By Barbara Goldberg

(Reuters) – Tanya Primiani hosts 12 guests at her Silver Spring home for Thanksgiving on Thursday. This is a lively scene that she enjoys welcoming, especially after last year’s COVID-19 epidemic reduced the number of attendees.

They are driving from Montreal to meet their parents, who will be crossing the newly reopened U.S./Canada border. All guests have received their COVID-19 shots, including her two sons aged 7 and 10.

Primiani said, “I love cooking for people. There will be so much gratitude in this year’s holiday menu.

American families love to gather multiple generations for Hanukkah, Christmas and Thanksgiving. This is possible because of the widely available COVID-19 vaccinations.

About 59% of Americans are fully protected against this deadly disease. Early this month, vaccines were approved for children aged five to eleven. Last week, nearly 10% of eligible kids had received the first of their two shots. Jeff Zients, White House Coronavirus Coordinator, said that 2.6million of them had received their first dose.

Some are not vaccinating their family members or consider COVID-19 a grave health risk.

Connie Perkins and her three children will be leaving their traditional Thanksgiving dinner with their relatives to travel for a week to camping sites far away from Galveston County in Texas. This is to prevent any conflict over their vaccination status.

Perkins stated that everyone on the husband’s side is currently vaccinated for COVID-19. However, none of Perkins’ five family members are because they don’t believe these shots to be safe.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccines are safe and receive intensive surveillance.

“We’re not going to present the opportunity for that to even come up and make anyone uncomfortable,” Perkins said.

Family members who have received their vaccines can be safely vaccinated, according to public health officials. They recommend that families avoid gathering indoors due to the high number of COVID-19-related cases in certain areas and the fact that young children may not be vaccinated or aren’t yet eligible, and they also suggest taking precautions like going outside and having rapid screenings for sickness before the event.

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. official on infectious diseases, children under 4 years old who are not vaccinated are better protected when they’re surrounded with vaccinated adults.

Joseph Kyle, public school historian, stated that his extended family must take COVID-19 test before going to Thanksgiving at his Maplewood, New Jersey home. Penelope, Penelope’s 10-year-old sister, won’t be vaccinated until the following day.

Kyle stated, “To be extra careful, we will insist on everyone being tested in advance of holiday dinner.”

Penelope stated that she was excited to listen again to heated political conversations over dinner with her family, and called last year’s Thanksgiving meal with only her four-person family “boring.”

“It’s more fun, more happy when there’s more people there,” she said.

Robin Cutlip, from South Orange in New Jersey said that she will attend the large Thanksgiving family gathering, which is known for its delicious feast and board games. However, her 10-year old daughter, Robin Cutlip, has not received a vaccine and her two nieces (12 and 7 years respectively, are still unvaccinated).

According to her, Americans should never be forced to vaccinate everyone if they want to see a return to normal.

“I’m of the mindset that this is here to stay,” Cutlip said. Cutlip said, “We must be careful but not reckless. We also have to go back to our daily lives.” There are always going to be people who aren’t going to get vaxxed.”