia and South Carolina have begun to reopen salons, barbershops, movie theaters, and other businesses despite warnings from health experts about the relative risks of doing so without expanded testing availability.

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Dr. Rasmussen shares those concerns as well.

“I think it’s incredibly dangerous to be opening up those businesses, in particular things like gyms and beauty salons, where people are going to be in very close proximity, potentially for an extended period of time with other people,” she said. “It’s a really bad idea, in general, to open those businesses right now with essentially no restrictions and no guidance for physical distancing.”

Listen to the Gee and Ursula Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.