News Disney mask policy at Walt Disney World theme parks

[CTC]

The level of nastiness that I want to respond with to this comment is immeasurable.

As someone who has served I find this comment utterly insulting.

I don’t wear a mask in public and I’m vaccinated.

So freaking what.

I am still prepared at any time to defend this country.

Something many here could never do, once they realize they had more than a .02 percent chance of death.

Is that a low blow?

Yup.

Well deserved for such a stupid comment.

.02 is two percent. That's a lot of people. The fact that our country is so divided on something as simple as a mask makes me wonder how we could unify the way we did during WWII? How does that comment get you outraged?

And the country is the people in it. Not the flag or the constitution, but the citizens at its core. If masks and vaccinations are part of keeping people safe from an invisible enemy, why would folks not want to defend our citizens in the same way we would take up arms to fight a war?

 

[Tom P.]

You're correct that the purpose of the vaccine is to reduce or eliminate symptoms for 95% of people.

But remember: the vaccine does not eradicate the disease. It doesn't prevent you from getting it, testing positive, and carrying it without any symptoms. The parks are full of kids who cannot get the vaccine (yet!). With new variations that are far more transmissible than the older one we had a year ago, yes, it could become extremely important for vaccinated people to wear masks again to avoid giving kids Covid.

Somehow this messaging stuck in people's minds from the early days of the vaccine when we did not have all the data, but it has been proven to not be true.

While it is true that the vaccines do not do a 100% job of prevention (nothing does), there have been at least nine published, peer reviewed studies that have clearly shown that the vaccines do not just prevent severe symptoms, but actually do a good job of preventing infection and asymptomatic transmission.

 

[pdude81]

You can believe me or not. I don't know what state you live in, but here in NJ, you would sooner see it snowing in July than see a person at a store without a mask on. It simply did not happen. I mean ever. Supermarkets, Home Depot, doctors office. Heck, even outside everyone wore a mask. I still see people outside my house running with masks on. Mask culture was huge here and as nearly 100% as you could get.

As a fellow New Jerseyan, I'd like to chime in that, at least according to what the public health officials in the governor's briefings were saying, that the vast majority of spread coming back from contract tracing was due to indoor, largely unmasked gatherings. They weren't finding that people stayed at home all day and were careful with masks at the grocery store, yet still got sick.

Also to me a key point in all this is population density. Some states and metro areas have it a lot worse off than others. Miami, for instance, fared much worse than other areas of Florida because people live, work, and travel much closer together than in other places.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

As a fellow New Jerseyan, I'd like to chime in that, at least according to what the public health officials in the governor's briefings were saying, that the vast majority of spread coming back from contract tracing was due to indoor, largely unmasked gatherings. They weren't finding that people stayed at home all day and were careful with masks at the grocery store, yet still got sick.

Also to me a key point in all this is population density. Some states and metro areas have it a lot worse off than others. Miami, for instance, fared much worse than other areas of Florida because people live, work, and travel much closer together than in other places.

Right. Which is what Fauci said all along and why we see spikes after holidays. Which is why I say mask mandates don't work: people are largely unmasked in settings where they are contracting COVID-19.

 

[Otterhead]

As someone who has served I find this comment utterly insulting.

I don’t wear a mask in public and I’m vaccinated.

So freaking what.

I might be off-base, but I think what they meant was that WWII was a time when the whole country came together and fought for a common cause (both boots on the ground and efforts at home) for four solid years.

Here we are 70-ish years later, and we can't even get half of the country to take a vaccine that's proven safe and effective, much less wear a piece of cloth, because there's so much stupid misinformation and confusion out there. The divisions are stark and difficult to get around.

That has nothing to do with your military service.

 

[KrzyKtty]

I'm really curious why everybody's argument for masking up in mass quantities again is to protect the children running around in the parks? If they're not vaccinated, and it's really that big of an issue, they shouldn't be at the parks. If their parents are taking them there, they obviously don't think it's that big of a problem or risk.

This is entering dangerous territories of accusing large majority of parents who are trying to do everyday things with their children as being irresponsible parents that we need to protect their little ones from. These parents know full well that if their children are unvaccinated, they are supposed to be wearing a mask. I haven't been at the park lately, but from what I'm hearing on multiple threads, very few children are running around in these parks. The vast majority of people with children are the parks don't seem that concerned, so I'm not sure why the entire country is supposed to be safety warriors for the big mean parents that don't know how to do their job.

