Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[correcaminos]

I think it largely comes down to immune system luck, when the first cruise ship outbreaks happened in 2020 it was about 20% getting infected, 80% had sufficient levels of natural immunity to fight it off despite never being exposed to it before and despite being on a floating pitri fish.

I work in a casino and I’d guesstimate 10% of my coworkers have now (knowingly) had it, we’re over 80% vaccinated which helps but we are around thousands of people every single day and 90% have avoided a (symptomatic) case.

Some day they’ll probably figure out why certain people are more susceptible than others but for now I’ll keep trusting my vaccine and natural immune system because we really have no other choice.

I was reading up on how there are documented people (in the thousands) who have repeatedly been exposed at home and never tested positive. They don't know why. But they'll grab their blood and see if they find something. There are also people who are known to not get sick with various viruses as much. Kind of fascinating to read. Probably no different than my spouse who kissed me while contagious with strep throat unknowingly never transmitted it to me. Happened more than once in our marriage too. We don't know why some do or don't catch (as in never test positive even when tested) and some do.

 

[lazyboy97o]

This should be one of the biggest take aways from this pandemic, good ventilation has a lot of health benefits.

Not to mention a bunch of other potential benefits like like reduced energy cost. The reasons to “go green” are more than just related to pollution.

 

[Andrew C]

Probably no different than my spouse who kissed me while contagious with strep throat unknowingly never transmitted it to me. Happened more than once in our marriage too.

Good way to get cooties though.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I think it largely comes down to immune system luck, when the first cruise ship outbreaks happened in 2020 it was about 20% getting infected, 80% had sufficient levels of natural immunity to fight it off despite never being exposed to it before and despite being on a floating pitri fish.

I work in a casino and I’d guesstimate 10% of my coworkers have now (knowingly) had it, we’re over 80% vaccinated which helps but we are around thousands of people every single day and 90% have avoided a (symptomatic) case.

Some day they’ll probably figure out why certain people are more susceptible than others but for now I’ll keep trusting my vaccine and natural immune system because we really have no other choice.

Yup, it's just hard to say who gets seriously ill with it and who doesn't.

I fully expected that if I got it with having asthma, I would end up needing oral steroids, nebulizer treatments, the works.

Nada. Didn't even need my inhaler. My allergist said that's been all of his asthma patients who've had it; they just aren't getting sick with it. Which is precisely the opposite of what you would think, but there's evidently a study that supports that https://news.unchealthcare.org/2022...rgic-asthma-less-susceptible-to-severe-covid/. So completely ironic that a disease that affects our lungs actually protects us from getting a respiratory illness.

Meanwhile, we had a friend get COVID and it's just destroyed his kidneys. He does at home dialysis now and is on the transplant list (he got COVID before the vaccine in spite of going just about nowhere).

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

They'll keep it because for some unknown reason they have determined that they are bound by the federal mandate even though Universal isn't.

What transportation does universal operate that is not requiring masks?

The boats are open air.

I’m guessing they have a bus? Maybe it counts as a hotel shuttle more than an intercity bus / transit system like what wdw has.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

This should be one of the biggest take aways from this pandemic, good ventilation has a lot of health benefits.

As an asthmatic, I have been saying this for years. This has been one of the best things to come out of the pandemic. Now it's not just me in my house running air filters; it's more places running them and making sure there's airflow.

 

[danlb_2000]

What transportation does universal operate that is not requiring masks?

The boats are open air.

I’m guessing they have a bus? Maybe it counts as a hotel shuttle more than an intercity bus / transit system like what wdw has.

Yes, they run buses from some of the resorts to the parks. The two newest resorts run full size Disney style buses.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I’m guessing they have a bus? Maybe it counts as a hotel shuttle more than an intercity bus / transit system like what wdw has

And there we go. Much smaller, not subject to the rules.

In short, Disney is still doing public transit masks because their lawyers said they have to. I'm sure they don't want to when everywhere else the masks have been dropped. Gigantic pain.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

Correlation doesn't equal causation. @mkt posted about a friend who is an ER doctor in Miami that said they had gone weeks (I can't remember the exact period of time) without a single COVID case and then had 17 this week. I can assure you that there were no mitigation changes in Miami during that time period.

Maybe taking away the mandate had an effect, maybe it didn't. There's no way to really know without doing very well designed scientific studies.

It probably had a effect in seeing how other areas around the country and the world ended up doing the same thing. When mandates have been dropped there always seems to be a uptick,whether slight or bigger. But as you say there are many more things that play into. The 17 cases you quoted from another post could be from spring break. People traveling from different areas of the country… could be from someone just back from Disney that caught it in the kingdom..( thats a joke so please no one start posting about wheres my proof) Could be many things.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Good way to get cooties though.

