That aside, this year, the prime minister has already given Christmas parties the go-ahead – although a government minister had science on her side when she advised against festive kissing this Christmas.
Experts agree this would be a risky business – and not the only one.
“Kissing is likely to pose a risk as you are inevitably in very close contact with each other”, said Catherine Noakes, professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds, and a member of SAGE.
“However, sharing the same air and interacting together in a poorly ventilated room with multiple people is probably a higher risk because in most events this happens far more frequently than very close contact”, she added. “Inhaling the virus is a key risk, and so taking steps to reduce the number of people in a space and ensure that it is well ventilated are likely to be of greater benefit”.
Prof Susan Michie, director of the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change and a member of the behavioural science advisory group Spi-B stressed the role of tiny viral aerosol particles in the transmission of Covid, warning these can hang in the air for many hours.
“The biggest danger at Christmas parties is therefore people talking loudly, singing and laughing, and this may be from infectious people without symptoms”, she said.
Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, agreed that a Christmas schmooze is not the only risk to consider – he highlighted dancing being also problematic because of heavy breathing.
“This is not a matter of being the fun police”, he added. “You can just as easily catch Covid at a well-attended funeral wake as at a party”.
Just stay home during Christmas seems to be the scientific advice. Poor Britons!
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