Proof of Vaccination or Negative COVID Test required for theme parks soon?

[Emmanuel]

Exactly. In Sweden, you can't even buy antibacterial soap or any home cleaning products with antibacterial properties. It's been banned since the 1980's. And it's worked wonders for their immunity and health as a society.

Although, that didn't stop my Aunt Ingrid in the 1980's from going to Price Club (now Costco) in San Diego to stock up on mega packs of Dial Soap to airmail to her extended family back in Stockholm. She was so worried about it!

Heck even the FDA here in the good ol USA says plain soap and water will do just fine

Antibacterial Soap? You Can Skip It, Use Plain Soap and Water

Learn why these products may not reduce your risk of infection.

www.fda.gov

 

[TP2000]

Heck even the FDA here in the good ol USA says plain soap and water will do just fine

Antibacterial Soap? You Can Skip It, Use Plain Soap and Water

Learn why these products may not reduce your risk of infection.

www.fda.gov

Yes, but the USA is starting to talk about that almost 40 years after Scandinavia. But we haven't outlawed antibacterial bath soaps and home cleansers yet, as Sweden and Norway did 40 years ago.

In fact, Lysol and other antibacterials are still flying off the shelves here in America. Kills 99.9% of germs!

 

[TP2000]

The bigger takeaway here is the huge decline in show seeing park costumes worn at Target by cast members.

Well, there is that too.

But honestly, and this shows just how far Disney has lowered our own standards as fans, I was happy to see them looking the way they did.

There were two girls and a guy, in their 20's. The guy had a beard, but it was very closely cropped and nicely maintained, with a short haircut. The girls had nicely styled/curled hair too, light makeup. None of them had visible tats, or homeless neckbeards, or weird piercings, or purple hair, or that dark goopy eye makeup some young women wear that makes Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra look like a girl scout.

They were very cute looking young people; clean cut, well groomed, chirpy. I saw them back in the spring gardening area goofing around with the tiki torches. And again, all three unmasked and happy to be there away from the maddening crowds.

 

[TP2000]

Well gang, it's time for a Friday update!
Here's this week's official data from the California Department of Public Health.

Omicron continues to crash and burn across SoCal, just as it has done previously back East and in Europe. Although Orange County (Disneyland, Knott's) continues to have lower case rates and a faster decline in hospitalization than LA County (Universal Studios, Six Flags). The rolling 14 day case rate per capita in LA County is still twice as high as that of neighboring Orange County.

February 4th, 2022
LA County = 69.6% Fully Vaccinated, 2,988 Cases Per 100K Residents Past 14 Days
Orange County = 69.7% Fully Vaccinated, 1,459 Cases Per 100K Residents Past 14 Days

Orange County Hospitalizations

LA County Hospitalizations

LA County coronavirus tracker: Cases, vaccines, maps and more

Los Angeles County coronavirus tracker: Cases, vaccines, maps and more The coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll across Los Angeles County. Here is the latest information available from hea…

www.dailynews.com

 

[TP2000]

I also found this, and might as well put it here.

Anaheim recently released it's economic modeling on taxes collected from the Anaheim Resort District. You can see how tax revenue collapsed in the Pandemic, and how it is still not yet recovered. This is based on Anaheim's Fiscal Year that runs from July 1 to June 31 of the following year.

From $162 Million pre-Covid to just $25 Million during Covid. Ouch!

 

[mickEblu]

Finally

California to lift indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people next week

California will end its indoor masking requirement for vaccinated people next week but masks still are the rule for schoolchildren, state health officials announced Monday amid rapidly falling coro…

ktla.com

 

[TP2000]

Finally

California to lift indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people next week

California will end its indoor masking requirement for vaccinated people next week but masks still are the rule for schoolchildren, state health officials announced Monday amid rapidly falling coro…

ktla.com

Good news! Sanity prevails!

The only thing to mention is that the mask mandate was scheduled to expire on February 15th anyway, so all they're doing is not extending it past its stated expiration date.

Still, I'll kind of miss it. I enjoyed wandering around in OC's polite society and big box stores waiting for some Karen to scold me about not wearing a mask. Instead, all I got was happy smiles back at me, some chit-chat waiting in checkout lines, or happy customer service from employees. I just really wanted to meet one of these Karens everyone talks about now.

 

[chadwpalm]

Finally

California to lift indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people next week

California will end its indoor masking requirement for vaccinated people next week but masks still are the rule for schoolchildren, state health officials announced Monday amid rapidly falling coro…

ktla.com

I mean, with the mandate being "lifted" for the Super Bowl, I guess they didn't want to look like hypocrites. (plus the polling is bad)

One key takeaway from the article:

"Local governments can continue their own indoor masking requirements and last week Los Angeles County’s health officials said they intend to keep theirs in place beyond the state deadline.

...

It (L.A. county) plans to keep indoor mask requirements in place until the county has two straight weeks at or below a “moderate” rate of 50 new cases per 100,000 people and there aren’t any reports of a new, troubling variant circulating, Ferrer said. The current rate is 117 cases per 100,000 people."