I feel bad for anyone who didn't get the Circle Circle Dot Dot vaccine as a child. It provides lifetime protection!

 

[The Mom]

Correlation doesn't equal causation. @mkt posted about a friend who is an ER doctor in Miami that said they had gone weeks (I can't remember the exact period of time) without a single COVID case and then had 17 this week. I can assure you that there were no mitigation changes in Miami during that time period.

Maybe taking away the mandate had an effect, maybe it didn't. There's no way to really know without doing very well designed scientific studies.

They did have an onslaught of Spring Breakers the last two weeks of March who came from all over the country - many from Covid "hot spots" in other areas of the country.

 

[OrlandoRising]

Correlation doesn't equal causation. @mkt posted about a friend who is an ER doctor in Miami that said they had gone weeks (I can't remember the exact period of time) without a single COVID case and then had 17 this week. I can assure you that there were no mitigation changes in Miami during that time period.

Maybe taking away the mandate had an effect, maybe it didn't. There's no way to really know without doing very well designed scientific studies.

Correlation is about all you could prove with the available data in a single region. There would be too many variables to control for, like individual vaccination status, level of previous infections in the community, including how long ago they were infected and how severe their cases were, and how any lifting of mandates actually changed people's behavior.

This is why it's a fool's errand to "compare" two states' COVID-19 experiences, as has been done repeatedly with Florida and blue states. Simply having a mandate or not doesn't act as a real control, because if people weren't following a mask mandate to begin with (or, conversely, people were wearing masks in the absence of a mandate), that would skew the results, as would having more or fewer people working from home, avoiding gatherings, etc., or being more or less high-risk to begin with.

Now if hospitalizations increase in multiple areas of the country in the same time period after mandates were lifted? Hard to argue that happened just by coincidence.

 

[Andrew C]

Hospitalizations for anyone interested...

 

[sullyinMT]

Hospitalizations for anyone interested...

View attachment 633526

There is a recent (very mild so far) uptick in new admissions nationally. Good news is almost the entire map is green from a community impact level. Unlike BA.1 that kicked off before Delta’s wave had fully receded.

I don’t expect Disney or any other travel destination to change much, other than a couple more extensions of the TSA headache until this uptick ends.

 

[DisneyCane]

They did have an onslaught of Spring Breakers the last two weeks of March who came from all over the country - many from Covid "hot spots" in other areas of the country.

Very true! People from the same areas were likely at WDW during that time frame as well.

 

[correcaminos]

They did have an onslaught of Spring Breakers the last two weeks of March who came from all over the country - many from Covid "hot spots" in other areas of the country.

Even mid march I knew of quite a few traveling around Florida. I also know of a lot of friends who went to more "hot spots" for break as well.

Good way to get cooties though.

I know, right?

Stupid husband

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Yes, they run buses from some of the resorts to the parks. The two newest resorts run full size Disney style buses.

Gotcha. I’m guessing it’s a different set of legal rules. Disney is running the equivalent of a city transit system.

 

[Incomudro]

I was reading up on how there are documented people (in the thousands) who have repeatedly been exposed at home and never tested positive. They don't know why. But they'll grab their blood and see if they find something. There are also people who are known to not get sick with various viruses as much. Kind of fascinating to read. Probably no different than my spouse who kissed me while contagious with strep throat unknowingly never transmitted it to me. Happened more than once in our marriage too. We don't know why some do or don't catch (as in never test positive even when tested) and some do.

My otherwise healthy wife, 5 years younger than my age of 58 catches just about everything.
Doesn't get really sick - though in her mind she often believes that she is.
I catch nothing, or if I catch what she brings home I never show symptoms.
In March I believe, she tested herself for Omicron because she was feeling under the weather and she tested me as well.
Sure enough, we were both positive.
She went on to spend some time in bed over the next couple of days (again, not really sick - just a little dragging) and I went on to ride the bike trail.
My son's (20 year old twins) also were never ill, even though they had been around friends who got decently sick with covid to the effect of headaches and fever.
Close enough to these friends and recent enough to their illnesses that we went to urgent care centers and got our sons tested.
They also worked through the entirety of this thing in Primark and Home Depot, indoors around people all day and never got ill.

 

[disneylandtour]

I'm not sure how the busses at Disney are classified. They might be umbrella-ed under Reedy Creek, making them technically public transport. Click here: https://cualbondi.org/us/a/r1113944/reedy-creek-improvement-district/#google_vignette

Maybe someone on the board knows a definite answer.

 

[Nubs70]

Not to mention a bunch of other potential benefits like like reduced energy cost. The reasons to “go green” are more than just related to pollution.

Reduced energy costs? How so?