On Monday, The George-Anne opened up a google form to ask, “Did you practice social distancing and follow COVID guidelines last week?”. 81.8% of people said yes while 18.2% said no. We then left an open response section where we asked those same people to explain their answer.

“My Thanksgiving plans were cancelled because the friends who were going to host had COVID-19 in their family, so I had an outdoor, socially distanced meal with another friend who also had to cancel original plans due to COVID-19 exposure in a Georgia Southern classroom.”

“We stayed here instead of traveling because the CDC recommended it but also because although we could quarantine for two weeks prior to Thanksgiving, the rest of our family did not and we did not want to risk getting covid from them.”

“Despite having a brand new giant house, we only had 1 other person that did not live in our home. A total of 4 in the gathering.”

“I did celebrate Thanksgiving but only with immediate family who already live in town and haven’t traveled in months. I didn’t participate in in-person Black Friday shopping either.”

“Nah I didn’t because the constitution and our current president, who is incidentally my favorite president, declared it within my human rights to convene in times of crisis. We are all family and share everything, laughter, jokes, stories, and yes, accidentally, disease. It is constitutional and very American to celebrate in difficult times. I can’t sacrifice this tradition. The risk is a small price to pay because the leader of my country, Mr. Donald J. Trump has survived it, thus can we to. My granpabbi’s hickory hemlock turkey and grandmammi’s cranberry mistletoe pudding was certainly worth it. I quarentined for 2 days and am also covid-free. Win win to me.”

“Was only around close family”

“I went back to my hometown and stayed with my grandparents. It’s a small everybody-knows-everybody town. There’s not much to do. I mainly stayed at home except for going grocery shopping.”

“We remained socially isolated for 14 days prior to Thanksgiving so that we can celebrate with family but the two households still sat at separate tables in adjacent rooms well over 6 feet apart AND we were masks when not eating. We have two medically vulnerable family members so we wanted to make sure no illness was brought in to them.”

“I was only around a few people and we were practicing socially distancing.”

“I have an autoimmune disease and do not want to be at risk for getting covid.”

“I made sure to get tested when I traveled and reintroduced myself to my parents. I also wore a mask around all my friends from back home while doing activities that kept us at a distance from each other as well as avoided large crowds.”