Nrthwnd Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 Speaking of Northern Italy.... Good healing thoughts go out to Gardaland and Mirabilandia parks' staff and patrons. An awesome (and VERY warm) Mirabilandia visit! TPR 2010 Europe Tour. Jon, Jeff...and Ginny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ytterbiumanalyst Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 It's just like chicken pox. The sooner you get it and over it the better, it only kills the weak. This is absolutely false, both of Covid-19 and of chicken pox. There is a vaccine for chicken pox, and therefore no reason whatsoever to get the actual chicken pox. Vaccines work, people! Covid-19 is a serious illness. No one's saying it's not. It's just that most of us on this board are North Americans or Europeans and at the moment are extremely unlikely to encounter the virus. On top of that, most people who do get the virus survive it. That doesn't mean it's not a serious illness, just that you're probably going to recover. The conspiracy theories and outright dismissal of the threat are just as bad as the hysteria fueled by a media who just want to advertise at us for their own profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark549 Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 CDC warns against long plane trips and cruises as coronavirus cases mount The CDC now recommends that travelers "defer all cruise ship travel worldwide." https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/08/cdc-warns-plane-trips-cruises-coronavirus-124153 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJLehto Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 I am all for what needs to be done, ya know some things, like public health, are more important than my hobby. That said, I really hope things don't get to the point of domestic flights being shut down, or parks. As it spreads inside the US, I do fear it's only time before domestic flights are shelved. I don't have any until July but I also hear it's "unrealistic" to think it'll be done by then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garet Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 I've seen a couple of posts here about testing and recovering here in Korea. Testing: There is wide-spread testing here and they're pretty thorough. They have shipping containers set up in car-parks away from the hospitals where you can register at one, give a medical interview at the next (symptoms, where you've been etc.) take a nasal swab and tongue swab at the third and then finally give a spit sample. You then go home and are advised to self-quarantine until your results two days later. If you come into contact with someone infected or the government asks you to test it's free. If you're paranoid or have a sore throat and are worried about infecting your family it will cost you.... about $20-25. There's no shortage of people who have been and got tested just to be safe. There are even drive-through versions set up across the country with the same thing but you can stay in your car if you're worried about being near other people doing the test. Recovery: Yes, the numbers are low here but from what I hear it's because the government is very cautious to actually confirm someone as recovered and put them back out into the population. As far as I'm aware even if you test negative it will be a little while after before you get released (and I think you have to be re-tested to make sure it wasn't a false result) and counted as recovered. Expect the numbers to start going up now we are a few weeks into the outbreak. I'm honestly surprised that countries where the outbreak has only just started somehow already have so many recovered. Also, someone sent me this asking if it's true. I really have no idea if it is, I hope it's fake and it's not that expensive elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 I wouldn't say it's too far off. What gets people is not necessarily the cost of the test itself, but pretty much everything surrounding it. So, hypothetically, if someone started showing really bad COVID-19 symptoms and needed a visit to the Emergency Room, they'd be on the hook for that. Or, if you have multiple tests run on you when you're there, you're on the hook for all of those too. In the United States, most healthy people choose a health insurance plan that is less expensive on a monthly basis, but will require them to pay much more out of pocket before their insurance company will start paying for their treatment. That amount could be as much as several thousand dollars. So I wouldn't necessarily disagree with someone who decided to go the "health tourism" route, but that's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ytterbiumanalyst Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Yeah, US health Care is stupid. Here's basically how it works: A procedure actually costs $100 to administer, you know, for staff and electricity and all that good stuff. Joe Withinsurance pays $100 and Joe Noinsurance pays $100. Good times. The insurance company gets together with the health care provider and negotiates a contract that says the procedure costs $1,000, but that the insurance company gets a 90% discount and the health care provider will bill insurance $100. The insurance salesperson goes back to the office and celebrates the 90% savings they just negotiated with the health care provider. Joe Withinsurance still pays $100. Joe Noinsurance now gets stuck paying $1,000 because he doesn't "qualify" for the "discount." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark549 Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Santa Clara county, California just imposed a ban on gatherings over 1,000 people (like France, Switzerland). While it's not my main priority now, I don't expect to be riding Railblazer again for a while. Anyone's guess how long that will be. Order is for a couple weeks, but if / as cases increase it could be longer that that. Maybe the bigger park chains like Cedar Fair will be able to reattract capital and customers after this passes more than the smaller parks. https://www.sccgov.org/sites/phd/DiseaseInformation/novel-coronavirus/Pages/home.