Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[Rich Brownn]

You’re all making my point. No one goes bat sh** crazy over the flu, demanding hands be washed for 20 sec, use hand sanitizer everywhere (yes, I’m aware that hand washing is more effective), people should self-quarantine if infected, etc. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take flu seriously if you have it. You should. Imagine if the media treated the flu like they do COVID 19. You would be a hermit for the rest of your life.

There's a vaccine for the flu though. Also, the flu isn't as contagious as COVID 19 seems to be. (In Italy it went from like 500 case to over 9,000 in 7 days.) There was one study that stated the worst case scenario would be 90% of the country would be infected and 500,000 deaths by the end of it.

 

[Rich Brownn]

Not “celebrating” the flu by any means but let’s keep things in perspective:

Infections
COVID-19: Approximately 113,579 cases worldwide; 607 cases in the U.S. as of Mar. 9, 2020.

Flu: Estimated 1 billion cases worldwide; 9.3 million to 45 million cases in the U.S. per year.

Deaths
COVID-19: Approximately 3,995 deaths reported worldwide; 22 deaths in the U.S., as of Mar. 9, 2020.

Flu: 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide; 12,000 to 61,000 deaths in the U.S. per year.

remember you're comparing a year's worth of flu to about 6 weeks of COVID0-19.

 

[thenerdbaker]

I think Seattle's response to things will start to paint a picture of the country as a wholes response. We are all getting prepared that we might end up locked down. We are all hopeful that won't happen but this city is on edge right now. It's as if you can almost feel the anxiety in the air. No one I know is freaking out really just sensing it might get rough around here. Sorry not about WDW just wanted to add a different perspective.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Our elected leaders say it’s no big deal. Just listen to them.

i didn’t say it’s not big deal. I’m just saying this is basically a new flu type E without as much knowledge on it or what the Chinese know or hid but so far this is very similar to the flu

 

[Lilofan]

Has anyone been to or seen the inside of the medical clinic in the respective theme parks? On any given day, if you have more than 10-15 guests waiting in there in the waiting room it would be a fire hazard. If worse comes to worse, some of the areas in the park that are closed off could be used as temporary medical clinic facilities.

 

[Piebald]

After talking to friends in Italy, I'm beginning to get more concerned. They are telling/showing me (some work in health care) absolute horror stories. Northern Italy is one of the richest regions in the world so I'm hoping people dont somehow think this is some third rate system or inadequate measure to contain this.

People with stroke and other traumas being turned away because their hospital system is being completely overrun by respiratory failure. Yes once again this is mostly old and frail but imagine things get so bad and you are 40 and have a heart attack. Good luck getting in and being seen amongst the chaos.

 

[asianway]

DLP stopped face character greetings today

 

[MaximumEd]

We are supposed to be heading down to WDW next Friday for an 8 day trip. Getting concerning.

 

[iowamomof4]

I think Seattle's response to things will start to paint a picture of the country as a wholes response. We are all getting prepared that we might end up locked down. We are all hopeful that won't happen but this city is on edge right now. It's as if you can almost feel the anxiety in the air. No one I know is freaking out really just sensing it might get rough around here. Sorry not about WDW just wanted to add a different perspective.

I'm very concerned about my dd and her friend who are flying to Seattle this week. They're headed to a community outside the city, but I'm afraid they'll end up stuck there.

 

[WEDway Inc & Company LLC]

We are supposed to be heading down to WDW next Friday for an 8 day trip. Getting concerning.

don’t be. Just wash your hands ASAP after touching something. They ain’t gonna close Disney world due to a virus

 

[John park hopper]

We had a cruise scheduled for March 18 we canceled last Nov due to my having knee replacement scheduled for the 16 funny how things work out. they are saying US citizens should not go on cruises at this time our cruise was not meant to be.

 

[xdan0920]

don’t be. Just wash your hands ASAP after touching something. They ain’t gonna close Disney world due to a virus

If they follow this advice, all their will be time for is handwashing. Quite the conundrum.

I do feel the anxiety though, it's hard to know what the right thing to do is. I have a trip scheduled to a local waterpark for this Friday. Do I bring the family? Or do we cancel??? Not asking for advice, just rambling.

 

[Nubs70]

After talking to friends in Italy, I'm beginning to get more concerned. They are telling/showing me (some work in health care) absolute horror stories. Northern Italy is one of the richest regions in the world so I'm hoping people dont somehow think this is some third rate system or inadequate measure to contain this.