I'm in Santa Clara county and we've been known to be fairly strict. I have a feeling we will be waiting on some similar metrics before we can be indoors maskless. I would also assume that the definition of "fully vaccinated" will be up to the local levels as well since the CDC still currently defines "fully vaccinated" as the original two shots without the booster.

I didn't get the booster and having just recovered from Covid don't plan to get one. The cities of San Jose and San Francisco already include boosters as part of needed vax for large events. I have a feeling many counties will do so for the lifting of the indoor masking as well.

 

[Newtwo]

Thank you Magic Johnson.

Now will Disney have the cojones to change their rules?

 

[TP2000]

I mean, with the mandate being "lifted" for the Super Bowl, I guess they didn't want to look like hypocrites. (plus the polling is bad)

The Super Bowl is the 13th and the Statewide Mask Mandate doesn't end until the 15th. Officially, the mask mandate is still in effect for the Super Bowl.

Will mask and vaccine requirements be enforced at the Super Bowl?

COVID-19 vaccine proof and masks will be required at the Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, but will the requirements be enforced? Images showing maskless fans in the stands at the Rams-4…

ktla.com

One key takeaway from the article:

"Local governments can continue their own indoor masking requirements and last week Los Angeles County’s health officials said they intend to keep theirs in place beyond the state deadline.

It (L.A. county) plans to keep indoor mask requirements in place until the county has two straight weeks at or below a “moderate” rate of 50 new cases per 100,000 people and there aren’t any reports of a new, troubling variant circulating, Ferrer said. The current rate is 117 cases per 100,000 people."

I'm sure LA County will continue on with their mask mandate. The damage done to the LA County school children, already a county with a very high illiteracy rate, is now nearly irreversible. So why stop damaging the kids now? Keep those kids masked forever!

Although for the past year LA County has been the strictest with mask and vaccine mandates, and yet they have double the Case Rate of neighboring Orange County with its non-existent or unregulated mandates. So that makes you go... hmm, did the mandates in LA actually work? The science and data behind it don't seem to say it did.

Monday, February 7th Case Rates Past 14 Days Rolling Average
LA County = 2,272 Cases Per 100,000 Residents
Orange County = 961 Cases Per 100,000 Residents

 

[TP2000]

Although, Case Rates are dropping like a rock across SoCal. Monday is a key day for OC because they report in all the stats from over the weekend, so Monday's are always the highest by far for the week for Case Rate reporting in OC.

The graph speaks for itself. Orange County case rates dropping very fast.

The Case Rates for LA County are dropping similarly, but as usual are much higher per capita than Orange County. LA County also smooths out their graph to include daily totals on weekends, so Monday's numbers for LA are never the sharp spike that OC reports as.

 

[Disney Irish]

The Super Bowl is the 13th and the Statewide Mask Mandate doesn't end until the 15th. Officially, the mask mandate is still in effect for the Super Bowl.

Will mask and vaccine requirements be enforced at the Super Bowl?

COVID-19 vaccine proof and masks will be required at the Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, but will the requirements be enforced? Images showing maskless fans in the stands at the Rams-4…

ktla.com

I'm sure LA County will continue on with their mask mandate. The damage done to the LA County school children, already a county with a very high illiteracy rate, is now nearly irreversible. So why stop damaging the kids now? Keep those kids masked forever!

Although for the past year LA County has been the strictest with mask and vaccine mandates, and yet they have double the Case Rate of neighboring Orange County with non-existent or unregulated mandates. So that makes you go... hmm, did the mandates in LA actually work? The science and data behind it don't seem to say it did.

You're making the assumption there was 100% compliance in LA County at all times, in data science you can't make that assumption. The fact there were more infections in one county vs another isn't as black and white as whether there was a mask mandate or not, the key is compliance. There is a lot of factors that go into it, many of which have been discussed ad nauseam here for the last 2 years. So its not as clear cut as you make it seem.

Once this pandemic is long over there will be an analysis done regarding response, policies put in place, and overall compliance of the same. There will be a determination done on which worked the best and which didn't, and adjustments made for future pandemics. And don't fool yourself, there will be other pandemics in the future.

Also let me put it this way, there is a reason the medical field have been wearing masks for over a hundred years now. The science is beyond clear on why mask wearing to prevent infections works when followed properly.

 

[mickEblu]

Thank you Magic Johnson.

Now will Disney have the cojones to change their rules?

I think they will. They followed the States guidelines last June when they removed the mask mandates. Universal Studios on the other hand…

The other question is will Disney (or any business) be checking vaccine cards for guests walking indoors without masks? Rhetorical question. I’ve been enjoying myself at the parks but having to put you’re mask on before walking into a building is a nuisance that I will not miss.

 

[TP2000]

You're making the assumption there was 100% compliance in LA County at all times, in data science you can't make that assumption. The fact there were more infections in one county vs another isn't as black and white as whether there was a mask mandate or not, the key is compliance.

Of course LA County wasn't 100% compliant in mask wearing. I saw all the Tweet Pics from last weekend's Rams game at SoFi Stadium, don't forget.

