Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[DisneyCane]

So I’m still waiting for a plausible explanation on the younger sect? Don’t blow your O-Rings trying to figure it out.

Your explanation would probably be that because the narrative has been that the seniors were high risk and should be prioritized for vaccination and young people really aren't at risk the younger demographic "bought in" and decided they don't need the vaccine.

My "spin" is that the narrative is mostly correct and that the younger demographic doesn't feel a need to rush out and get vaccinated because they aren't at high risk.

I haven't seen the age breakdown for the higher vaccinated States (NY, NJ, PA etc) but I'd imagine there is a similar pattern just at a slightly higher level. It's not like only young people in FL believe that their personal risk is low.

 

[Wild Mister Toad]

Anyone know the prevalence of variants in Colorado these days? It was shown that Michigan exploded and it was heavily driven by the variants, same with CA in Jan and the NE in March. In CA it took months for the spike to drop down since few people were vaccinated. As we have seen in the NE the variant driven spike was smaller than past waves and short lived due to vaccination levels.

Any concern over variants is media driven hogwash. Michigan exploded because they opened back up, not because of variants. Texas opened up last September (not in March) and exploded.

 

[DisneyCane]

Anyone know the prevalence of variants in Colorado these days? It was shown that Michigan exploded and it was heavily driven by the variants, same with CA in Jan and the NE in March. In CA it took months for the spike to drop down since few people were vaccinated. As we have seen in the NE the variant driven spike was smaller than past waves and short lived due to vaccination levels.

I found this at https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Your explanation would probably be that because the narrative has been that the seniors were high risk and should be prioritized for vaccination and young people really aren't at risk the younger demographic "bought in" and decided they don't need the vaccine.

My "spin" is that the narrative is mostly correct and that the younger demographic doesn't feel a need to rush out and get vaccinated because they aren't at high risk.

I haven't seen the age breakdown for the higher vaccinated States (NY, NJ, PA etc) but I'd imagine there is a similar pattern just at a slightly higher level. It's not like only young people in FL believe that their personal risk is low.

yeah...still the wrong stance. But “you do you”

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Any concern over variants is media driven hogwash. Michigan exploded because they opened back up, not because of variants. Texas opened up last September (not in March) and exploded.

...another challenger looking for a shot at the title.
Variants are of concern because of biology...they have the POTENTIAL to cause problems. Doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee...but that doesn’t mean you ignore it.

public
Health
Policy

 

[EricsBiscuit]

When are they removing the stupid plexiglass panels from ride vehicles?

 

[sullyinMT]

There's a nice color coded map at https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations. While the lowest percentage States mostly correlate with another colored map (GA excluded), they are also very rural.

I'd imagine that the few densely populated areas of those States are pretty highly vaccinated. If somebody lives out in the middle of nowhere and never spends a significant amount of time gathered indoors in crowded scenarios, I don't think that them not being vaccinated will alter the trajectory of the pandemic much.

On this other color coded map from the CDC (https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_community), the level of community spread in most of those states low on the vaccination percentage list are shown as having a "moderate" level of community transmission. Only CA is shown as "low" and many States with much higher vaccination percentages are also in the "moderate" category.

Getting to 60% of the population in FL vaccinated (which will hopefully happen in a couple of months) will have a much greater impact on reducing community spread than getting 80% of Wyoming vaccinated (which isn't ever going to happen anyway).

I can speak to MT. Our most populated county is one of our weakest performing, with double the case rate of its other “big” counterparts. Gallatin (Bozeman) and Missoula are what you describe. Those counties also house our biggest universities and a more modern workforce.

 

[hopemax]

Anyone know the prevalence of variants in Colorado these days? It was shown that Michigan exploded and it was heavily driven by the variants, same with CA in Jan and the NE in March. In CA it took months for the spike to drop down since few people were vaccinated. As we have seen in the NE the variant driven spike was smaller than past waves and short lived due to vaccination levels.

I get back home today, so tomorrow I can dig back into the local news going forward. But before I left, we already were one of the states with higher levels of B.1.1.7 originating with travelers in Ski Country, and then moving throughout the state. Looking at our VOC table, there are a smattering of the others but it's mostly B.1.1.7 (77.6% of specimens).

Looking at cases, the Denver metro (all counties) is highest, because that's where the people are, but El Paso County (Colorado Springs) is the one single county, still at hundreds of new cases per day. Population is a reason, but also low vax rates, no one tells me what to do, freedom crowd.

