Taylor Allen needed to be a accountable traveler, however she was discovering it troublesome.

Late final week no less than seven individuals Ms. Allen knew in Brooklyn posted on Instagram that they’d examined optimistic for the coronavirus. She had not seen any of them in individual. However after creating an intense headache and runny nostril on Friday, she canceled her Saturday morning flight to Jacksonville, Fla., the place she was planning to see her mother and father and grandparents.

Two at-home exams — one Friday and one Saturday — got here again unfavourable. However Ms. Allen, 22, who’s absolutely vaccinated however not but boosted, needed extra official assurance earlier than she rebooked her journey. On Sunday night, lengthy after her scheduled appointment at an pressing care clinic in Crown Heights, an worker instructed her and the 30 or so different individuals ready for exams within the bitter chilly that they’d have to return again at 8 a.m.

“I actually don’t wish to put anybody at risk,” stated Ms. Allen, who left the clinic with plans to return once more the following day.

Even because the variety of coronavirus instances is skyrocketing in some elements of the nation, largely pushed by the Omicron variant, the vacation journey rush seems unstoppable. On Friday, Los Angeles Worldwide Airport reported its busiest day since early 2020, and on Sunday, 2.1 million individuals handed by means of airports in the USA, almost twice as many as at the moment final 12 months.

For many who are decided to maintain their journey plans, determining how to take action responsibly has by no means been extra complicated. A part of the issue is that testing has been exhausting to acquire in a well timed manner, notably in hard-hit cities like New York. One other key problem is that many individuals plan to remain in a home with absolutely vaccinated family and friends. Now, they’re studying that vaccination is much from a assure that they received’t infect each other. So what can vacationers do?

1. Get a booster

Just one in six People have obtained a booster, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Absolutely vaccinated people and not using a booster are no less than twice as prone to check optimistic as those that obtained a booster.

In case you plan to journey over the approaching weeks and months, and also you’re already absolutely vaccinated, top-of-the-line methods to be a accountable traveler is to get a booster, stated Jeffrey Kahn, the director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

When it comes to timing, the information present that the optimum immune response comes about two weeks after the booster, in keeping with Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and drugs on the Columbia College Mailman Faculty of Public Well being in New York. However many will see some safety inside a couple of days, different consultants famous, so getting a 3rd shot at the moment might nonetheless profit these touring over the vacations.

2. Think about the worst-case state of affairs

When deciding what’s accountable when it comes to vacation journey, Kelly Hills, a co-founder of Rogue Bioethics, a consulting agency in Boston, advises desirous about “ethical harm” and asking whether or not you might be mentally ready for the implications when you infect a susceptible individual.

That doesn’t must translate into canceling plans, however it might encourage you to put on an N95 as an alternative of a do-it-yourself masks on a airplane or to take a check though it’s a trouble. If you’re indoors, unmasked round many individuals within the days main as much as the journey, you may additionally wish to pay additional to ebook a separate home or motel room, reasonably than staying with household or pals.

“‘I don’t wish to be a spreader’— that must be the motto at the moment,” stated Leonard J. Marcus, the co-director of the Nationwide Preparedness Management Initiative at Harvard College and the director of an initiative targeted on public well being on flights.

Dr. Marcus stated that although he’s not conscious of any knowledge suggesting youngsters are prone to turn into contaminated on planes, he advises mother and father to not fly with unvaccinated youngsters — if attainable — till extra is thought about Omicron.

“If it had been my grandchildren, I might postpone,” he stated. Usually, if somebody is sporting a correct masks on a airplane, the danger of being contaminated must be low as a result of the air flow system is so good, he stated.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s prime infectious illness official, instructed CNBC that he feels secure having his grownup youngsters fly to see him over the vacations. He additionally famous that they’re vaccinated.

3. Check as near the gathering as attainable

Testing in lots of elements of the nation is difficult proper now.

“On a one to 10 scale of exhausting, it’s a ten,” stated Mary Mathurin, 51, exterior a testing website in Brooklyn on Sunday night. As she waited for her title to be known as, her cellphone emitted maintain music from a name with one other facility that had but to ship her P.C.R. outcomes from a number of days earlier. After round 70 minutes, the decision dropped. A couple of minutes later, a affected person care assistant on the Brooklyn website instructed her the positioning couldn’t accommodate her. She was alleged to fly to St. Lucia the following morning and was not sure what she was going to do.

Many pharmacies and on-line retailers have bought out of at-home exams. The White Home is planning to make 500 million free at-home exams out there, however that received’t occur till January. For many who do handle to get a equipment, use it as near your departure date as attainable, a number of consultants stated.

“The nearer you might be to the occasion, the higher and extra correct will probably be,” stated Dr. Lin H. Chen, a professor at Harvard Medical Faculty and the director of the Mount Auburn Hospital Journey Drugs Heart in Cambridge, Mass.

Dr. Chen advised taking an at-home antigen check the day of the gathering. (If an individual exams optimistic at any level, she suggested not going to the occasion and getting a P.C.R. check for affirmation.) If persons are staying in a home collectively for an prolonged interval, testing periodically all through their keep is advisable, Dr. Chen stated. That is notably essential if somebody just isn’t vaccinated or boosted, or has been uncovered to somebody who has examined optimistic, different consultants famous.

Sure, everyone seems to be confused

Ms. Hills, the bioethicist, stated that it’s comprehensible that many individuals are confused by having to make what must be public well being choices.

“We must be getting extra steerage,” she stated, noting that many state and federal companies provide completely different recommendation.

On the testing website in Brooklyn, a number of vacationers echoed this level and lamented that public well being authorities weren’t making what they thought of accountable journey — getting examined earlier than visiting household — simpler.

Compounding these frustrations, some vacationers stated, is the sense that the burden is on them to determine what’s socially accountable and epidemiologically secure after which to persuade their household and pals of the insurance policies they’ve give you. One lady, who declined to make use of her title as a result of she didn’t need her household to establish her, stated she now not feels snug flying along with her 2- and 3-year-old youngsters after studying over Thanksgiving that her family members would fly even when they examined optimistic.

Somewhat than battle with them about what’s applicable or fear that the individuals sitting subsequent to her share her household’s method — and will infect her or her youngsters, main them to contaminate her father — she goes to remain residence this Christmas.