Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[dreday3]

I haven’t seen the details yet on what the rules are for changing to. The stories I read said they were considering a change from 6 feet to 3 feet in order to get schools open. Do you have a link to the new CDC guidelines that say it’s only 3 feet in classrooms? A lot of schools don’t have the cafeteria space to have all kids back 5 days and maintain 6 feet. I guess maybe they just won’t be able to reopen full or they will operate outside of the recommendations.

I can't even begin to imagine the hullabaloo that would take place if the 3ft rule is only for schools....

 

[danlb_2000]

I'm going to pick on you, sorry just back luck that this is an easy post to pick on.

This is why we cannot have nice things.

I posted about this earlier:

• Masks
• Ventilation
• Testing
• Vaccinating teachers/staff

Do all those things, and when ALL those things are true, you can reduce the distance to 3 feet. Add in some surveillance testing to spot any issue fast and react to complete the picture.

The tricky part there is ventilation, that will take a lot of time and money.

 

[Tom P.]

I can't even begin to imagine the hullabaloo that would take place if the 3ft rule is only for schools....

If they tried to do that, they'd take fire from all sides. Those who think we are re-opening too fast would say that the CDC is putting out unsafe guidance in order to push schools to open when it's clearly not safe. Those who think we are re-opening too slowly would say that if schools can be open safely with 3 foot distancing, so can everyplace else. There's no way a guideline like that for schools only would pass public scrutiny.

 

[CatesMom]

I haven’t seen the details yet on what the rules are for changing to. The stories I read said they were considering a change from 6 feet to 3 feet in order to get schools open. Do you have a link to the new CDC guidelines that say it’s only 3 feet in classrooms? A lot of schools don’t have the cafeteria space to have all kids back 5 days and maintain 6 feet. I guess maybe they just won’t be able to reopen full or they will operate outside of the recommendations.

My daughter's school follows 3/6. Three feet in the classroom while the kids are masked. Six feet at lunch. At the beginning of the year, the kids ate in their classroom, so the class had to split in two at lunchtime, with the kids in every other seat alternating eating and having recess, to accommodate the six-foot rule. Then the school added four huge tents, complete with heat, ventilation, and desks spaced six feet apart. Now the class eats lunch there all at the same time.

 

[GoofGoof]

My daughter's school follows 3/6. Three feet in the classroom while the kids are masked. Six feet at lunch. At the beginning of the year, the kids ate in their classroom, so the class had to split in two at lunchtime, with the kids in every other seat alternating eating and having recess, to accommodate the six-foot rule. Then the school added four huge tents, complete with heat, ventilation, and desks spaced six feet apart. Now the class eats lunch there all at the same time.

My kid’s elementary school has been using the gym as overflow to allow for kids to eat spaced 6 feet apart. It works, but a lot of schools don’t have the space to do that. I know a few people who work in schools in Philadelphia and they don’t have the space. They can only open the schools hybrid unless the distancing is relaxed.

 

[Flugell]

It’s not like it’s been a year for schools to make plans... rent portable buildings / tents. Repurpose existing buildings (set up an additional lunch room in the gymnasium?) hire extra staff, etc.

All great ideas in theory but the cost would be prohibitive. What would happen to the staff after they are no longer needed? Are there even enough portable rooms that could work as classrooms? Would there be toilets in the rooms outside of the main body of the school or would pupils have to be trusted to go outside unsupervised? I know the school where I used to teach, admittedly in the U.K., had a capacity limit that we reached every year and there was no space for expansion or unused areas and yes we had two external classrooms one with toilets and one without any form of running water, which was a huge problem even for art or having drinks. So keep thinking, it can’t be beyond the intelligence of mankind to find solutions.

 

[mmascari]

I haven’t seen the details yet on what the rules are for changing to. The stories I read said they were considering a change from 6 feet to 3 feet in order to get schools open. Do you have a link to the new CDC guidelines that say it’s only 3 feet in classrooms? A lot of schools don’t have the cafeteria space to have all kids back 5 days and maintain 6 feet. I guess maybe they just won’t be able to reopen full or they will operate outside of the recommendations.

I haven’t seen it, but if it’s not more nuanced and includes eating lunch 3 feet, I’ll join you in saying it’s ridiculous. The reporting will be crap on this, click bait and playing up how it’s special for school and not why it’s different.

