Halloween Public Health Amid Coronavirus Crisis A Cautionary Tale

DANVERS, MA — Danvers Board of Health Director Mark Carleo wants families to enjoy this Halloween season and have a little bit of fun on the holiday.

He also wants them to think of all the things they have sacrificed since March, and the steps they have taken to keep themselves safe amid the coronavirus health crisis, and keep all those things in mind when they decide how they are going to try to have that little bit of fun over the next two weeks.

"The thing that we're trying to get people to remember these days is that we're not out of this yet," he told Patch recently. "We are working on getting out some information (to residents reminding them) that this isn't over. In order to avoid rollbacks with all the phased-in reopenings, and having to get back into quarantines, and all of the loneliness that we had in the spring and summer, we have to be careful.

"We want to avoid that — because that's what it's headed toward."

Eight months into the health crisis, and with hopes of a vaccine and more available working therapies perhaps not all too far off in the future, North Shore towns face a tenuous time where the growing desire of some to be "done with the virus" is colliding head on with colder temperatures forcing people inside where it is believed to be more contagious, and the holiday season where the temptation to be together is stronger than ever.

Many who endured the isolation of the spring, and the outdoor distancing of the summer, began to draws lines in the sand of compliance when communities across the state contemplated canceling neighborhood trick-or-treating this year. Some, like Worcester, Lowell and Fitchburg, did in the name of public health.

But most, like Danvers, have chosen to let it go ahead with the hopes that families will heed the warnings when it comes to group sizes, best practices in handing out candy and avoiding the types of indoor parties that have been the cause of a good amount of the surge seen in Danvers and across the state in recent weeks.

"Those numbers are starting to climb," Carleo said, "and it's making us concerned. I think the last thing anybody wants to see is a return to spring. So mask up."

He said, anecdotally, many of the recent cases in Danvers have come from family and social gatherings where folks let their guard down and hang out together like it's 2019.

"No social distancing, no masks, no surprise," Carleo said.

Yet, while some might argue the risk factors could have added up to adding Halloween to the list of 2020 coronavirus casualties, Carleo said he believes it's best to let people know as much information as possible — including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that traditional, door-to-door trick-or-treating where kids reach into a bowl of candy is a "high-risk" holiday activity — and let them make up their own minds about what’s safe and what maybe should be reconsidered.

"We frame things in terms of risk," Carleo said. "There is almost never a situation where there is not any risk. With coronavirus, that is very much the case. People will make their own decisions with how much risk they are willing to take.

"Sometimes when you come out with something that is prohibitive you set yourself up for conflict."

Carleo said the goal is to reduce the risk across the community by getting the most amount of people as possible to closely adhere to the guidance.

"Let's look at the flu," he used as example. "The more people we get vaccinated against influenza the better chance we have of experiencing less disease, less death, less economic impact. If we're capturing a portion of the public, we are limiting what we can. That we can’t always do something about everything it doesn’t mean we can do nothing.

"In general, when you provide the public with the information it needs to make their own choices we generally see good choices."

He said Danvers has seen that with mask wearing as the town has not instituted the "mandatory mask zones" of neighboring towns like Salem and Swampscott, but has a big sign up downtown advising the practice, and a developed culture of voluntarily mask wearing in public when social distancing is less achievable.

Carleo said the town is applying the same principle to Halloween in a way that he hopes will engender caution and compliance without a backlash.

"No, we're not going to cancel Halloween," he said. "If you tell them 'No Halloween,' there is going to be that pushback. That's being American. Since the founding of the country, and even before that, with any type of authoritarian rule people will push back against that.

"The better advice it is give them information that will help them minimize the risk. There is no such thing as no risk unless you stay locked in your house by yourself. But people have endured a lot, so I think everybody knows it's all in our collective best interest to do what we can."

More Patch Coverage: Danvers Urges Caution As It Gives Trick-Or-Treating Green Light

Danvers Coronavirus Test Rates Surge For Second Straight Week