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 (edited) One likely consequence of all this is your local theme parks fireworks shows might be in jeopardy. Fireworks factories were shut down in addition to less labor at The one port allowed to ship fireworks (there’s only One port allowed to move fireworks on the river to get them to Shanghai After a warehouse explosion caused the government to shut the other one down), so the supply will most certainly be limited come 4th of July weekend. Edited March 10, 2020 by Jew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 (edited) That may not include theme parks. It may, but this is very much up for interpretation: For the purposes of this Order, a "mass gathering" is any event or convening that brings together one thousand (1,000) or more persons in a single room or single space at the same time, such as an auditorium, stadium, arena, large conference room, meeting hall, cafeteria, theater, or any other confined indoor or confined outdoor space. For the purpose of clarity, a "mass gathering" does not include normal operations at airports, shopping malls and centers, or other spaces where 1,000 or more persons may be in transit. It also does not include typical office environments or retail or grocery stores where large numbers of people are present, but it is unusual for them to be within arm's length of one another. France has also banned gatherings of 1000 people and Disneyland Paris is open. It seems that the operative phrase is “confined space” and how you define it. Edited March 10, 2020 by coasterbill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satans Hockey Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 The San Jose Sharks commented about it, looks like they will end up playing their games without any home fans or end up playing them outside of the Santa Clara area... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 That may not include theme parks. It may, but this is very much up for interpretation: For the purposes of this Order, a "mass gathering" is any event or convening that brings together one thousand (1,000) or more persons in a single room or single space at the same time, such as an auditorium, stadium, arena, large conference room, meeting hall, cafeteria, theater, or any other confined indoor or confined outdoor space. For the purpose of clarity, a "mass gathering" does not include normal operations at airports, shopping malls and centers, or other spaces where 1,000 or more persons may be in transit. It also does not include typical office environments or retail or grocery stores where large numbers of people are present, but it is unusual for them to be within arm's length of one another. France has also banned gatherings of 1000 people and Disneyland Paris is open. It seems that the operative phrase is “confined space” and how you define it. This is a very important definition. Remember our good friend Mr. Sun kills a lot of crap out there and that's how places like Disneyland Paris are staying open because they're not one big room/arena/venue/convention center/etc. Now, trying to keep people at arms length away in any place is not truly feasible so we'll see what happens next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 The San Jose Sharks commented about it, looks like they will end up playing their games without any home fans I fail to see how this is different from their standard operating procedure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satans Hockey Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 The San Jose Sharks commented about it, looks like they will end up playing their games without any home fans I fail to see how this is different from their standard operating procedure... Haha...I'm curious to see how the rest of the sports leagues handle all this. There's been some major concerts and festivals that have been canceled yet there are plenty of sports and concerts still happening, Broadway shows as well. I know we had a lot of media coverage over past things like Sars, swine flu, etc but I really don't remember people ever freaking out this much before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 We'll see what starts to happen once Florida goes back to being Florida here in the next few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bert425 Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Austin - that called an "emergency" that caused the cancellation of SXSW, just issued a similar decree - although Austin is restricting gatherings of over 2500. There was an immediate backlash - as there are still no cases reported in Travis County (the main County Austin is in), but the MAIN reason people were upset was that they were worried about the Rodeo Austin, that starts on Friday. yeah. . leave it to Texas to have it's priorities straight - they cancelled an event that brings in 400,000 people and a huge boost to the economy without much pushback (and many locals happy it was cancelled), but there was a ton of pearl clutching over the potential cancellation of the RODEO. anyways, the city responded and said that since the Rodeo happens outside of city limits? they have no jurisdiction and can't force it to close. sheesh.. . at least, giving me some hope for humanity. . . many in Austin have gathered together in several online groups, to help out the businesses that have been greatly impacted by SXSW cancellation. Putting together lots of shows from bands (which as I pointed out at the time - ARE STILL COMING TO AUSTIN, as flights and hotels are booked) where cover charges at doors will go to the bands to help cover their expenses. And most important, a great community to help bring people to restaurants and businesses, that had heavily stocked up for SXSW, and now have TONS of extra food/merch that will spoil if not utilized/sold to help the businesses recover invested $$. really nice to see. me? I'm still going to San Antonio on Sunday to meet up with TeacherKim and her Son at SFFT. They haven't posted any restricted hours, or closure notices, so I'm still gonna go. NOT gonna let my life be dictated by fear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneyislandchris Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 I can't help myself. I'm being bombarded by shit about the virus on a daily basis with 24/7 updates, my office has been implementing lockdown procedures for us to avoid infection and have most of us work from home, and with a massive trip planned to the West Coast about one month from now, I'm starting to panic a little bit (even though I know I shouldn't be and life will almost certainly go on). I really don't want to have to cancel the plans, and my general idea is that unless the LA and Bay Area parks announce that they are closing, I'm going to go on this trip with my son. In the meantime, I'm coping the only way I know how... ...I made a Spotify playlist all about it. "Coronavirus Playlist for the End of the World". Feel free to listen and panic along with me. