A Guide to Mixed-Vaccination-Status Holidays

This time last year, health officials were advising Americans to stay home for the holidays. The CDC cautioned against travel; Anthony Fauci announced that he would be spending Christmas apart from his children for the first time in 30 years. But that grim advice was accompanied by hope for a normal 2021 holiday season: Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for emergency use in adults on December 11, 2020, with Moderna’s following close behind.

Now 61 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, and more than 70 percent have received at least one dose of a vaccine. These numbers mean that millions of American families can feel a whole lot safer than they did last year about gathering for the holidays.

But U.S. vaccination rates still leave a lot of room for unprotected family members or friends at celebrations, unwrapping gifts or ringing in the new year together—including children under 5, who still aren’t eligible for any COVID-19 vaccine. While vaccinated people with other vaccinated people, and unvaccinated people with other unvaccinated people, “I think once you start adding in extended families … mixed vaccination status would become