Add rooms. Half the kids eat in the classroom. Use all that deep cleaning time to just clean up the extra effort from food in more places. As was said, they’ve had a year to figure out how to use other spaces for lunch.

The tricky part there is ventilation, that will take a lot of time and money.

It’s definitely building dependent. But anyplace the windows open should be straight forward. Open the door, some windows, add a fan. Blow out and somewhere else in the building suck air in.

At this point, some of that funding should have gone to portable air cleaners for every classroom. Cycle all the air in the rooms through it every 15 minutes.

Even in the winter, crank the heat up and open the windows. It’s a new mitigation cost to waste the heat. Same for summer cooling. Assuming it’s only for a year, it’s just a wasted operating expense, not a capital improvement to upgrade all the infrastructure.

It’s not an unknown anymore. For that matter, WDW should be doing all the ventilation stuff for every in closed space too.

 

[GoofGoof]

If they tried to do that, they'd take fire from all sides. Those who think we are re-opening too fast would say that the CDC is putting out unsafe guidance in order to push schools to open when it's clearly not safe. Those who think we are re-opening too slowly would say that if schools can be open safely with 3 foot distancing, so can everyplace else. There's no way a guideline like that for schools only would pass public scrutiny.

I think that’s the dilemma they are dealing with right now. I think at a minimum you have to tie a reduction to 3 feet of distancing in schools with full mask wearing and say if you are at a restaurant/bar or in a school cafeteria where the mask has to come off to eat or drink you have to maintain 6 feet distancing but everywhere else 3 feet is enough. That at least makes some sense. I agree they will get killed if they say it’s only safe in schools. That won’t fly and this is coming from someone who spent the last year supporting most of the reasonable Covid protocols and was very critical of people and state/local governments who didn’t follow them.

That change opens the doors for stuff like more fans in the stands at a sporting event, shortened spacing in lines at retail stores and at theme parks like WDW, less distancing on transportation (airlines already abandoned 6 feet a while ago) and in the case of WDW the removal of the need to leave rows and seats empty on rides. It would also allow more people in a given area for something like a nighttime show. Basically anywhere with full mask requirements should be allowed down to 3 feet. If the rule is expanded to school cafeterias as well as classrooms then all bets are off. Restaurants and bars would have a really good gripe that their requirements should change too.

As far as WDW is concerned, in theory if they make the change to 3 feet of distancing while masked then the distancing on rides should be mostly gone and queues will immediately be able to hold almost twice as many people. You could also in theory have twice as many people in the overall park area since they can be closer together. That would mean in all practical terms a removal of park capacity limits. If they doubled the limits to 70% capacity that’s more people then the average pre-Covid day on all but the most crowded days. There would definitely be an issue having places to feed all of those people with the capacity limits still in place at restaurants but they have extra restaurant capacity that’s only open seasonally and they could in theory add tents or utilize empty buildings in the park. Parades and night shows could be possible too with less distancing required. That stuff may still have to wait for CMs to be vaccinated but we are probably only a month to 6 weeks from that.

 

[GoofGoof]

I haven’t seen it, but if it’s not more nuanced and includes eating lunch 3 feet, I’ll join you in saying it’s ridiculous. The reporting will be crap on this, click bait and playing up how it’s special for school and not why it’s different.

Add rooms. Half the kids eat in the classroom. Use all that deep cleaning time to just clean up the extra effort from food in more places. As was said, they’ve had a year to figure out how to use other spaces for lunch.

The only problem with that is they can’t eat in the classrooms if the desks are only 3 feet apart. Unless you literally take every other desk and they go to the cafeteria and the other half stay back. It could work that way.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It’s definitely building dependent. But anyplace the windows open should be straight forward. Open the door, some windows, add a fan. Blow out and somewhere else in the building suck air in.

At this point, some of that funding should have gone to portable air cleaners for every classroom. Cycle all the air in the rooms through it every 15 minutes.

Even in the winter, crank the heat up and open the windows. It’s a new mitigation cost to waste the heat. Same for summer cooling. Assuming it’s only for a year, it’s just a wasted operating expense, not a capital improvement to upgrade all the infrastructure.

It’s not an unknown anymore. For that matter, WDW should be doing all the ventilation stuff for every in closed space too.

The focus of the past 50 years has been on sealing up buildings tighter and tighter. Operable windows are less and less a thing outside of residential construction and even where they existed they are either replaced with fixed windows or fixed shut.

The reason radiators get so hot is because you were supposed to use them with the windows open to get fresh air.

