The Transportation Security Administration has announced that 846,520 people were screened at American airports on Christmas Eve.
That completed a week of air travel numbers that totaled 7,189,521, peaking at 1,191,123 on Dec. 23, the highest daily total since March 16.
Although the figure for Dec. 24 was just 42% of the number posted on that same day a year ago, 2,009,112.
Experts are concerned that all of the people still traveling and interacting with others in airports, inside homes and elsewhere throughout the country during the holiday period will result in a significant wave of COVID cases being diagnosed in the last days of December and into January.
However, skeptics point out that COVID cases in the United States had risen by about 20% prior to Thanksgiving and continued rising at that same rate following that holiday despite the Sunday after Thanksgiving having been the previous busiest travel day during the COVID pandemic.
But some say that those figures do not tell the entire story.
Infection rates afterwards could have instead flattened in areas where they continued to rise, and that continued rise was a result of Thanksgiving-related travel and family gatherings.
Regardless, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been pushing for Americans to travel as seldom as possible, stating that doing so can increase the spread of COVID and that “postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others.”
However, not only did 7 million people fly in the week prior to Christmas, but the vast majority of them will presumably fly home soon as well.
It should be noted that one masked air traveler passing COVID to another masked air traveler is virtually zero.
Nevertheless, that does not take into account people interacting with others outside of airplanes while traveling, particularly if that is done while maskless.