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Surging coronavirus cases in many areas of the country may make it unwise to hold large family gatherings at Thanksgiving this year, particularly if elderly relatives or out-of-state travel are involved, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, told “CBS Evening News” on Wednesday. “You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering, unless you’re pretty certain that the people that you’re dealing with are not infected,” Fauci said. (Noori Farzan, 10/15)

For months now, Americans have been told that if we want to socialize, the safest way to do it is outdoors. ... [But] next month, America will celebrate a holiday that is marked by being inside together and eating while talking loudly to old people. Federal and local officials have offered little guidance on whether and how people should be socializing this winter. That has left even medical experts confused about what’s safe, and what’s not. (Khazan, 10/12)

In other public health news on COVID-19 —

The “Diamond Sweet 16 Package” at the Miller Place Inn, an opulent Long Island catering hall, includes options like virgin frozen daiquiris and a make-your-own s’mores bar. But those treats are unavailable for now. The inn has closed temporarily and its owners have been fined after one such party there last month left 37 people infected with the coronavirus and forced over 270 to quarantine, officials said. (Slotnik and Gold, 10/14)

As scientists learn more about COVID-19, they’re finding that “superspreading events” — where dozens or hundreds of cases are tracked back to a single gathering or person — can play an outsized role in how infections spread. And stopping them could slow the pandemic. (Kossakovski, 10/14)

In one of the first large-scale studies of COVID-19 transmission in US childcare programs, no association was found between day care exposure and COVID-19 transmission risk for providers. The Pediatrics study analyzed online survey data from 57,335 childcare workers—identified through a variety of national childcare organization contact lists—who reported activity from Apr 1 to May 27. (10/14)

Ongoing illness after infection with COVID-19, sometimes called “long COVID,” may not be one syndrome but possibly up to four causing a rollercoaster of symptoms affecting all parts of the body and mind, doctors said on Thursday. In an initial report about long-term COVID-19, Britain’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) said one common theme among ongoing COVID patients is that symptoms appear in one physiological area, such as the heart or lungs, only to abate and then arise again in a different area. (Kelland, 10/14)

According to data collected by the Census Bureau, anxiety and depression rose even further among American adults in June and July, after the killing of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests. How American teenagers fared during this time is more of a mystery. With teens no longer going to school and few able to see friends, many people worried about how teens would adapt. However, teens’ experiences of these events might differ from adults’, just as responses to the Great Depression varied by age. (Twenge, 10/13)

KHN: Sleepless Nights, Hair Loss And Cracked Teeth: Pandemic Stress Takes Its Toll 
In late March, shortly after New York state closed nonessential businesses and asked people to stay home, Ashley Laderer began waking each morning with a throbbing headache. “The pressure was so intense it felt like my head was going to explode,” recalled the 27-year-old freelance writer from Long Island. (Pattani, 10/15)

In other public health news —

Although clear statistics are difficult to find, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says those working in farming are among the most likely to take their own lives, compared with other occupations. Recently The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting confirmed that some 450 farmers killed themselves in nine Midwestern states between 2014 and 2018 – a  number that is likely higher in reality, the group says, because many suicides are classified as farm accidents.(Hanes, 10/14)

Wildfires churning out dense plumes of smoke as they scorch huge swaths of the U.S. West Coast have exposed millions of people to hazardous pollution levels, causing emergency room visits to spike and potentially thousands of deaths among the elderly and infirm, according to an Associated Press analysis of pollution data and interviews with physicians, health authorities and researchers. (Brown and Fassett, 10/15)

Organized and efficient, L’Oreal Thompson Payton had a five-year-plan. Married at 27, she wanted to start having kids after she turned 30. Once ready, she downloaded an app to track her cycle, started prenatal vitamins, and picked out baby names. But the baby never came. Like 12% of American women of reproductive age, Thompson Payton, now 32, has impaired fertility. (McFarling, 10/14)