Virus Impact on CP

The thing is, there is no exit from this without widespread testing. That's real. Singapore has demonstrated this the best, where the infection rate is slow and death rate low. With the latency between infection and symptoms, there's no other way to know who has it.

And how's that going? Here in Orange County, Florida, fewer than 40 people total have been tested. In a place where 75 million people visit annually.

I'm in agreement. At this point I'm just holding out hope that I'll be able to ride a few coasters at all this year. And until we can get readily-available testing to have an idea of actually how widespread this virus is, it's hard to know when it will be safe to return to life as it was.

Crossover post from Coasterbuzz. Some levity in the storm.

So, here is a peek into the window of my life as an educator from this morning I thought some of you might enjoy. Since I am also a therapist, I often get asked "advice on life" questions from my students. Here is the first email I woke up to:

So more of a psychological question since I know you have a doctorate: I'm being told by people this coronavirus is part of the second coming of Christ (I’m somewhat religious) and it’s had my anxiety high recently... I was wondering if you had any psychological tips to help.

Well? Any tips?

kjettski said:

Seriously?

Yes, seriously he said that. Incredible isn't it?

Jeff said:

The thing is, there is no exit from this without widespread testing. That's real.

Every week we are told by the end of the week will have a million tests out in the field, every week it doesn't happen.

The biggest lesson of 1918 was the public needs to be told the truth, not shielded from it. The lies kill and prolong the problem.

We're in a world where a part of the population believes anything they don't agree with is "fake news," because the asshat in the White House says so. We've got a lot of soul searching to do as a nation when this is over. Science gives no ****s about what you believe.

Here in Ohio, we literally had 5 confirmed cases on Friday March 13th. 6 days later (on the 19th)...we now have 120. This has gone up 24x (in LESS THAN A WEEK's time), this with almost everything closed in the state except grocery stores and gas stations. Fast food is carry-out/drive thru only. One of the biggest problems that I'm hearing about, from friends that I know, is employee infection at the workplace. A confirmed infected employee will be told to go home and quarantine for 14 days, yet the rest of the workforce exposed to this individual (with no symptoms YET) returns to work the next day probably only to infect others and then those people infect yet others outside of the workplace and so on. I don't know how you fix this problem (with a 14 day dormant period for this virus) when you are being told you must return to work and earn a living. Its a catch 22. Smh.

Edited 3/19 4pm EST for confirmed case numbers.

Refillable drink cups, will they be shelved for the season?

Given this season is in question itself, don’t think the refillable cups are a concern at the moment.

Right.. I think they're more focused on whether the Millennium Force trains are shelved for the season. Perfect time to re-paint that ugly red train to the beautiful green that it could be. Or just finally dredge the green one out of the lake...

From simply messaging them you can dispel a lot of FUD:

Thank you for contacting Cedar Point.

Cedar Point is currently scheduled to open to the public on Saturday, May 9th, as planned. Any pre-season special events, such as our Just for Fun Weekend and the Platinum Pass previews, are also scheduled to take place on their planned dates. We are not issuing refunds at this time.

As always, we maintain close relationships with local, state, national and international public health authorities. We take their guidance when additional preventive measures are deemed necessary.

As we are learning, this entire situation is fluid and changes not just from day to day, but from hour to hour. We will keep our guests up-to-date on changes as they occur. Any critical information to be shared will be found on our website and/or social media pages. You can also sign up for our newsletter at www.cedarpoint.com/profile/register for news delivered right to your inbox.

Best Regards,

~~ Cedar Point Admissions and Guest Services Teams

The fact you guys are still getting political about this blows my mind. Take every opportunity to fault the administration. Whatever.

The fact is that this virus started in China. The fact is that China lied about the fact the virus is transmissible, first at all, then from person to person. And they lied about the extent to which their population was affected. But that must be Trump's fault.

Now I will say I don't think he handled it perfectly early on, but that's not why we are where we are now. He shut the border to travel from China, a bold move. Not sure a liberal would have done that.

I guess what I'm saying is it's easy to throw stones, but there's no way to know how much better or worse this problem would be had the other party been in charge. So leave politics out of it. I think it's being handled very well now, as best it can. Involving the public sector was a great move. I think a great team is now in place and there is full transparency and daily briefings of what's going on, and what steps are being taken.

