COVID Santa

Ho Ho Ho, Merry COVID! Santa and Mrs. Claus Expose Dozens of Georgia Kids to Coronavirus

When kids visit Santa, they come with a list prepared of all the gifts they want from Ol’ St. Nick and his magical toy workshop. One thing no one asks for when they sit on the big guy’s red-suited lap? COVID.

But children in Georgia may get just that for the holidays this year because a Santa and Mrs. Claus tested positive for coronavirus shortly after appearing at an annual Christmas parade in Ludowici, where they posed for pictures with around 50 kids. They were reportedly asymptomatic at the time.

“I have personally known both ‘Santa’ and ‘Mrs. Claus’ my entire life and I can assure everyone that they would have never knowingly done anything to place any children in danger,” said Long County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert Parker. He claimed the event was “one of the most important parts of their lives.”

Anyone could, theoretically, get coronavirus, not know it, and spread it to others unintentionally. So of course, the real Covidiots here are the parents who willingly sent their kids into a heavily populated event in the middle of a pandemic. (We’re going to guess none of them were wearing masks.)

But good luck speaking sense to coronavirus deniers or downplayers. “My children both had their picture made with Santa, and their smiles were bigger than any day when they head off to school, where the same risk of exposure exist,” Parker said. He and his cronies stood behind the decision “to move forward with these holiday traditions, and to bring some sense of normalcy to these trying times.”

We can’t recall a holiday tradition that involves getting so sick you could end up on a ventilator in the ICU, but OK, Parker. You do you. Just stay 6 feet away from us when you do.

Cover Photo: inhauscreative (Getty Images)

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