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark549 Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Austin - that called an "emergency" that caused the cancellation of SXSW, just issued a similar decree - although Austin is restricting gatherings of over 2500. There was an immediate backlash - as there are still no cases reported in Travis County (the main County Austin is in), but the MAIN reason people were upset was that they were worried about the Rodeo Austin, that starts on Friday. It's in Houston, barely acknowledged (yet). Give it a few more days, if large scale testing is started up in Texas. In Washington State the hospitals are already starting to have problems treating people due to difficulty of preventing transmission. In California, just east of Six Flags DK, the Davis hospital had over 100 staff go into quarantine. The overloading of the hospitals is one of the main concerns, that is the reason for the official reaction. In Italy, the ICU wards are totally overwhelmed today in the worst impacted areas. --- here is a positive story today, glad the drug company is ramping up production of this before they are entirely sure it works as they think https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/10/hopes-rise-over-experimental-drugs-effectiveness-against-coronavirus Hopes rise over experimental drug's effectiveness against coronavirus Many see remdesivir as one of few drugs that has reasonable prospect of helping patients Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bert425 Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 ^ Texas is a *big* State. Houston / Travis County, is over 3 hours from Austin. So yeah, not "close" but I agree it's here already, it's all over the USA, and cases will go *way* up once testing starts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark549 Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Glad your city is being proactive for public health and that supporters of SXSW are helping those economically hurt by this. Italy put a moratorium on mortgage payments. San Jose (next to CGA) CA is prohibiting evictions by those who lose their salaries. Seattle is setting up washing stations for homeless people. These and lots of other steps might be able to reduce the impact to keep the disruptions as short as possible. The Santa Clara order specifically excludes Great America since people are dispersed in the park (except while waiting in lines ...). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Non-theme park related... David has a family reunion (end of May) in Minnesota he's planned to attend, flying via Air Canada. Got the flight ticket already, but no Cancellation Insurance. D'oh! So we're keeping up with the news (Air Canada has already announced, no flights to or from Italy) as it happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tndank Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Getting real now. MGM has shut down all their buffets in Vegas now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 ^That's not "getting real", it's cost cutting. Buffets can easily stay open by adding staff to serve the food to guests. This is what the cruise ships do when there is any sort of outbreak (pre-corona!) with their buffets. Vegas was hurting way before Corona Virus was a thing and this is just putting the nail in the coffin. Most Vegas buffets don't make money, they're there as an amenity to guests. Shutting them down saves a bit of cash and they know it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satans Hockey Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 Six Flags just sent out this email... A note to our guests about the Coronavirus from CEO Mike Spanos Dear Valued Guests, The top priority at Six Flags is the safety and the well-being of our guests and team members. Regardless of the environment, this is our top priority every day. We also recognize and understand that you all have concerns about the coronavirus; therefore, I personally want to update you on everything that we are doing to provide a safe environment for you, your family, and our team members. First, we are closely monitoring the latest developments and following the guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Additionally, we have hired a highly regarded infectious disease specialist with more than 30 years of experience as an advisor for this situation. Second, we are taking several actions to help you feel confident about your health and safety while you are in our parks. We have significantly enhanced our cleaning and sanitation efforts on all guest and employee touch points; additionally, we are providing an abundance of anti-bacterial soap in all hand-washing stations, and have placed dozens of alcohol-based hand sanitizers throughout all areas of the parks. Finally, we are frequently cleaning and disinfecting all ride vehicles, queue lines, restrooms, food locations, and employee break areas. In addition to these actions, we have increased hygiene signage throughout our parks and are strongly encouraging guests and employees to practice good hygiene with frequent and rigorous hand washing. We are asking employees who are sick to stay home. If anyone has a fever or becomes sick while at work, we will immediately release them to see their medical provider. We hope that these measures give you confidence that we are taking the necessary precautions in this evolving situation. We remain committed to providing you and your family with friendly, clean, fast, and safe service. For additional information about COVID-19, please read the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov, or your local health department website. On behalf of everyone at Six Flags, thank you for your trust in us. I look forward to seeing you out in our parks. Best regards, Mike Spanos President & CEO Six Flags Entertainment Corporation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinaalsgirl Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 Dave & Busters sent a similar (but shorter) e-mail as well today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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