We can complain that we were unprepared for this, but we would have been unprepared no matter who was president. Look how quickly this thing exploded. Nobody could have prepared, in the short time that this all happened.

This whole thing sucks, it's affecting me personally on a financial level I could have never imagined a week ago, and I don't mean just my 401k. Our family is isolating, and let me tell you, it isn't fun. We need to be positive and come together as a community. Calling people an asshat or a cartoon is childish, I like to think we are better than that.

XS NightClub said:

From simply messaging them you can dispel a lot of FUD...

So no official word on re-useable cups???

MaverickLaunch said:

The fact you guys are still getting political about this blows my mind. Take every opportunity to fault the administration. Whatever... The fact is that this virus started in China...

Well it's pretty clear where you stand.

Calling it a "Chinese" virus is in fact racist and xenophobic. The Chinese didn't ask for this any more than anyone else. The president is in fact a compulsive liar. That is an objective truth that can be proven hundreds (thousands?) of times over. It is indisputable. You can't argue otherwise without engaging in herculean cognitive dissonance. He's trivialized it from the start, and criticized the press for reporting the facts. The federal response has been a complete failure, going back to 2018 when the administration decided it didn't need an office for a pandemic response.

This asshat doesn't care about science, as his environmental record already showed. Now we're playing catch up, and because of that, we'll be in the same place Italy is within a week or two. We are better than that, yes, but unfortunately only as good as the leaders we elect.

May 9th is a day before the CDC "ban" on groups of 50 or more people ends. So, we'll see...

MaverickLaunch said:

Calling people an asshat or a cartoon is childish, I like to think we are better than that.

I second that.

Jeff said:

Well it's pretty clear where you stand.

Calling it a "Chinese" virus is in fact racist and xenophobic.

Viruses are often named after their geographic origins. Ebola is a good example. Legionnaires disease, Lyme disease, and even Norovirus. But hey, I guess if you're "woke" then it's suddenly racist. This virus came from Wuhan, so I call it the Wuhan Coronavirus, and there's nothing racist or xenophobic about that.

This asshat doesn't care about science, as his environmental record already showed. Now we're playing catch up, and because of that, we'll be in the same place Italy is within a week or two. We are better than that, yes, but unfortunately only as good as the leaders we elect.

The fact that liberal leaders like Omar are Cuomo are praising the administrations response to the virus tells me something. These are among the most critical people of the administration. But hey, some roller coaster enthusiasts-turned-medical experts probably know a lot more. I know that I don't know what I'm talking about, and that's a big difference. I defer to the experts, and most say we are taking all the necessary steps right now.

Just to set things straight here.

Calling the Coronavirus the China Virus is not racist.

In the past the "World" has named outbreaks from the region they originate.

Spanish Flu {Originated In Spain}, Norovirus {Originated In Norwalk, Ohio} Ebola {Named After The Ebola River In Africa Where That Outbreak Originated}, Legionnaires Disease {Originated From Legionnaire Pennsylvania}

I could go on and on, but if anyone thinks calling this virus "The China Virus" racist, then you are wrong. We have all referenced the other virus's mentioned above as those names, guaranteed, that would make everyone in the world racist.

Let's move past political nonsense here and get back on topic.

As for the drink cups, say bye-bye. To risky to spread viruses.

Legionnaires disease was named after it infected attendees at the American Legion convention.

There is also Asian Flu and Cat Scratch Fever (not the Ted Nugent song). I had both of the diseases in my youth.

Come on, it's a dog whistle of the worst kind. It already had a name assigned by the medical community. Worse, it's used by the president as a way to distance himself from any responsibility. You guys are worse than politicians.

You know, sometimes politicians are criticized because they're crappy leaders, not because of their party affiliation. Put away your sports rivalry tribalism for a moment.

MaverickLaunch said:
I defer to the experts, and most say we are taking all the necessary steps right now.

Which experts are those? Because I can read, that's not what any experts are saying. They're saying we're going to go the way of Italy. Yesterday we had about 1,200 new US cases, today we have 2,500 and it's only noon. Tomorrow I can guarantee it will exceed 5,000. Guaranteed.

Yes, numbers go way up when testing rolls out en masse. Which is what you were advocating for, was it not?