Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[Rider]

I'm asking this with zero snark but weren't we supposed to expect many more cases with opening? My state CDC director always says our big surges are a good thing in every meeting. He says the death rate is what to watch. Didn't Fauci himself say that the infection rate will be about the same whenever we open? The goal was to prepare hospitals and protect high risk people. We can't stay closed so we move to the next best thing. Stay home if you are high risk or anxious, wear masks especially indoors, maintain distance, and cautiously navigate our way through it. There's nothing else to do without destroying more lives than we aim to save.

We are approaching "New York during their peak" levels. The intent was to keep it under control but the numbers have been going up, not down or flat.

 

[legwand77]

Unless these cases are linked to somewhere that is taking extraordinary precautions, I don't see what it changes for Disney. As we see from the state of our nation right now, people are taking liberties with the gathering rule outside. England is also dipping their feet in the severely overcrowded beach trend. Are the gatherings up to 50 contingent on wearing masks? We have taken a sharp turn to being inconsistent about rules and it makes a mockery of the CDC phases. Time to make a fresh plan but we still need to wait before assuming the death rate. My guess is that high risk people are still hunkering down and younger people are less likely to be seriously ill. None of us can justify shuttering MOST businesses again with any credibility. I'm all for bolstering the mask rule for the sake of keeping the country from drowning in a secondary crisis.

yes most are from family gatherings and parties

 

[schuelma]

I think at this point I would be more surprised than not if Disney sticks to the current timeline.

The optics are quickly getting out of control (speaking of....is Universal really going to stay open??)

 

[MrMcDuck]

In the words of Marco Rubio, everyone should just wear a [censored] mask. It's unbelievable to me that people resist basic ideas like six feet apart, masks in certain places, and holding off on the parties, because the realistic alternative is that almost everything shuts down again. These numbers were inevitable once people started to ignore the rules and crowd together again. Pathetic.

 

[disneygeek90]

yes most are from family gatherings and parties

I'm glad you've been able to do your own contact tracing. Very impressive.

 

[legwand77]

The rise in hospitalizations never occurred 2 weeks after the peak cases in NY, fwiw.

COVID-19: Latest Data - NYC Health

exactly and steadily dropped afterwards

 

[legwand77]

I'm glad you've been able to do your own contact tracing. Very impressive.

That is what the government and doctors said at the press conference this week, but snark away

 

[legwand77]

The optics issue is being way overblown on here, even on the board with rabid disney fans, not everyone is concerned about optics. - opinion

 

[hopemax]

Florida just closed all bars, I do not see how Disney can argue bars shouldn't be open but theme parks should

Jock Lindsey's just reopened yesterday. It is a bar, so I guess Disney has to shut it down again?

Okay, this is weird. It looks like the bars just can't serve alcohol on the premises. They can stay open for takeout and food? So Jock's could serve appetizers?

Oh, Florida...

 

[oceanbreeze77]

I'm glad you've been able to do your own contact tracing. Very impressive.

That is what the government and doctors said at the press conference, but snark away

Regardless of where the cases came from, 9000 cases is still very bad.

 

[oceanbreeze77]

The optics issue is being way overblown on here, even on the board with rabid disney fans, not everyone is concerned about optics. - opinion

Non Disney fans see it as a big WTH. Just go look at twitter. type in Disney World reopening. The optics thing goes for the NBA too

 

[mickeymiss]

Florida just closed all bars, I do not see how Disney can argue bars shouldn't be open but theme parks should

Maybe because there's a huge difference between stuffy bars and an outdoor theme park taking every precaution that exists. It may not be what some want to hear but the country can't go back to March and Disney is doing what's right for guests at the expense of transforming the park. They shouldn't be punished for that. It's just my opinion but it looks like we need to find the balance between destroying businesses and public health. Every job is essential to someone as they say and it's never been all or nothing. We have to wear the masks and follow the rules. None of the numbers reflect that cases are coming from people who take precautions.

 

[legwand77]

We are approaching "New York during their peak" levels. The intent was to keep it under control but the numbers have been going up, not down or flat.

again not in hospitalizations, positive case numbers will go up even higher of course

 

[TheDisneyDaysOfOurLives]

I'm asking this with zero snark but weren't we supposed to expect many more cases with opening? My state CDC director always says our big surges are a good thing in every meeting. He says the death rate is what to watch. Didn't Fauci himself say that the infection rate will be about the same whenever we open? The goal was to prepare hospitals and protect high risk people. We can't stay closed so we move to the next best thing. Stay home if you are high risk or anxious, wear masks especially indoors, maintain distance, and cautiously navigate our way through it. There's nothing else to do without destroying more lives than we aim to save.

Part of the issue is it never got to the point of 'what's an acceptable level of cases (positive rates or hospitalization or anything along those lines being the baseline metric to pay attention to) to have?' and that's the problem we're running into. At no point did a governor say 'if we see positivity rates above 10% for a week, we'll have to go back to lock down status' or put in restrictions and thus you have an issue now as no citizens were prepared ahead of time of what to look for and what to expect if that happens. The cases going up is an indicator to pay attention to, but positive rate more so. Deaths will be what to look for in the next two-three weeks. If those start to climb and start to match the rise in cases, it's going to require action and potential restrictions/lock downs similar to what we've seen in the past day or two from Florida and Texas.

