Virus Impact on CP

MaverickLaunch said:

You say that is from the NYT and maybe I am missing something, but without even looking it up I know those numbers are very wrong, by an order of magnitude.

Right, because Hannity said so? Look, until you actually can demonstrate the nonsense you're saying, maybe stop attacking good journalism.

To others, know that while I'm sure the NYT data is imperfect (because all data is imperfect), the COVID data at the NYT is pretty damn good, and accurate despite the ignorant ramblings of some. It's also free, along with their coverage of COVID stories.

You can dig down to the country, state, and county level, see per capita numbers and rates, etc. It's a pretty impressive tool.

My apologies, more people have died in NYC in the last three days from COVID-19 than have for an entire year in New York from flu. That's still a striking and concerning scenario regardless.

Jeff said:

My apologies, more people have died in NYC in the last three days from COVID-19 than have for an entire year in New York from flu. That's still a striking and concerning scenario regardless.

Not surprising given the population density and total population.

Population density is a factor for deaths, apparently, but infection rates are less influenced by it. The rural south, on a per capita basis, is getting hammered right now compared to most urban centers.

Thabto said:

Maybe elective surgeries will be one of the first things restored.

My mother has her's scheduled for April 30th. It's elective at this point, but could become an emergency overtime if nothing was done electively. At that particular hospital (or Dr's office, idk which it is) the doctors are rotating each week and free to perform elective surgeries at their discretion during that time.

As far as life beginning to return to normal and places starting to open back up, I expect things here in Ohio to start happening early May (not necessarily the 1st). It obviously needs to be a gradual thing where certain businesses are allowed to begin opening back up. Social distancing definitely will have to continue throughout at least the month of May at the already essential businesses and those allowed to reopen. Restaurants, bars, movie theaters, bowling alleys, etc. you're probably gonna have to wait until the end of May or early June before returning to operations, and even then do so with modified operations that will reduce the number of patrons allowed for a period of time. Restrictions should be gradually lifted over the course of at least a month, maybe two or three. If things aren't relatively back to normal by July 4th, I'd be surprised.

I definitely see CP, and other parks, being able to open sometime in June with the aforementioned modifications to normal operations in place. Maybe it comes in the form of cutting the capacity in of the park in half and requiring social distancing to still be follow, maybe it consists of some other measures as well. But, you just can't keep the country shutdown for months and months. The economy can only withstand so much before we fall into a depression that takes a decade to crawl out of instead of a year or two.

It's not going to happen. Parks won't open in June.

^^If you're talking about being back to normal by July 4, 2021, I can maybe see it. There won't be normal for a long time. And even that normal will be a new normal. I get that the shutdown is hard on the economy but the damage is done. Now it's about mitigating damages and slowly and carefully getting the world back on track. We can't jump the gun on this.

Every day that goes by I have to wonder what the impact on staffing will be. Event if the parks WANT to open in June, ask yourself this: You are the parent of a teenager. That teenager wants to go work in Sandusky for the summer, and live with a couple of thousand other teenagers while servicing guests from all over at an amusement park. Do you let your teenager do that?

I agree with Jeff. I will be surprised if the parks are open in June. I'm not convinced that the entire season isn't lost. That said, even if they are permitted, and choose to open, I'm at a loss for what that is going to look like.

I'm in agreement with those that think it's going to take a long time. Put me in the camp that would be surprised if parks open this year at all. As some have said, it's simply not safe without a vaccine available, and it would be a massive step backward toward containing the virus.

Dvo said:

I'm in agreement with those that think it's going to take a long time. Put me in the camp that would be surprised if parks open this year at all. As some have said, it's simply not safe without a vaccine available, and it would be a massive step backward toward containing the virus.

I just don't see it happening, Museums and things are reopening in China, Disney plans on reopening in about a month, some form of operation of Cedar Point can occur if they want to, the real question is staffing and profitably.

I see Kings Island opening before Cedar Point since they rely more on local staff. At Cedar Point, most staff lives on site. Employee housing would likely have to be reduced to 1 person per room.

Putting aside I don’t believe the parks will open this season what does “capacity” mean?

If full capacity means crowds like some Halloweekends or the day the causeway got shut down, 50% capacity is still a busy day.

