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Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion
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"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued long-awaited new guidance Friday on when Americans should consider wearing masks to protect themselves against Covid-19. Under the new guidance, roughly 70% of the U.S. population can now contemplate removing their masks.
The guidance lays out a system that designates individual counties as being at either low, medium, or high risk of Covid transmission. Roughly 62.6% of counties — home to 71.7% of Americans — fall into the low- and medium-risk categories.
Most people living in counties where the risk is designated as low or medium are not being urged to wear masks; people who are at high risk from Covid-19 and who live in counties listed as being at medium risk should talk with their health care providers about whether they should wear a mask.
People who live in counties where the risk of transmission is high — currently 28.2% of Americans — should wear masks in indoor public settings, including schools, the guidance states.
The new system uses several metrics to calculate the risk in individual communities, moving beyond sheer numbers of new cases to look at how well the health care system in each county is holding up. The idea, the CDC said, is to focus on minimizing severe disease and ensuring that hospitals are able to function.
The guidance comes as jurisdictions across the country have lifted mask mandates or have announced plans to lift them.
Though the guidance will give people in much of the country a green light to take off their masks in public settings, the CDC noted that they may choose to continue to wear masks. And it said that people who have tested positive for Covid, who have Covid-like symptoms, or who have been exposed to someone with Covid should wear a mask, regardless of the risk level in their county.
“If you are more comfortable wearing a mask, feel free to do so,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.
The new guidance also updates CDC recommendations on mask wearing in schools. Up until now, the agency has recommended that masks be worn in schools; with the new guidelines, the CDC is only recommending mask wearing in schools in counties that are designated high risk.
Under the new system, Covid-prevention recommendations for people living in low- and medium-risk counties are effectively that they should be vaccinated and boosted, and should get tested for Covid if they are sick with Covid-like symptoms. In the medium-risk settings, people who are immunocompromised or who have chronic health conditions should discuss the merits of mask wearing with their doctors."
www.statnews.com
The guidance lays out a system that designates individual counties as being at either low, medium, or high risk of Covid transmission. Roughly 62.6% of counties — home to 71.7% of Americans — fall into the low- and medium-risk categories.
Most people living in counties where the risk is designated as low or medium are not being urged to wear masks; people who are at high risk from Covid-19 and who live in counties listed as being at medium risk should talk with their health care providers about whether they should wear a mask.
People who live in counties where the risk of transmission is high — currently 28.2% of Americans — should wear masks in indoor public settings, including schools, the guidance states.
The new system uses several metrics to calculate the risk in individual communities, moving beyond sheer numbers of new cases to look at how well the health care system in each county is holding up. The idea, the CDC said, is to focus on minimizing severe disease and ensuring that hospitals are able to function.
The guidance comes as jurisdictions across the country have lifted mask mandates or have announced plans to lift them.
Though the guidance will give people in much of the country a green light to take off their masks in public settings, the CDC noted that they may choose to continue to wear masks. And it said that people who have tested positive for Covid, who have Covid-like symptoms, or who have been exposed to someone with Covid should wear a mask, regardless of the risk level in their county.
“If you are more comfortable wearing a mask, feel free to do so,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.
The new guidance also updates CDC recommendations on mask wearing in schools. Up until now, the agency has recommended that masks be worn in schools; with the new guidelines, the CDC is only recommending mask wearing in schools in counties that are designated high risk.
Under the new system, Covid-prevention recommendations for people living in low- and medium-risk counties are effectively that they should be vaccinated and boosted, and should get tested for Covid if they are sick with Covid-like symptoms. In the medium-risk settings, people who are immunocompromised or who have chronic health conditions should discuss the merits of mask wearing with their doctors."
CDC issues long-awaited new guidance on when to wear masks
The Centers for Disease Control and Protection issued long-awaited new guidance on when Americans should consider wearing masks to protect themselves against Covid-19.
www.statnews.com
Tom P.
Well-Known Member
A couple of key takeaways from this:"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued long-awaited new guidance Friday on when Americans should consider wearing masks to protect themselves against Covid-19. Under the new guidance, roughly 70% of the U.S. population can now contemplate removing their masks.
The guidance lays out a system that designates individual counties as being at either low, medium, or high risk of Covid transmission. Roughly 62.6% of counties — home to 71.7% of Americans — fall into the low- and medium-risk categories.
Most people living in counties where the risk is designated as low or medium are not being urged to wear masks; people who are at high risk from Covid-19 and who live in counties listed as being at medium risk should talk with their health care providers about whether they should wear a mask.