And I see this as someone who has a child that can't be vaccinated and I'm currently constantly harassing to wear her mask.

 

[CTC]

I might be off-base, but I think what they meant was that WWII was a time when the whole country came together and fought for a common cause (both boots on the ground and efforts at home) for four solid years.

Here we are 70-ish years later, and we can't even get half of the country to take a vaccine that's proven safe and effective, much less wear a piece of cloth, because there's so much stupid misinformation and confusion out there. The divisions are stark and difficult to get around.

That has nothing to do with your military service.

Exactly.

 

[Otterhead]

Somehow this messaging stuck in people's minds from the early days of the vaccine when we did not have all the data, but it has been proven to not be true.

While it is true that the vaccines do not do a 100% job of prevention (nothing does), there have been at least nine published, peer reviewed studies that have clearly shown that the vaccines do not just prevent severe symptoms, but actually do a good job of preventing infection and asymptomatic transmission.

They do help, but mRNA vaccines don't eradicate disease the way the polio/smallpox vaccines do, though as you say, studies show that the Pfizer and possibly Moderna vaccines help prevent transmission. Good point, thank you.

 

[KrzyKtty]

And I just want to clarify, personally I have no issue wearing a mask still even though I'm vaccinated. And that's mostly because my workplace already reported that somebody went into the office unmasked, against company policy, and it turned out they had covid. I mostly do it as a precautionary measure so that if I am in the small breakout minority, and asymptomatic, I don't spread it around to my child.

But at the same time, there seems to be more people on this forum that are concerned about protecting the children at the parks, who debatably probably shouldn't be there, then there seems to be people concerned at the actual parks.

 

[CTC]

We didn't shut the country down for 0.02%. Nor would we ever. If that is your threshold for unacceptable public health risk, I suggest you never leave your house.

Exactly. .02 without a percent symbol is 2%. .02% is the death rate of a bad flu.

 

[pdude81]

Right. Which is what Fauci said all along and why we see spikes after holidays. Which is why I say mask mandates don't work: people are largely unmasked in settings where they are contracting COVID-19.

And we can't control what people do in their own homes with the doors shut. But don't you think it's possible that the masks slowed a lot of spread out in public settings and it would have been much worse for people who were very careful at home but had no choice but buy food to live.

People can drive unregistered and uninsured trucks on their property without much of a hassle, but when you take that vehicle into the public right of way it now there is a vested interest in public safety.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Exactly. .02 without a percent symbol is 2%. .02% is the death rate of a bad flu.

You said "0.02 percent." A normal flu is about 0.1% actually.

But yes, 2% is bad. COVID's CFR is no where near 2%. CDC has it at 0.55% (about 5-6x worse than an average flu). That's again, if you are unvaccinated. The mortality in truly healthy people is similar to a flu.

 

[Trauma]

I'm really curious why everybody's argument for masking up in mass quantities again is to protect the children running around in the parks? If they're not vaccinated, and it's really that big of an issue, they shouldn't be at the parks. If their parents are taking them there, they obviously don't think it's that big of a problem or risk.

This is entering dangerous territories of accusing large majority of parents who are trying to do everyday things with their children as being irresponsible parents that we need to protect their little ones from. These parents know full well that if their children are unvaccinated, they are supposed to be wearing a mask. I haven't been at the park lately, but from what I'm hearing on multiple threads, very few children are running around in these parks. The vast majority of people with children are the parks don't seem that concerned, so I'm not sure why the entire country is supposed to be safety warriors for the big mean parents that don't know how to do their job.

And I see this as someone who has a child that can't be vaccinated and I'm currently constantly harassing to wear her mask.

I’m sorry I guess I’m just worked up this morning let me expand on this.

These kids are going back to school full time in most areas.

They will need to eat.

I can’t eat with a mask on can you?

Maybe 7 year olds can just go all day without eating.

I’m sure that will work out.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

But don't you think it's possible that the masks slowed a lot of spread out in public settings and it would have been much worse for people who were very careful at home but had no choice but buy food to live.

I didn't say masks didn't slow things down; I said the mandates didn't. Mask education was sufficient for every state without a mask mandate. Take Florida for instance, many people wore masks. Many stores required masks. They had similar or better outcomes than states with mandates. I don't think living in New Jersey is any different than in Florida.

