Coronavirus

Labor Day travel could help spread COVID, according to Mayo doctor

Published

3 years ago

September 2, 2021

Brad Williams

Plenty of families will want to hit the road for the last long holiday weekend of this summer.

With COVID-19 surging in the U.S. over the last few weeks, you may want to reconsider holiday travel.

That’s the advice of infection specialist Dr. Abinash Virk from Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

“I think travel should be limited … to absolute need for travel, because suddenly there is risk to both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals,” said Virk during an on

The doctor

Virk predicts that the coming flu season will be worse than a year ago, but that’s because COVID precautions were credited with keeping flu low in 2020.

“Going forward into the fall and winter, we’re all gonna be … well, not all, but there’s less masking and less consciousness about the infection transmission issues,” Virk said.

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.