A: Yes, and the safest option for enjoying the Super Bowl this year is to watch with members of your own household.
Several of the Nerdy Girls are BIG football fans while others of us didn’t even realize it was Super Bowl weekend (oops!) but are still excited for the snacks and commercials. As much as we all want to get together, though, an indoor Super Bowl party with lots of close contact and yelling is unfortunately a recipe for a superspreading event.
For those who do get together to watch the game with people outside their household, gathering OUTDOORS (watching on a big TV or projector screen, for example), having households bring their OWN SNACKS and sit at SEPARATE TABLES, maintaining SPACE from others (even more so when eating, drinking or cheering), LIMITING the number of people in attendance and WEARING A MASK (or two) is a safer option compared to gathering indoors. So if you live where it is warm enough or are willing to brave the cold, consider this over gathering indoors.
While gathering indoors with those you don’t live with is a less safe option, in addition to taking the above precautions, cracking the window or running an air filter to improve ventilation can further help lower the risk of transmission in this setting.
Some other considerations…
If ALL the individuals who wish to watch the game together are FULLY vaccinated, risk of passing COVID-19 to each other will be MUCH lower (though not zero). Vaccinated individuals should still take steps to prevent spreading infection to unvaccinated individuals after gathering, however. See our prior post on this here.
If only SOME individuals who want to gather have been FULLY vaccinated, it is safest to still take the same steps to prevent transmission of COVID-19 that you would if no one was vaccinated yet.
See our prior post on this here.
Bottom line, to avoid making the Super Bowl a Super Spreading event tomorrow, the safest option is to stay home and cheer your team on with your own household. Otherwise, use as many of your SMARTS (S-space, M-mask, A-air, R-restrict, T-time, S-shots) as possible.
Stay safe, stay sane, and may your team win!
See CDC guidelines for safely enjoying the Super Bowl (and any small gathering) here.
For our prior post on double-masking, see here.