And I think all of that is largely because it's hard to get infected in a supermarket, but easy to at a party. The low risk setting people were masking, the high risk they were not.

 

[KrzyKtty]

I’m sorry I guess I’m just worked up this morning let me expand on this.

These kids are going back to school full time in most areas.

They will need to eat.

I can’t eat with a mask on can you?

Maybe 7 year olds can just go all day without eating.

I’m sure that will work out.

My daughter went to school almost all last year full-time. 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, with almost a full classroom. I think by January, there were only four or five kids in her entire class doing digital.

Their desks were put in groups, but plexiglass was put between the desks. That everyone ate at their desk; The cafeteria wasn't used all year. Food was delivered right to the classroom.

None of the kids were required to wear their mask while they were sitting at their desk, only while they were moving about in the school, or sitting on the carpet during group activities.

This was for the entire elementary school. No reported cases ever came out of the school, and no one from my daughter's class ever had to go into quarantine.

There are wide areas of the country that operated like this throughout all last year and can serve as role models for the areas of the country that are just now getting back to school.

 

[CarolinaSoprano]

See, here's the thing: I don't believe that for a moment. Yes, there may have been a mask mandate, but I live in a state which had one as well, and I saw people every single day taking off masks in stores, walking around, chatting, etc. People are people, and they don't abide by rules if nobody's forcing them to. It's why WDW had so much trouble with anti-maskers; they didn't have the staff to continually enforce it, and folks learned quickly that they could just ignore that rule. It's also why they're probably very loath to bring it back -- they want to protect the CM's from angry, violent idiots.

So from your explanation the masks didn’t work the first time because people are people...but we should do it again?

 

[Otterhead]

There are wide areas of the country that operated like this throughout all last year and can serve as role models for the areas of the country that are just now getting back to school.

That's how my nephew's school worked, except they used a hybrid schedule: half of the kids went to school in person M-W while the other half attended remotely, and then they'd swap Th-F, and go back and forth each week, to keep the in-person attendance down & allow for distancing. No cases were reported as far as I'm aware.

 

[Otterhead]

So from your explanation the masks didn’t work the first time because people are people...but we should do it again?

That's not what I said. Please don't put words in my mouth. It's rude.

I said that it's a fallacy to think masks are supposed to be 100% effective and (as some people are doing) dismiss them useless because we still had COVID cases in places with mandates.

Masks help. Study after study shows that they help prevent transmission, and they do a great job of it if everyone wears them.

 

[KrzyKtty]

That's how my nephew's school worked, except they used a hybrid schedule: half of the kids went to school in person M-W while the other half attended remotely, and then they'd swap Th-F, and go back and forth each week, to keep the in-person attendance down & allow for distancing. No cases were reported as far as I'm aware.

The county next to us did it that way. South Carolina pretty much left it up to each individual school district to determine how they were doing it themselves. So each district in the entire state did it slightly different than the one next to them .

Our district did what they called blended. You could either be traditional in the classroom, or virtual through Google meets. However, it's not like the virtual classrooms where their own entities. So my daughter's teacher had kids online, and kids in her classroom simultaneously. However, most of the young children weren't doing well virtually, so by November a lot of them were transferred back to the classroom.

 

[Andrew C]

I’m sorry I guess I’m just worked up this morning let me expand on this.

These kids are going back to school full time in most areas.

They will need to eat.

I can’t eat with a mask on can you?

Maybe 7 year olds can just go all day without eating.

I’m sure that will work out.

My 8 year old will be going back to school next month...no masks in the district. Based on the data and information that has come out, not concerned. This district, this will be our first year here, actually didn't require masks all of last school year and had very little issue.

Going to WDW with my 3 year old in September. I am hoping by that time they will not require a mask for her because it really provides no benefit to her or anyone else. We took her in February when she was 2, and she wore a mask. But it was really just for show because they continuously would get covered in her slobber. She was 2, what would you expect? And even if she kept it dry and in the appropriate position on her face at all times, transmission levels from a 2 year old? eh, super low to almost non-existent. I imagine it will be a similar issue this time around if she has to wear one, although I guess only indoors and on transportation makes things a bit easier...and dryer? LOL