 

[MuteSuperstar]

yes most are from family gatherings and parties

Packed Bars Serve Up New Rounds Of COVID Contagion - KFF Health News

State officials are pointing to reopened bars as a cause of local spikes in coronavirus cases. Bars are tailor-made for the spread of the virus, with a cacophony of conversations that require raised voices and alcohol, which can impede judgment.

khn.org

 

[GoofGoof]

I'm asking this from a genuinely apolitical and sincere point of view. Why exactly is it so unpopular to draw a connection to cases from the protests? It's literally one of the most recent overwhelmingly significant gathering of people. Nothing even comes close to comparing to those numbers of people everyday and still ongoing. Why has it become controversial to wonder why those crowds are not being considered? People keep saying masks and outdoors but there were many cities where people were shouting at close range with no mask on.

No offense but the media has become unreliable and our leaders inconsistent. We have had government officials admit on camera to overcounting positive cases. I don't know if it's a rumor but Diblasio was allegedly telling contact tracers not to ask about protests.

This is not a political question either or shouldn't be. I suspect politics are embedded in this but any American should be interested to know why the protests are exempt from investigation. Why aren't we even curious about why the media is looking for anyone besides the protesters as a cause? Covid is still mostly buried in favor of protest coverage. How can we ignore the elephant in the room even if most of us believe the protests are a right? It still could be causing surges.

I find it highly suspicious that these protest crowds aren't leading to infections. It wasn't long ago people were arrested for surfing. I feel like I've stepped into a new dimension.

Not sure what news media you are watching, but I’ve seen a lot of coverage talking about the risks of virus spread from protests. Lots of infectious disease experts saying it is a recipe for disaster to have all those people together especially if they don’t wear masks. It’s pretty much inconceivable that there wouldn’t be anyone getting infected in a large group like that.

The most surprising thing to come from the protests so far is that in many large cities with massive crowds and protests that went on for weeks the number of cases continues to decline. Cities like NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, DC, etc...and even Minneapolis. One theory is that while many people gathered for protests many others skipped going out as much to avoid getting caught up in the protests. In other words the increase in infection from protests was offset by a decrease from non-protest related activity. Another theory is that the protests were outside and particularly in large urban centers in the NE and Midwest where mask wearing is more prevalent in regular life now more people wore masks. Outdoor crowds plus a large percentage wearing masks meant less spread. It is possible that more of the spread in TX or FL is from protests than the NE cities because a lot less people wore masks. If you don’t wear a mask to the grocery store in normal life its unlikely you put one on for a protest. None of this is proven science and there are no hard facts to prove any of those theories but the observational data on the ground has been that the protests in a lot of large urban centers (especially in the NE) has not lead to an increase in cases.

For a place like WDW which has a lot of outdoor aspects this is good news. If you combine masks and staying outdoors people can get together in large numbers for a protest...why not a parade or fireworks? We need more time to collect data from various cities but from a virus perspective the protests could teach us more about spread and what’s risky and what’s not. For example if Philadelphia and Houston both had large, weeks long protests but one is spiking and the other is declining it can’t be just the protests causing the spikes.

 

[legwand77]

Regardless of where the cases came from, 9000 cases is still very bad.

Thank you for the acknowledgement that the snark was unnecessary

 

[celluloid]

I never knew how many people detested fireworks, stage shows, live performers throughout the park, character meet and greets, character meals, and parades until COVID hit. Based on these boards, many are very pleased!

They won't be when they realize the things that should not have a wait when things are not crowded, still do. ANd those people are a microgroup of course compared to those with weeklong hotel stays.

 

[easyrowrdw]

What you did I there was create a hypothesis. Your hypothesis is that since children 17 and under have a much lower rate of infection they must have a natural immunity. Now all you need to do is prove your hypothesis correct.

My hypothesis is that children under the age of 17 have a lower number of infections because they are not in school, not allowed to see their friends, and when they do get infected they are often asymptotic so their parents don’t have a reason to get them tested. I am not going to go to the trouble of trying to prove my hypothesis correct as common sense tells me I am right.

Someone posted a study looking at transmissions within families. Children were less likely to get infected even when living in the same house as someone who was already infected. I think research from schools in other countries show low rates of transmission too.

It does seem to impact children less severely. I haven't seen a definitive explanation for why. I don't think they know, but it doesn't seem to just be about exposure.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

In the words of Marco Rubio, everyone should just wear a [censored] mask. It's unbelievable to me that people resist basic ideas like six feet apart, masks in certain places, and holding off on the parties, because the realistic alternative is that almost everything shuts down again. These numbers were inevitable once people started to ignore the rules and crowd together again. Pathetic.

Cases are steadily on the rise again here in Texas and the amount of people I see without masks or standing 6 feet away from others just boggles my mind. I watched 7 people without masks walk into a store today that had a sign on the front door that said "MASK REQUIRED INSIDE". I know they all saw it because they all paused to read it. Yet went in anyway. Maybe masks help, but maybe they don't. It's crazy how many people are crying about their freedom being taken away because they have to wear a mask. I don't consider it my freedom being taken away rather than me being courteous and respectful of other human beings around me. It's a shame more people don't see it this way.