News Disney mask policy at Walt Disney World theme parks

[RSoxNo1]

But it also might not if it drastically reduces the number of new daily vaccinations (which it likely would).

Not being a contrarian here, but is this just an assumption on your part, or is there some logic that mask mandates would mean vaccinated people who were on the fence about vaccination would slide into the anti-vax column?

It seems like at least in the US, anyone that wants a vaccine can get one and has been able to for some time. It's also no secret that many of those that have either elected to not get a vaccine are also less likely to wear a mask if it was anything but mandatory.

Yes, you would potentially be punishing those that are already vaccinated, but if society as a whole isn't willing to reach herd immunity through vaccination, than masks have been shown to be an effective means of preventing transmission. One of the points of emphasis when mask mandates were removed was that doing so gave more credibility to a recommendation that they be brought back.

 

[GhostHost1000]

From the UK today.

Sixty percent of people being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 have had two doses of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the government's chief scientific adviser.

COVID-19: Vallance corrects mistake to say 60% of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus are unvaccinated

Earlier, Sir Patrick Vallance told a news conference 60% of coronavirus-related hospital admissions were double-jabbed people - but he later corrected himself.

news.sky.com

Which vaccine did they get?

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Once this is over, I probably won't wear a mask much, except on public transportation. I remember many a time in the commuter rail where some guy behind me was hacking up a lung, And a few days later I was miserable with a really bad cold or the flu. One silver lining from this past year as I actually didn't get sick once.

I think in the winter when I go to WDW, I probably will wear a mask when inside. I definitely plan on wearing one when I get up from my desk at work during cold and flu season. It's been so nice. I took one sick day last year and it was a mental health day. The previous year I used five. I had to go to the ER one time in 2019 with my asthma, so my hope is that I can avoid it with some of these precautions.

 

[wdwmagic]

Which vaccine did they get?

Moderna, Pfizer and Zeneca.

 

[pdude81]

Do we know that they are in the hospital BECAUSE of COVID or are they in the hospital WITH the virus.

From the CDC in June, “The CDC received 3,907 reports of people who have been hospitalized with breakthrough Covid infections, despite being fully vaccinated. Of those, more than 1,000 of those patients were asymptomatic or their hospitalizations weren’t related to Covid-19, the CDC said.”

CDC says roughly 4,100 people have been hospitalized or died with Covid breakthrough infections after vaccination

At least 750 fully vaccinated people have died after contracting Covid but the CDC noted that 142 of those fatalities were asymptomatic or unrelated to Covid.

www.cnbc.com

At a certain point, once a high percentage of people have gotten vaccinated, breakthrough cases will start outweighing regular cases. This is actually a good thing because it gives out a lot of data on vaccine effectiveness and with an overall number that's lower it helps control the risk of new variants circulating. But it's a reminder that people still can get sick in rare cases if they get the vaccine, and even die. Vaccination is not only about self interest, because if 1000 people only in a county of a million chose not to get it, 1 person would probably still die of the virus, regardless of the choice they made to protect themselves.

 

[iowamomof4]

I think there's a couple of things that we need to look at here. The vaccines, while highly effective don't prevent all transmission and infections of COVID. They do however decrease the severity to a level which does not require hospitalization. What that means is that you can still catch COVID, even though it is unlikely, and still feel poor even after having the vaccine. I've had a couple of patients who have had both the J&J vaccine along with an employee who had the Moderna vaccine become sick enough to need to stay home for a week. They survived and were not as severe as my patients who had not been vaccinated but they were still ill nonetheless. I understand the reluctance and inconvenience of needing to wear a mask. When we were at WDW for 2 weeks, 3 weeks ago we did not wear masks outside but did when we were in crowded queues. It was funny to get the same kind of looks from people without their masks that we received on the few times we forgot to wear a mask when we were there last July. My kids are old enough to be vaccinated and we all have been. Towards the end of the trip we didn't do many rides and stopped wearing the mask. For the first time in 14 months my daughter became sick and developed a sinus infection. Not a big deal but it is interesting that that coincided with our decision not to wear masks. My wife and I are flying back down this Wednesday and we'll be wearing a mask anytime we're indoors. I'm not worried about getting COVID but I just don't feel like taking a chance on getting sick due to current trends.

