I think you should go trick-or-treating this year. After all, a big part of costumes and trick-or-treating is wearing masks, so if people wear fun ones that match their costumes that will give them protection when they are collecting their candy. If your mask is too much at some point you can go to an isolated area and take a mask break, then join with your family again and continue.  When you are not collecting your candy you are walking around. While you are doing this you can stay away from other people and only be around people who you are comfortable with. If people do that then everyone would be at a safe distance. After all, COVID-19 is spread by people not wearing masks or not social distancing so if you do those things it will not spread easily.

Once you are done trick-or-treating you can either sanitize your candy, let it sit untouched for two weeks, or throw away/give away what candy you do not like and sanitize the rest. For some families that have younger children sometimes all the fun is getting dressed up, walking around with your friends and getting to see other costumes. In that case and many others,  the candy just sits in a bin for months then gets thrown away next Easter. So, if you are not going to eat the candy you should consider donating it to organizations. Some collect candy to give to military and first responders. An organization called Operation Gratitude is doing a Halloween candy give back program where you can donate and candy you will not eat or do not need. 

If you choose to not wear a mask, not social distance, or even if you are unsure if you have any germs, you should consider quarantining from other people for around two weeks. At two weeks after exposure is when you begin to show symptoms of COVID-19. So, if you do not have symptoms you most likely do not have the virus. That way you can not give it to other people and you can be sure whether or not you have COVID-19. 

This is why I think you should go trick-or-treating this year! 

I think that you should not go trick-or-treating this year because the person that gave you candy could have COVID-19, and you’d be in close contact with the person. What are they going to do? Disinfect the candy? I don’t think that it would be worth it for, what, a Snickers bar? Instead of that, you could get your parents or guardian to go to the store and get some candy and not touch it for a few days. If you live in a town or neighborhood, then it really wouldn’t be a good idea because you aren’t supposed to gather with over twenty-five people in one area, even if you aren’t grouped together, because studies show that the aerosolized COVID-19 particles can travel at least 21 feet.

I also think that it might not be smart because the next day, you wouldn’t even know that you had it because symptoms don’t come into effect for a while, and you could go to someone’s house and give it to them. Then they could go to someone’s house, and they could give it to someone, or they could go to someone’s house that has COVID-19 and doesn’t know, and that person could give it to the other person, and so on, and so on. 

Also, you’d have to wear a mask the whole time, and if you run around a lot, you’d start to get pretty sweaty and your mask could do one of two things: it could fall down, or make it even harder for you to breathe than it already is. It’s not that I’m against Halloween, it’s just that I don’t think it’s safe to go out right now because of the pandemic.

Besides, I don’t want to get COVID-19. Do you?