Could the parks operate at a significantly reduced capacity? Maybe. Would doing so be profitable? Doubtful.

djDaemon said:
Right, because Hannity said so? Look, until you actually can demonstrate the nonsense you're saying, maybe stop attacking good journalism.

I can't stand Hannity. But that doesn't stop you from falsely creating the narrative that everything I think and say must be coming from Fox News. That's what you love to do I guess, ad hominem by proxy.

The NYT crucified Kavanaugh when the sexual assault allegations surfaced. Interestingly, they gave the guy with dementia running against Trump a free pass this week when the same surfaced about him.

You still have not responded to my very accurate statement about the NYT reporting no evidence of person to person transmission on Jan 12. That's some fantastic investigative reporting right there. I'm sure though being the apologist you are that you'll find someone/something else to blame.

Jeff said:

It's not going to happen. Parks won't open in June.

While I agree with you on this (and likely all of 2020 being toast), didn’t I read that Disney is looking to reopen their parks in June?

Florida and California parks are, in my opinion the easiest to re-open as they are generally peoples full time, year round jobs and most staff have been furloughed. Compared to seasonal parks which probably haven't even come close to hiring the needed staff, and since most parks have suspended seasonal hiring indefinitely it'll be hard to hit those number. I remember when I worked at GL we would begin the rehire process in December and continue hiring through May. We never hit the numbers we wanted.

Disney did just furlough 40,000+ cast members, but announced they will pay health benefits through the end of 2020, which is... nice.

I agree with Jeff however, I do not see seasonal parks reopening in 2020. But I'll gladly eat crow and be wrong if that means we somehow get something this year, even a Halloweekends event.

Of course, with unemployment being high now, finding local staff may not be as difficult as it was in years prior.

I think that's fan fiction. No cast members have heard anything that I'm aware of.

You're probably correct as you live in Florida. It was a report I saw on Reddit.

Edit: Here's the link:

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/04/11/walt-disney-will-furlough-43000-disney-world-worke.aspx

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/492396-disney-world-to-furlough-43k-workers-april-19

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/02/disney-to-furlough-non-union-park-employees-in-the-us.html?fbclid=IwAR3YvuJiGvR88qgylBk3lU5A14sZPCuis_0qorXj9q9Pmn8O7Y-cLrymJk8

I provided multiple links.. for those who wanna argue fake news. ;) Sorry I couldnt find a NYT article.

Jeff said:

I think that's fan fiction. No cast members have heard anything that I'm aware of.

Because Disney can just call them up any time they want, they're still employed by Disney and live locally. It'll be easy for Disney to slowly start opening up.

Logistically slowly opening Cedar Point is a nightmare because the majority of the staff are nation-wide or international. It's an entire process to get a workforce ready at Cedar Point (That they already hire but a lot probably canceled or can't come due to the travel ban).

WDW isn't a local park. People have to make plans and travel to go there, a significant portion of which come from overseas. When they open, they'll announce it well in advance.

MaverickLaunch said:

You still have not responded to my very accurate statement about the NYT reporting no evidence of person to person transmission on Jan 12.

Because it felt like the equivalent of dunking on a blind kid.

That "bombshell" of yours is a non-story. At that point in time there had been no cases outside of China, and the info we were getting from China was incomplete at best. The first US case wouldn't be reported until more than a week later. Hell, Trump didn't sign his impotent "China ban" (that accomplished nothing) until almost 3 weeks later.

Point being, we were in the VERY early stages at that point, and it's not as if NYT were claiming human transmission were not possible. They were simply claiming that, at that time, there were no evidence of such transmission. Claiming that as evidence of shoddy reporting is, at best, laughable.

The point is that you have continuously and baselessly attacked the NYT (and other reputable sources) as arbiters of "fake news". It is of course not surprising that that "bombshell" is the best you could come up with.

But if we circle back to when your First Amendment attacks began, you were claiming that the NYT's coverage of the Trump administration's COVID response was misleading. You have been either unwilling or unable to substantiate that claim (shocker).

I have no illusions of convincing you that Dear Leader is anything short of a muscled, shirtless hero riding in on horseback to save the Country from the grips of those libs. But I won't let the spreading of a false narrative go unchallenged.

We cannot be more prepared for the next pandemic (or whatever) if we cannot be honest about our response to this one.