I live in a fully-vaccinated household and my ds14 came home from a youth camp with a head cold that got passed through everyone in the house except me. He then proceeded to catch ANOTHER respiratory virus last week, which the rest of us have been able to avoid so far (knock on wood). This has all been going on since June 13. We've had one good weekend since then where everyone was healthy and we felt we could return to normal activities. Then that second cold hit and we're back to partial "lock-down". Sigh. We're supposed to travel to see my in-laws next weekend and we're just not sure we'll be able to go. After that we have our WDW trip the first week of August. I'm really starting to come around on the idea of wearing masks indoors again. These last few weeks have been a real pain in the you-know-what.

 

[Ripken10]

They weren't always making people wear them in the outdoor queues tho. I think they did for the first few days then changed it.

YOu had to wear it once you passed the entrance for the ride (so whatever queue they had). If the line was outside the queue (like when it overflowed) then you didn't have to wear it till you got the entrance. So like for Kilimanjaro Safaris, when the line went into the streets of Africa, you didn't have to wear it till you got to the official start of the line. This was true till June 14th.

 

[EeyoreFan#24]

From listening to all of the Orange County briefings over the past few months, it really seems to be the case now that everyone who really wants the vaccine over the age of 12 has it. It is now a hard sell to trying to convince the remaining 40%. Something needs to drastically change in Orange County to get things back under control. Triple the number of cases over a 3 week period is obviously a very bad situation and can't be allowed to carry on unchecked.

This is 100% the case. Having been on the planning team for many community clinics and a “mass vaccination” site, we shut them all down because there was no need anymore. The hard sell is the most of the remainder, and drs offices and walk ins can handle the under 10 people a day in a large population area that were coming in.

 

[GhostHost1000]

One thing we can’t forget, anyone can get covid and not even know it, that includes those that are vaccinated, and then spread it to others

WAY more people have had covid that we even realize (or were even tested) which means the severity rate would be even less

 

[CJR]

It's easy to understand for most people that the vaccine prevents you from ending up in the hospital and/or dead from covid if you do get it.

It can't be made any simpler than that. Get the vaccine and get covid, you won't die. Don't get the vaccine and get covid? Well, that's a game of chance.

I'm vaccinated. The point is that those who are not do not believe what you said is true. An increase in cases and forcing vaccinated people to wear masks is assurance to those people and allows them to convince themselves that they're correct. Thus, doing nothing to entice them.

Really, we have hit a wall. Are we going to run in circles forever mandating and unmandating masks, since these people will keep spreading Covid. Or, do we stop being lazy and come up with real incentives to get these people vaccinated?

I would start by making it a requirement to get vaccinated wherever possible (airports come to mind). I get Florida's challenges, but this problem is actually bigger than The Sunshine State, regardless what the news says. Anywhere possible. I visit Washington DC, for example, even there, no documentation needed. That needs to change, IMO.

There should be exceptions for those who can't be vaccinated for obvious reasons. My point though is a lot of places that don't have to are still using the honor system. That's stupid, IMO.

 

[Otterhead]

I think in the winter when I go to WDW, I probably will wear a mask when inside

The ironic thing about all this is that when I visited WDW a few months before the shutdown, I had actually looked into wearing a mask; I seem to always get some sort of bug when I visit, and it seemed like common sense. Back then, it was actually hard to find masks to wear. But like you and lots of other folks, I've found that not getting flus or colds has been pretty nice, so wearing a mask in a crowded park doesn't seem like a terrible idea from now on.

 

[Ripken10]

This is 100% the case. Having been on the planning team for many community clinics and a “mass vaccination” site, we shut them all down because there was no need anymore. The hard sell is the most of the remainder, and drs offices and walk ins can handle the under 10 people a day in a large population area that were coming in.

