Topic: Coronavirus outbreak

Passed by the Weather Channel this afternoon and saw this...

Only in America, lol.

For @-Green- and anyone that wants to see what Disney World is doing. I discovered this youtube channel, Prince Charming Dev when Disney World reopened. First vid shows how a disney resort hotel has changed for reopening. Second video shows how entering and visiting Magic Kingdom has changed for reopening. It's interesting to see. And the second video is also a virtual tour, hitting some famous rides.

Bay Lake Tower hotel: See measures they are taking at the Disney resort hotels

Magic Kingdom Reopened

So not by choice, but I'm leaving Japan tomorrow, and I've had to spend the last couple days at the airport hotel here in Tokyo. And I have to say, airline companies as we know them, the whole industry, I do not see how it is going to survive. This is a facility meant service literally thousands of people at any given time. And Tokyo has two of them. And it's basically deserted.

I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't be doing all we can to fight the pandemic, I actually think we aren't doing enough. (I'm not travelling by choice - had I found a safe way to stay here, I would have) But I think it's only just now that I'm realizing that the pandemic isn't just killing people, it's also warping society.

I no longer think that even if/when we get past this disaster, we will simply return to how things were. I really think society has been fundamentally changed.

I went to a pizza hut just the other day and they weren't enforcing the mask order. Even the employess had their masks basically just barely over their mouths and hanging on their necks not fully covering their nose. There wasn't even a sign on the door that said you must wear a mask to enter the building. I guess they don't feel like running off customers all day or having to put up with violent outburts constantly.

I still feel like this thing has gotten really stupid and people shouldn't be forced or treated like scum for not wearing them. All it's doing is dividing the whole world and the crazy people are making it worse. If people are going to start killing eachother over mask policies maybe it's not saving that many lives after all. Nevermind the economy collapsing.

All i know is i am so glad my school days are long behind me. It's gonna be miserable.

@Zeldafan79 I saw you replied to this thread and I thought to myself that you were going post something about going to get junk food.

The (real, not spoof) New York city guidance of safe sex during the pandemic is amazing. Glory hole, try sexy zoom parties, make sure they are consenting;
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-sex-g...

@Heavyarms55 Yeah, I always thought that America was just idiots (I still think this) that if we would just lockdown for a month then we could basically wipe it out and move on, but Americans are too proud and focused on their freedoms to do it. But now I'm seeing more and more stories about countries that did do that and seemed to have it under control are now seeing strong re-surges of the virus and having to lockdown again. So who knows? We may be stuck until a vaccine develops, and even then it may not completely help. But we are still a bunch of idiots who should be doing a lot more to control it and we just flat out refuse to do it. I saw in China you can be arrested if you are seen in public without a mask. We should do that. Or at least a very hefty fine.

@Heavyarms55 The irony of course is that if everyone went in a proper lockdown for 4-6 weeks, we wouldn't even be here in the first place and businesses would be doing fine.

@Zeldafan79 Well, that's down to had policy or bad enforcement. They should just enforce masks at all times in public places when it gets as bad as it does. Or even to prevent a breakout in some areas. But it should be a national thing. I was in Belgium the other day, and masks are mandatory in most places. And I had to wear one for about a week. Guess what, I turned out fine. It's just a piece of cloth, and it helps to save lifes. You're not being asked to shove a bottle of coke sideways up your arse.

@Xyphon22 Being up north, Americans are a problem. They keep sneaking and getting across the border. We had no cases here for a long time, then a couple....traced back to Americans. I've not heard how so many are getting across in some areas.
Out in BC its a large issue. Apparently, there's some 'right of way' for Americans to be able to drive through to get to Alaska, but it's supposed to be a straight drive, no stops, no going off course, etc. It's being severely abused, people claiming that's where they're going to get across and instead vacationing all over the province.
If it weren't so serious, I'd find it ironically funny how many are trying to get north of the border given the stance on the same thing with the Mexican border not so long ago.
Before someone jumps on me, I'm not saying all Americans are this stupid.

And of course, it's not just Americans are doing these things. There was a local girl who went to a high-risk zone, came back, lied about it and went back to work (at a gas station, no less). She subsequently got caught, fired, and I believe fined and forced quarantine. It's these people who absolutely refuse to adjust their lives even slightly who are making it worse for everyone else and dragging this out longer than it needs to be.
Some of them, I swear they do it just because they're told they shouldn't be. If you told these same people we needed to travel, get out and spread it for herd immunity, they would refuse and lock themselves down just because they were told the opposite.

