'Don't share your air': 3 California systems launch campaign to discourage holiday gatherings

California health systems are teaming up for a new marketing campaign to discourage travel and gatherings for the holidays.

Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, Sutter Health and California's health department are working together to spread the message: "Don't share your air." Health system officials hope the campaign will keep people from gathering for the holidays in the next few weeks. Data shows many Californians traveled and gathered for Thanksgiving, and COVID-19 cases are spiking across the state, according to the report.

The campaign includes a video of front-line workers describing their experiences during the pandemic and urging people to wear a mask, wash hands frequently and avoid gatherings.

"If people gather for the upcoming holidays, we are going to cripple our hospital system," Pravin Acharya, MD, an emergency medicine physician with Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente, says in the video.

Bobby Singh, a nurse with Sacramento-based Sutter Health, describes some of the more severe respiratory symptoms of COVID-19: "That feeling of not being able to catch your breath — Imagine doing that while you're trying to breathe through a straw that's in your throat in your mouth. That is the horrifying reality that we have to deal with."

Hans Vega, RN, of Dignity Health Bakersfield (Calif.) Memorial Hospital, tells video viewers: , "I'm doing all this work here for your family, for your friends, for people you may know and some people don't take it seriously out there. Sometimes it feels like a slap in the face."

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