This may be the case, but interesting to note that Florida has the 11th best percentage of its population to get the vaccine since June 1st (8.8% since June 1). For the month of June Florida had the 10th best percentage, but currently they sit in 12th for the month of July.

 

[danlb_2000]

Do we know that they are in the hospital BECAUSE of COVID or are they in the hospital WITH the virus.

From the CDC in June, “The CDC received 3,907 reports of people who have been hospitalized with breakthrough Covid infections, despite being fully vaccinated. Of those, more than 1,000 of those patients were asymptomatic or their hospitalizations weren’t related to Covid-19, the CDC said.”

CDC says roughly 4,100 people have been hospitalized or died with Covid breakthrough infections after vaccination

At least 750 fully vaccinated people have died after contracting Covid but the CDC noted that 142 of those fatalities were asymptomatic or unrelated to Covid.

www.cnbc.com

Yeah, we need more information on this. The US has a pretty high prevalence of Delta right now and we aren't seeing this high a rate of unvaccinated people being hospitalized. On it's face the UK data would imply that you are less likely to be hospitalized if you aren't vaccinated.

 

[CarolinaSoprano]

I’m here now. In the middle of a 10 day stay at Yacht Club. All Disney has to do is look around. Very, very few people in masks. The majority are running around enjoying themselves maskless. Their guests don’t want masks and don’t care that Disney dropped the mandate. They feel just fine about it. They know the risks. Even the well intentioned ‘ my kids will be wearing a mask because they are under 12 and I will wear one in solidarity’ gets tossed out on day 1. If nobody is wearing a mask it is doing little good to have your 8yo in one. Remember-the mask is to protect others not yourself! Nobody here is angry that Disney is not requiring masks. It’s the opposite. They are thrilled not to wear one!

 

[wdwmagic]

I’m here now. In the middle of a 10 day stay at Yacht Club. All Disney has to do is look around. Very, very few people in masks. The majority are running around enjoying themselves maskless. Their guests don’t want masks and don’t care that Disney dropped the mandate. They feel just fine about it. They know the risks. Even the well intentioned ‘ my kids will be wearing a mask because they are under 12 and I will wear one in solidarity’ gets tossed out on day 1. If nobody is wearing a mask it is doing little good to have your 8yo in one. Remember-the mask is to protect others not yourself! Nobody here is angry that Disney is not requiring masks. It’s the opposite. They are thrilled not to wear one!

And this precisely explains why Orange County is seeing a rapid increase in cases. So what is going to be done to put the brakes on this? Something needs to happen.

 

[Ripken10]

Yeah, we need more information on this. The US has a pretty high prevalence of Delta right now and we aren't seeing this high a rate of unvaccinated people being hospitalized. On it's face the UK data would imply that you are less likely to be hospitalized if you aren't vaccinated.

Something about this study is definitely not sitting right as it is contrary to data studies in the US. But you can make numbers say anything, and perhaps there is more to this, or perhaps the study was deeply flawed in some way. No way to say for sure.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

I know things are fluid, but this does not strike me as a company that is about to bring back COVID-19 measures:

 

[wdwmagic]

Something about this study is definitely not sitting right as it is contrary to data studies in the US. But you can make numbers say anything, and perhaps there is more to this, or perhaps the study was deeply flawed in some way. No way to say for sure.

The UK has historically seen trends and patterns months before it happens in the U.S. We may see a change in U.S. data over time.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

And this precisely explains why Orange County is seeing a rapid increase in cases. So what is going to be done to put the brakes on this? Something needs to happen.

If cases are truly decoupled from hospitalization/death, does something need to happen? Even though only <60% are vaccinated, the vast majority of the vulnerable population is in that 60%.

 

[wdwmagic]

I know things are fluid, but this does not strike me as a company that is about to bring back COVID-19 measures:

Even if they were about to bring back any measures, we wouldn't be seeing any of that today. Why would Trader Sam's operate any different to say a trip on the Jungle Cruise where they are using every inch of bench space.