 

[Patcheslee]

Hate to say it be doubt Indiana will be doing much to influence people to get vaccinated. Even the attorney General is saying IU requiring students and staff to be vaccinated next school year is against the law. Think we're sitting at 44% vaccinated. Even with 1 case a day our county is at 15+/100k because our population is 44k.

 

[Kevin_W]

Good news that immunity may last for quite some time:

Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find (Published 2021)

Important immune cells survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected with the virus or were inoculated against it, new research suggests.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Abs]

Explain Texas. The epidemiologists would have certainly predicted a much higher case rate now with the lack of mitigation and low-ish vaccination rate.

The thing helping Texas is that the big cities have a pretty high vaccination rate. As of May 22nd 54% of Houstonians (not sure if this is adults or total population) have had at least their first shot. 45.5% are fully vaccinated. 96.4% of adults over 60 have had at least their first shot. I imagine this is similar to Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas. The big cities are really doing pretty well. It's the rural areas that bring the state averages down significantly. I imagine this will eventually be a problem but I guess we will see.

 

[ABQ]

So I’m still waiting for a plausible explanation on the younger sect? Don’t blow your O-Rings trying to figure it out.



there’s never been any “explanation” or Texas. There’s honestly never been any trust either.

so after being pretty much wrong about the whole...darn...thing...
We’re gonna debate the “Texas stance”? Their mitigation was dropped to provide cover for a public utilities scandal disaster. It was a POLITICAL play.

three things are undefeated:
1. Father time
2. Mother nature
3. History

Regardless of why Texas opened up, they didn't explode into a devastating number of cases.

So
Please
Explain
why
Neanderthal
thinking
didn't send
hundreds

of

thousands

to hospitals in the past couple months?

 

[Heppenheimer]

Are any of you tired of arguing over the same things? We are almost out of this thing but it seems like no one has learned one of the most important lessons of the last 15 months. You can't change anyone's opinion. It just can't be done

I've found that you actually can change peoples' minds. But an internet forum is usually not the place to do it.

You need to ask people in a non-condescending manner what concerns they may have and then address those concerns with an evidence-based argument. I've found most of the people who are hesitant aren't anti-vaxxers, but the anti-vaxxers have placed enough seed of doubt through their social media contacts that they aren't sure what to believe. These doubts and misunderstandings are actually relatively easy to counteract.

 

[GoofGoof]

Regardless of why Texas opened up, they didn't explode into a devastating number of cases.

So
Please
Explain
why
Neanderthal
thinking
didn't send
hundreds

of

thousands

to hospitals in the past couple months?

Dropping state mask mandates didn’t mean no Covid mitigations. Many businesses continued their same policies. From friends and co-workers I know in the Houston area not much changed when the gov dropped masks. Most businesses continued to require them as well as most employers. That hadn’t started to change until recently with the new CDC rules for fully vaccinated. That’s part of the answer.

We also have 3 highly effective vaccines and 56% of the adult population in TX has been vaccinated with one. As @Abs pointed out above the urban centers in TX are even higher than the state average and that’s where population density comes into play. So when you combine the vaccination rate with the natural infections there’s a high level of immunity there even though the state level is below the national average. That’s the other part of the answer.

The biggest risk is there are pockets where large numbers of people are unvaccinated that could result in a localized outbreak. I am hopeful that at this point we are far enough along that a statewide spike won’t be long lived or dramatic if it happens. I will feel better about that if/when we get some more people vaccinated. Keeping my fingers crossed

 

[DisneyDebRob]

I've found that you actually can change peoples' minds. But an internet forum is usually not the place to do it.

You need to ask people in a non-condescending manner what concerns they may have and then address those concerns with an evidence-based argument. I've found most of the people who are hesitant aren't anti-vaxxers, but the anti-vaxxers have placed enough seed of doubt through their social media contacts that they aren't sure what to believe. These doubts and misunderstandings are actually relatively easy to counteract.

I personally have had my mind changed a few times.. here.. on this thread.. it can happen. Can think of three times where I read something here, dug in deeper and realized I may have been wrong. Did I just say that?
Wasn’t major things but it could have gone down that route in the future.
Still stand by most things like how badly we handled things from the beginning.. where most of the blame should have been leveled at and how Fauci is still the best we have and has been correct 99 percent of the time. Some things I won’t budge on.