Ya know, an awful lot of folks have this idea that people of all areas can just stay inside their house for 4-6 weeks, without getting additional food, or without obtaining money to pay utilities. Folks also seem to think that if such a thing were done all at one time, the virus would be gone. I'm not sure if some folks just don't understand simple concepts or not, or are just anxious and worried so they channel that energy elsewhere, but saying things that don't make rational sense only helps to keep negativity around the whole thing.

Has anyone heard a good counter-argument to the idea that we should've just segregated everyone over a certain age (65 maybe) and told everyone else to continue as normal?

In terms of balancing the risk to life vs the economic destruction, that sort of policy would probably optimize for both.

I don't want to risk people getting permanent health problems just because they probably won't die.

@Dezzy

I mean...

1) That's going to make more people vectors of the virus and dramatically exacerbate the problem. Carrying on "like normal" is what has put America, in particular, in the place it's in.

2) How exactly are you going to segregate the elderly? Lots of families live together. Do government vans pull up and cart them off to a government facility somewhere? I don't understand that argument.

3) Underlying health issues are huge factors as well, which is probably why the elderly are over-represented in terms of deaths. But a ton of younger people have them as well. Do we also round up all of the people who are, say, obese, or have heart/lung conditions?

4) Even if younger people are far less likely to die, that doesn't necessarily suggest that younger people get off without permament damage done by the virus at the same rate.

I have for the first time a mask 😷 it’s hard to breath with these.

@Dezzy just say that putting all old people together is stupid because then you’d have thousands of vulnerable people in one place to get sick all at the same time. At that point, they might as well just go home per home and ‘cull’ them with a faster, cheaper method... Might look worse in history books though!

Either that or ask them if they know how old is [relevant public figure over the age of 65]...?

@HobbitGamer Why wouldn't it work? Supermarket visits would be allowed, but the number of people would be limited (don't go with your whole family). Masks are mandatory at all times when you're outside.

We had an half-arsed lockdown in The Netherlands that was pretty good at slowing the whole thing down dramatically. I can only imagine what the situation would've been like if we had a proper lockdown for a considerable amount of time and just closed all borders for the time being. It worked for New Zealand, and countries like Taiwan have been doing great as well.

People are taking about having lockdown measures like wearing a mask, minimizing socializing etc (rather than a straight ban on leaving the house at all) in conjunction with a government response like putting temporary bans of having services like electric & water being cut, using the army to distribute food in the worst hit areas, effective coronavirus relief packages (I'm still not sure why Kayne West was given millions but a lot of small business weren't) etc on the basis that a hard pause is better than limping along with a growing death count which seemingly worked for countries like New Zealand.

Of course hindsight is easy but in the build up to the virus the US of A weren't in a great place for this with disbanding their pandemic response council and a growing budget deficit which made it hard for them to be swift and take actions regardless. That doesn't really excuse the contradictory voices of the various levels of government to people though.

this weekend there has been a demonstration in Berlin here in Germany against the measures of the state. they posted photos of other demonstrations and events like the love parade or even photos from events from other cities like the Zurich street parade to be able to say it was over 1 million people protesting. but it was under 20 thousand people.
the same people that cry FAKE NEWS at everything they see in the media, spread obvious lies themselves. incredible

@6ch6ris6 Yeah, its like politically bigoted hubris seems to be a drug for many people. Or contrarian hubris? I'm having a hard time putting my finger on a description. But anger stoking political bigotry seems to be a great business model for bolstering views & viewership. Evidence & medical history don't trigger the dopamine, and don't sell as well. The pursuit of knowledge isnt sexy enough.

@Zeldafan79

If I appouch the counter and the employee is not wearing a mask, I walk out and take my business elsewhere. I saw several restaurants by my local grocery store with no signs regarding facial coverings and social distancing. While I think closing stores for only curbside pick-up and deliveries is too extreme but taking absolutely no safety precautions is reckless.

@Eel

The idea wasn't to put all old people together. The idea was just to segregate them from everyone else. That could be in groups of 2 people at a time, or maybe allow for small bubbles so you have 4 or 5 who can intermingle if they live nearby. You can even try to do that within large care homes. Separate them into bubbles of maybe 10 people who don't interact with anyone outside them.

@Ralizah

America isn't a good example here because they haven't segregate the elderly at all. In fact the state with the highest death count is largely because they put sick people in care homes without thinking about it.