People with stroke and other traumas being turned away because their hospital system is being completely overrun by respiratory failure. Yes once again this is mostly old and frail but imagine things get so bad and you are 40 and have a heart attack. Good luck getting in and being seen amongst the chaos.

Correct, in the US hospitals just don't have extra bed space lying around nor do they have a bunch of nurses sitting around to attend to those empty beds. If you are going to catch Covid, catch it now while you can get treatment.

 

[John park hopper]

My wife is a retired ER/ICU nurse guess I don't have to worry about not having a nurse if I get the covid 19. Home healthcare

 

[seascape]

I know this is not at either Disney nor Universal but Comcast has stopped the NBC Tour in NYC for all of March.

 

[GoofGoof]

If they follow this advice, all their will be time for is handwashing. Quite the conundrum.

I do feel the anxiety though, it's hard to know what the right thing to do is. I have a trip scheduled to a local waterpark for this Friday. Do I bring the family? Or do we cancel??? Not asking for advice, just rambling.

Nah, you can touch anything you want without washing your hands, just don’t touch your face after. Do you know how hard it is to not touch your face?

 

[MaximumEd]

If they follow this advice, all their will be time for is handwashing. Quite the conundrum.

I do feel the anxiety though, it's hard to know what the right thing to do is. I have a trip scheduled to a local waterpark for this Friday. Do I bring the family? Or do we cancel??? Not asking for advice, just rambling.

My birthday is part of your username. Just rambling, myself.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

The mass testing is a double edged sword though. Yes, all those "positives, but mild cases" keeps the mortality rate down. But all the testing gets those positives "off the streets" faster. Which also keeps the mortality rate down because those people aren't going to visit their "high risk" family members, or going to their jobs where they interact with "high risk" customers. That is something that isn't happening in the US, and there will be consequences.

The places I am keeping my ear out for are the assisted living communities, senior centers, care centers etc, since those are where the fatalities will occur. My concern, is that we are still in the early phase and so those consequences of younger, healthier, but positive individuals interacting with the high risk population haven't been felt yet. And since we have inadequate testing, we have no idea when that time bomb is going to explode and if our hospitals and necessary equipment will be able to cope with it. The problem Italy is now facing.

So I don't really see how South Korea's low mortality rate really helps us predict anything when we have likely many "positive but asymptomatic or mild cases" interacting with the 70 million people in the US that are over the age of 60 when we aren't taking the same steps to control the spread.

Nursing homes were specifically mentioned last night during the president/task force update...they're asking that tighter protocols be followed for visitors, etc. Whether anyone actually follows those directions is the key here.

That's actually the key to this whole thing in the US - will people do as they are asked in order to prevent or lessen the spread? I'm not very confident they will - see the comment earlier in the thread of a father who was on self-quarantine and took a daughter to a father/daughter dance, or my sister who just returned from Germany (good thing she didn't talk to me first as I would have ripped her a new one).

I think it's also a bad idea to rely on people checking the coronavirus website for information. People (unfortunately) are inherently stupid and lazy...they should develop a specific message with instructions and use the the same calling system schools use to make sure people get the instructions. (Good luck ignoring those calls - every phone in our house rings at the same time.)

 

[Lilofan]

Time to go to Disney World, not exactly. Princeton University in NJ told their students currently on spring break to not return to campus when break is over. Classes will go virtual online due to covid-19. Can the parents pay the $65K annual tuition and housing with virtual money?

 

[John park hopper]

Nursing homes were specifically mentioned last night during the president/task force update...they're asking that tighter protocols be followed for visitors, etc. Whether anyone actually follows those directions is the key here.

That's actually the key to this whole thing in the US - will people do as they are asked in order to prevent or lessen the spread? I'm not very confident they will - see the comment earlier in the thread of a father who was on self-quarantine and took a daughter to a father/daughter dance, or my sister who just returned from Germany (good thing she didn't talk to me first as I would have ripped her a new one).

I think it's also a bad idea to rely on people checking the coronavirus website for information. People (unfortunately) are inherently stupid and lazy...they should develop a specific message with instructions and use the the same calling system schools use to make sure people get the instructions. (Good luck ignoring those calls - every phone in our house rings at the same time.)

There will always be a segment of the population who feel rules don't apply them and those are the ones we should be concerned about-- they put the rest of us at risk.