But mask compliance is even less in Orange County than it is in LA County. And for many recent months LA County had a full countywide mask mandate and vaccine mandate, while Orange County had none of those.

So... you'd think LA County wouldn't have over twice the case rate as Orange County over the past twelve months, wouldn't you? And yet the data and the statistics are quite clear. And before anyone asks, testing rates are higher per capita in Orange County than they are in LA County, so it's not that they're under-testing in OC, and if anything it's likely even more cases were missed in LA through their poor testing per capita.

Just as cases are more than twice as high in LA compared to OC, testing is more than twice as high in OC compared to LA.

Covid Tests Administered From March, 2020 to February 7th, 2022
LA County (population 10.1 Million) = 11,196,000 Tests, 0.9 Tests Per County Resident
Orange County (population 3.3 Million) = 7,417,000 Tests, 2.2 Tests Per County Resident

LA County Daily COVID-19 Data - LA County Department of Public Health

www.publichealth.lacounty.gov

COVID-19 Case Counts and Testing Figures | Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

.casecount-total { color: #ffffff; background-color: #1b3d6d; border-color: #1b3d6d; } .casecount-total-caption { font-style: italic; color: #636466; } .casecount-btn-panels { padding: 0 !important; border-top-left-radius: 15px !important; border-top-right-radius: 15px !important...

occovid19.ochealthinfo.com

 

[TP2000]

I think they will. They followed the States guidelines last June when they removed the mask mandates. Universal Studios on the other hand…

That is the big question. Universal Studios is at the whims of the County of Los Angeles. No one envies them.

The other question is will Disney (or any business) be checking vaccine cards for guests walking indoors without masks?

I doubt it. The whole vaccine card thing is a joke. Two years later and there's no federal or state system for businesses to track vaccine status. Even for businesses that go through the theater of checking, it's literally just showing a 20 year old hostess a screenshot on your phone of anyone's vaccine card. Even to get into the Super Bowl this weekend, you just have to show the usher your phone with a screenshot of someone's vaccine card.

 

[Tom P.]

Also let me put it this way, there is a reason the medical field have been wearing masks for over a hundred years now. The science is beyond clear on why mask wearing to prevent infections works when followed properly.

There is a reason, yes. And it is not to prevent the transmission of airborne viruses.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

LA County wont end its mandate when the rest of the state does.

In other news, my friends treated me to the Nascar shindig at the Coliseum on Sunday. Nascar isn't my thing but I'd be lying if I didn't say I had a great time.

People wore their masks through security, and then began removing them. By the time the event was over, barely any people were still wearing masks.

I held my breath the whole time.

 

[Disney Irish]

There is a reason, yes. And it is not to prevent the transmission of airborne viruses.

Reduction in the amount of airborne particulates such as saliva in which the virus travels is exactly what masks do.

 

[Tom P.]

Reduction in the amount of airborne particulates such as saliva in which the virus travels is exactly what masks do.

Medical personnel have never worn masks to prevent viral transmission. The primary purpose is to prevent the contamination of open wounds. If a surgeon were sick with a contagious disease, he or she would not perform a surgery, mask or not, because they have never been an effective way to prevent the spread of such disease. In the earlier days of the Covid pandemic, when the primary method of transmission was thought to be respiratory droplets, perhaps an argument could be made for *some* protection. But now when Covid is widely acknowledged to be airborne, masks are really providing a false sense of security. I think the respective authorities are making the right call that it is time to end the widespread masking.

 

[Disney Irish]

Medical personnel have never worn masks to prevent viral transmission. The primary purpose is to prevent the contamination of open wounds. If a surgeon were sick with a contagious disease, he or she would not perform a surgery, mask or not, because they have never been an effective way to prevent the spread of such disease. In the earlier days of the Covid pandemic, when the primary method of transmission was thought to be respiratory droplets, perhaps an argument could be made for *some* protection. But now when Covid is widely acknowledged to be airborne, masks are really providing a false sense of security. I think the respective authorities are making the right call that it is time to end the widespread masking.

COVID IS a respiratory disease. ALL respiratory diseases are airborne as that is how they are transmitted, through the air on droplets of a cough or sneeze. Respiratory diseases ARE spread through droplets.

COVID-19 and Your Health

Symptoms, testing, what to do if sick, daily activities, and more.

www.cdc.gov

COVID-19 spreads when an infected person breathes out droplets and very small particles that contain the virus. These droplets and particles can be breathed in by other people or land on their eyes, noses, or mouth. In some circumstances, they may contaminate surfaces they touch. People who are closer than 6 feet from the infected person are most likely to get infected.

COVID-19 is spread in three main ways:

Breathing in air when close to an infected person who is exhaling small droplets and particles that contain the virus.
Having these small droplets and particles that contain virus land on the eyes, nose, or mouth, especially through splashes and sprays like a cough or sneeze.
Touching eyes, nose, or mouth with hands that have the virus on them.

Masking is what helps reduce that transmission of droplets in the air.