People who live in counties where the risk of transmission is high — currently 28.2% of Americans — should wear masks in indoor public settings, including schools, the guidance states.
View attachment 624180
The new system uses several metrics to calculate the risk in individual communities, moving beyond sheer numbers of new cases to look at how well the health care system in each county is holding up. The idea, the CDC said, is to focus on minimizing severe disease and ensuring that hospitals are able to function.
The guidance comes as jurisdictions across the country have lifted mask mandates or have announced plans to lift them.
Though the guidance will give people in much of the country a green light to take off their masks in public settings, the CDC noted that they may choose to continue to wear masks. And it said that people who have tested positive for Covid, who have Covid-like symptoms, or who have been exposed to someone with Covid should wear a mask, regardless of the risk level in their county.
“If you are more comfortable wearing a mask, feel free to do so,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.
The new guidance also updates CDC recommendations on mask wearing in schools. Up until now, the agency has recommended that masks be worn in schools; with the new guidelines, the CDC is only recommending mask wearing in schools in counties that are designated high risk.
Under the new system, Covid-prevention recommendations for people living in low- and medium-risk counties are effectively that they should be vaccinated and boosted, and should get tested for Covid if they are sick with Covid-like symptoms. In the medium-risk settings, people who are immunocompromised or who have chronic health conditions should discuss the merits of mask wearing with their doctors."
CDC issues long-awaited new guidance on when to wear masks
The Centers for Disease Control and Protection issued long-awaited new guidance on when Americans should consider wearing masks to protect themselves against Covid-19.
1. The new guidance makes no distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, unlike previous guidance. It applies the same masking recommendations to everyone.
2. This guidance is going to effectively mark an end to mandatory masking nationwide, even though that's not exactly what the CDC is saying. The public, not to mention businesses, are simply not going to keep track of the ever-changing metrics in each county and adjust appropriately. Imagine if Walmart had different masking policies depending on what county you are in and how the metrics look that week. It's just not workable. For someplace like Disney, where you're talking about a theme park in a single location, it would be more possible, but even then, they're not going to want to change masking guidance as metrics move up and down.
Only if posters behave and stay on topic, not make rude remarks, etc.
correcaminos
Well-Known Member
Let's be real here honor system does not work anyway so not surprising.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
The guidance itself may be changing, but this aspect to how they are applied is not new. I live and work between two counties, one which has been "high" and one that has been "low", and in the "high" one, stores like Wal-mart, etc. keep interchangeable signs up specifying "This is a high transmission county, therefore the guidelines are..."
They've been doing this for quite some time, and the truth is - the rates don't really change much. High transmission areas tend to remain high transmission areas, and when a county "graduates" from being low-transmission to high-transmission, it is highly publicized.
Bob Harlem
Well-Known Member
That's the old pre-omicron scale, Orange County, FL is moderate on the new scale, see
COVID Data Tracker
CDC’s home for COVID-19 data. Visualizations, graphs, and data in one easy-to-use website.
covid.cdc.gov
7.86% is 7 the day, Two week average is
and still falling.
Weekly Florida report coming later today will likely show cases falling another 40% 25,668 cases for the week which is approaching early dec numbers.
That's the old pre-omicron scale, Orange County, FL is moderate on the new scale, see
View attachment 624201COVID Data Tracker
CDC’s home for COVID-19 data. Visualizations, graphs, and data in one easy-to-use website.covid.cdc.gov
View attachment 624202
7.86% is 7 the day, Two week average is
and still falling.
No you are looking at the old one. The new one only has 3 levels (high, moderate, low)
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GoofGoof
Premium Member
Pandemic is over
….again. Let’s hope it sticks this time
. Almost 5,000 pages…crazy long thread and I see not much has changed since I stopped posting here regularly 
. Glad to see lots of you are still hanging in there and doing OK.
At this point outside of still wearing a mask on the flight (for now but maybe not for long) a trip to WDW has pretty much gone back to normal…minus the lightning lane and park reservations which aren’t really covid related and probably won’t go away any time soon. I hope they keep the hand sanitizers forever, but most of the rest of the WDW covid stuff I hope never comes back. It’s been a long time coming and I do sincerely hope this is the true beginning of the end and a start of an endemic phase for the virus (not just another trick like last June). Time will tell. Mistakes were made (hopefully not this most recent change) and we certainly didn’t do this the easy way, but best to put the past behind us and look towards a brighter future for all of us. I just hope everyone appreciates the little things a little more now, continues to practice better hygiene and people can start to get along a little better again too.