 

[GoofGoof]

The focus of the past 50 years has been on sealing up buildings tighter and tighter. Operable windows are less and less a thing outside of residential construction and even where they existed they are either replaced with fixed windows or fixed shut.

The reason radiators get so hot is because you were supposed to use them with the windows open to get fresh air.

The irony here at my district is the schools were mostly built in the 1950s so no A/C. They spent the last 5 to 10 years adding A/c to the schools in some capacity. Now we have this situation and half the window don‘t open anymore. At the older elementary schools they still have the central boiler and radiators and they always have the windows open even in the winter because it gets too hot most days without that. They added window A/C units to every classroom but haven’t been able to use them since covid started since they keep the windows open for ventilation.

 

[GimpYancIent]

The focus of the past 50 years has been on sealing up buildings tighter and tighter. Operable windows are less and less a thing outside of residential construction and even where they existed they are either replaced with fixed windows or fixed shut.

The reason radiators get so hot is because you were supposed to use them with the windows open to get fresh air.

What a novel thought! Fresh air! Windows that actually open! Natural ventilation! Ahhh but reality is the latest and greatest minds in design and construction want controlled atmospheres, recycled air (filtered of course) and thermal control.

 

[Kevin_W]

My kid’s elementary school has been using the gym as overflow to allow for kids to eat spaced 6 feet apart. It works, but a lot of schools don’t have the space to do that. I know a few people who work in schools in Philadelphia and they don’t have the space. They can only open the schools hybrid unless the distancing is relaxed.

My daughter's school went full-time yesterday and that's what they are doing. They bought a bunch of those individual chars with a small attached desk and have those spaced 6' in the cafeteria and gymnasium. Kids put masks back on when they are done eating. My daughter and her friends are not super excited about it (6' spacing with masks in a huge room makes it really hard to talk to your friends), but it gets the job done of getting food into bellies in a relatively safe manner.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I can't even begin to imagine the hullabaloo that would take place if the 3ft rule is only for schools....

I don’t know why it’s hard to understand. A school is a unique environment with a unique “clientele” vs. a supermarket or a theme park. Less vulnerability in a controlled environment.

 

[GoofGoof]

My daughter's school went full-time yesterday and that's what they are doing. They bought a bunch of those individual chars with a small attached desk and have those spaced 6' in the cafeteria and gymnasium. Kids put masks back on when they are done eating. My daughter and her friends are not super excited about it (6' spacing with masks in a huge room makes it really hard to talk to your friends), but it gets the job done of getting food into bellies in a relatively safe manner.

They have the same setup here. You can only talk to a handful of people right near you. It seems odd but they got used to it fast. At the middle school they were still using just the cafeteria but we were hybrid so half as many kids. We go full 5 day after Spring Break but I haven’t heard what the plan is for lunch.

 

[GoofGoof]

I don’t know why it’s hard to understand. A school is a unique environment with a unique “clientele” vs. a supermarket or a theme park. Less vulnerability in a controlled environment.

That’s a tough sell for parents. I’m being told the school setup is safe not that it’s less safe but my kid is less likely to have a severe infection so it’s Ok anyway.

 

[CatesMom]

The only problem with that is they can’t eat in the classrooms if the desks are only 3 feet apart. Unless you literally take every other desk and they go to the cafeteria and the other half stay back. It could work that way.

That's how it worked at our school. Every other classroom desk empty at lunchtime.

 

[willtravel]

I don't understand why in Ohio come March 29, 16 and older can get vaccinated. But 16 and 17 year old can only get Pfizer. 18 and older does not matter. I wonder what two years makes in difference?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

What would happen to the staff after they are no longer needed? Are there even enough portable rooms that could work as classrooms? Would there be toilets in the rooms outside of the main body of the school or would pupils have to be trusted to go outside unsupervised?

The staff would be hired as temporary. Temporary and seasonal help is extremely common here in the USA.

I’m guessing there are enough portable rooms / tents etc. in many areas. If there aren’t “enough” than use as many as possible.

If restrooms are an issue than rent portable restroom trailers or portable toilets.

 

[GoofGoof]

I don't understand why in Ohio come March 29, 16 and older can get vaccinated. But 16 and 17 year old can only get Pfizer. 18 and older does not matter. I wonder what two years makes in difference?

Moderna was only approved for 18+. They didn’t have 16 and 17 year olds in their trial but Pfizer did.