 

[ABQ]

Dropping state mask mandates didn’t mean no Covid mitigations. Many businesses continued their same policies. From friends and co-workers I know in the Houston area not much changed when the gov dropped masks. Most businesses continued to require them as well as most employers. That hadn’t started to change until recently with the new CDC rules for fully vaccinated. That’s part of the answer.

We also have 3 highly effective vaccines and 56% of the adult population in TX has been vaccinated with one. As @Abs pointed out above the urban centers in TX are even higher than the state average and that’s where population density comes into play. So when you combine the vaccination rate with the natural infections there’s a high level of immunity there even though the state level is below the national average. That’s the other part of the answer.

The biggest risk is there are pockets where large numbers of people are unvaccinated that could result in a localized outbreak. I am hopeful that at this point we are far enough along that a statewide spike won’t be long lived or dramatic if it happens. I will feel better about that if/when we get some more people vaccinated. Keeping my fingers crossed

I agree with you entirely, which is why I didn't disagree with what Texas did. Which is why I feel it is very wrong for them to be insulted the way they were for lifting their mandates. I was envious of my neighbors as sure, lifting the mandates does not imply everyone will be a poop for brains. Just as the initial "you can take your mask off for a photo" WDW did, did not create mass mayhem. I know it's safe to assume there are many idiots out there in the world, common sense is common and tends to prevail.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

Dropping state mask mandates didn’t mean no Covid mitigations. Many businesses continued their same policies. From friends and co-workers I know in the Houston area not much changed when the gov dropped masks. Most businesses continued to require them as well as most employers. That hadn’t started to change until recently with the new CDC rules for fully vaccinated. That’s part of the answer.

We also have 3 highly effective vaccines and 56% of the adult population in TX has been vaccinated with one. As @Abs pointed out above the urban centers in TX are even higher than the state average and that’s where population density comes into play. So when you combine the vaccination rate with the natural infections there’s a high level of immunity there even though the state level is below the national average. That’s the other part of the answer.

The biggest risk is there are pockets where large numbers of people are unvaccinated that could result in a localized outbreak. I am hopeful that at this point we are far enough along that a statewide spike won’t be long lived or dramatic if it happens. I will feel better about that if/when we get some more people vaccinated. Keeping my fingers crossed

Your first paragraph explains it very well. That’s exactly right.
The dropping of mitigation’s has nothing to do with how businesses continue to operate. Most kept mandates. It also explains how Florida got away with less deaths even though the governor was handling this like a board game. Lifting restrictions and telling everyone to come because we are open for business didn’t hurt them as much because the seniors and elderly were being safe and taking precautions. While it spread because of the “ we need to be free” thinking of the younger ones, it was the smarts of the older that kept them from the horrible numbers of other states.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Regardless of why Texas opened up, they didn't explode into a devastating number of cases.

So
Please
Explain
why
Neanderthal
thinking
didn't send
hundreds

of

thousands

to hospitals in the past couple months?

I’m not an expert...and even they fully admit they are making the best calculated assessments based on the info available.

maybe Texas benefits from time and space more than other areas? Maybe the weather conditions helped? Maybe they had large numbers of low severity infections for a year prior? Or maybe people managed to stay the hell away from each other better?

whatever it is...none of it means that not following the expert advice EVER made sense. It never has and never will.

we’re in a feedback loop. It’s not even about health policy...it was just applied to it.

there are two myths being manifested:
1. That everyone’s opinion matters the same no matter the background/expertise
2. That experience is “optional”

it’s the “power of the dumb”...that’s been used to steer power for 20+ years.

it’s anti-nature...things are as they are...not the way we shout about them.

 

[CosmicRays]

When are they removing the stupid plexiglass panels from ride vehicles?

Not soon enough.

 

[CosmicRays]

The thing helping Texas is that the big cities have a pretty high vaccination rate. As of May 22nd 54% of Houstonians (not sure if this is adults or total population) have had at least their first shot. 45.5% are fully vaccinated. 96.4% of adults over 60 have had at least their first shot. I imagine this is similar to Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas. The big cities are really doing pretty well. It's the rural areas that bring the state averages down significantly. I imagine this will eventually be a problem but I guess we will see.

We also have alot of open space in Texas. I would guess that kept transmission down out in the rural areas for longer than normal.