….again. Let’s hope it sticks this time. Almost 5,000 pages…crazy long thread and I see not much has changed since I stopped posting here regularly . Glad to see lots of you are still hanging in there and doing OK.At this point outside of still wearing a mask on the flight (for now but maybe not for long) a trip to WDW has pretty much gone back to normal…minus the lightning lane and park reservations which aren’t really covid related and probably won’t go away any time soon. I hope they keep the hand sanitizers forever, but most of the rest of the WDW covid stuff I hope never comes back. It’s been a long time coming and I do sincerely hope this is the true beginning of the end and a start of an endemic phase for the virus (not just another trick like last June). Time will tell. Mistakes were made (hopefully not this most recent change) and we certainly didn’t do this the easy way, but best to put the past behind us and look towards a brighter future for all of us. I just hope everyone appreciates the little things a little more now, continues to practice better hygiene and people can start to get along a little better again too.
Salted Nut Roll
Active Member
While I'm glad that cases are dropping, and I WANT to believe the pandemic is on its way out...I feel like we were in this exact same place at about this time last year. Cases were down, everything was great, we were easing restrictions and thinking we were in the end stages of the pandemic.
and then we got Delta and Omicron and everything was bad again. So while I am being cautiously optimistic, I'm holding off on celebrating the end of the pandemic until I see what next fall and winter brings. Fool me once, and all that. I'm not going to hole myself in my house, but I don't plan to go wild and stop taking precautions like it's 2019. I plan to keep on being careful and wearing a mask around crowds of people for the time being. I really do hope we're seeing an end, though. I'm so ready to put this pandemic behind us!
and then we got Delta and Omicron and everything was bad again. So while I am being cautiously optimistic, I'm holding off on celebrating the end of the pandemic until I see what next fall and winter brings. Fool me once, and all that. I'm not going to hole myself in my house, but I don't plan to go wild and stop taking precautions like it's 2019. I plan to keep on being careful and wearing a mask around crowds of people for the time being. I really do hope we're seeing an end, though. I'm so ready to put this pandemic behind us!
GoofGoof
Premium Member
No doubt I fell for it last Spring/Summer too…but one of these times it has to be the real beginning of the end
I have no idea what will happen going forward, but I don’t think it will be unusual to see people in masks in public settings for a while going forward. It may not be required or recommended and may not be the majority of people but everyone moves at their own pace and has their own personal situation. I just hope people have the common decency to leave people alone and respect their choice. You never know what someone else is dealing with.
Welcome back and hope all is well with you and your family! Hopefully the covid doesn't affect FL spring training and the MLB season upcoming! Lets Go Mets!Pandemic is over
At this point outside of still wearing a mask on the flight (for now but maybe not for long) a trip to WDW has pretty much gone back to normal…minus the lightning lane and park reservations which aren’t really covid related and probably won’t go away any time soon. I hope they keep the hand sanitizers forever, but most of the rest of the WDW covid stuff I hope never comes back. It’s been a long time coming and I do sincerely hope this is the true beginning of the end and a start of an endemic phase for the virus (not just another trick like last June). Time will tell. Mistakes were made (hopefully not this most recent change) and we certainly didn’t do this the easy way, but best to put the past behind us and look towards a brighter future for all of us. I just hope everyone appreciates the little things a little more now, continues to practice better hygiene and people can start to get along a little better again too.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
I wouldn’t count on that. Remember WDW dropped masks last Spring and then when Delta exploded added back indoor masks. I do think it’s much less likely that a Delta type situation occurs this Summer but it’s still possible. I’m optimistic we don’t have a major setback, but if the situation warrants it some restrictions will return.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Things are going good - my kids are finally both fully vaccinated and everyone is safe and doing well, the weather is getting warmer and the days are staying lighter later and later each day, Harden is a 76er….all good things
MLB’s biggest problem right now definitely isn’t Covid. They need to get the deal done and avoid a lockout. Sports are back in a big way and baseball has some catching up to do. This is a really big year for MLB and a lockout could be devastating.
correcaminos
Well-Known Member
I truly think the world has changed on its treatment of covid. Remember Disney did not drop after Delta but chose to drop during omicron before numbers were really low. The mentality of masks even with the CDC has shifted again.
Tom P.
Well-Known Member
I respectfully disagree. This is not last year. There has been a very dramatic, palpable sea change in the public's attitude toward Covid restrictions. I don't believe the public would accept them coming back this time as they have in the past.
IMHO, unless we get a horrible new variant that manages to escape the vaccines, restrictions are not coming back even if we have another surge.
SingleRider
Premium Member
And even then, we probably wouldn't experience widespread restrictions like we did in 2020.
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