I’m not sure we know much about this virus at all. What we do know is not based on scientific studies but observational data which can be right or very wrong. It will be 6 months to years until we know definitely exactly how this virus works and why some people at the same age and with the same underlying conditions are asymptomatic while others end up in the ICU on a ventilator. I’m not interested in debating that. We can agree to disagree on how much we know.
From the perspective of WDW and the travel and leisure economy in general, 20% of the adult population is over 65, close to 1/3 of adults have high blood pressure, 20% have diabetes, 15-20% have asthma, 30-40% of the adult population is obese. Some of those things cross each other with older people who have high blood pressure and diabetes. If you then factor in people who directly care for a high risk person (someone who takes care of or lives with their elderly parent, the parent of a kid with asthma, etc) you may get to over half the population. The point of all of this is WDW and the travel economy in general can’t be sustained long term with half the customers sitting out. The biggest false narrative going is that the government stay at home orders tanked the economy. The pandemic and the virus tanked it.
Even if the government opened everything up you can’t force people to show up. What’s best for the economy (and WDW in general) is for a slow and steady opening. That’s the best chance to get people comfortable with coming back. I get that people have trips booked and ADRs and FP reservations made and it’s disappointing. I get that some people feel they are at low risk so they want to get back to life. Things will open, but if we go too fast it could lead to a setback and more damage to the economy. We need to stick to the plan and use data and statistics, not emotion to make decisions on re-opening.
www.graham-center.org
