Expert Advice: Should ‘Snowbirds’ Stay or Go?

Because they are older, this population is at higher risk of Covid-19 complications. Here’s how to think about heading North or staying put. For the millions of Americans who make the migration between North and South as the seasons change, the coronavirus outbreak has created a difficult dilemma: Are they better off staying where they are, or heading home? Because they are older, the so-called snowbirds, are at higher risk of Covid-19 complications.

Choosing to return home or to stay put if one is healthy is an individual decision, experts said. Though some, like Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, a medical epidemiologist and adjunct professor at Cornell University Public Health, came down adamantly on the stay side of the question. [Read the stories of older Americans facing the question of whether to return North.

] “Stay where you are, especially if your situation allows you to avoid contact with other people,” he said. “If you are perfectly safe quarantining where you are, that would be preferable than driving many hours in a car and risking exposure. ” For those who still aren’t sure, here’s what to take into account. That advice comes from Jack Caravanos, a clinical professor of environmental public health sciences at New York University School of Global Public Health.

Dr. Caravanos suggests making a list of all the possible human interactions — which proportionally increase the risk of infection — that you would experience where you are vacationing versus back home. “Shopping, neighbors, walking down your street, walking your dog,” Dr. Caravanos said.

“Then compare that to your destination site. Are you going to be around as many people? Is it likely that you are going to be surrounded by infected people? ” Saskia Popescu, a senior infection preventionist at HonorHealth, a nonprofit health care group based in Arizona, said it is crucial to assess the situation back home.

“Travel is one risk factor,” she said. “But are you leaving a place that has less transmission and less risk to go back home? That seems like it might be something to reconsider.