Thanksgiving could be a coronavirus disaster for the US as Americans pack airports and seek a comforting family tradition

No matter what metric you use to measure it, the US is being swallowed by another wave, comparable in size and shape to the initial COVID-19 tsunami that caught the country off-guard.

The case count is up to 12.7 million, on the cusp of averaging 200,000 per day. The average daily death toll is higher than 1,500.

Hospitals are at full capacity. Medical staff are overworked. Protective equipment is running low.

States are tightening restrictions again, relying on the same mechanisms they have, on and off, for nine months.

The media’s gaze is shifting away from an election that won’t seem to end, writing headlines that rely on the same frantic messaging we’ve seen since March.

The country is reverting to familiar motions — the same ones that…