COVID-19 Coronavirus and Theme Parks Official Thread

Since COVID-19 posts have invaded the individual park threads we figured it would make more sense to centralize everything into one place where people can discuss the current impacts and potential future impacts of COVID-19 hysteria on the industry.

What are your thoughts on the subject and what potential impacts do you see?

On a serious note, I do wonder how this will effect staffing at parks who rely heavily on international staffing from Asian countries. It could be even more painful for parks like CP to get their international staffing this season. I see this being the biggest impact to parks this summer.

Also, anyone who wants essential oils hit me up jkjk

One thing I find hilariously American about this entire thing is that out of the world's 195 countries we have had the 9th most reported cases of this coronavirus (even though we haven't been doing much testing so the real number is much higher) and the collective mentality (not yours specifically, don't take it like that because I feel like we're on the same page) is that we're afraid to bring in workers from other, infinitely less impacted countries who might infect us.

That said, that undoubtedly is the mentality so I agree with you that it's probably going to be a major issue.

Potential impacts I've noticed is that stock for theme park chains is REALLY low right now!! (As is cruise lines, and airfare stock!) - It's a great time to stock up!

Potential impacts I've noticed is that stock for theme park chains is REALLY low right now!! (As is cruise lines, and airfare stock!) - It's a great time to stock up!

I just noticed how low six flags is.

But like, its way too low. Are they in serious danger, like in 2008, again? If the parks are forced to close during the season, do they have the cash to wait it out?

Petition to switch the thread title and subtitle.

^^SIX isn't tanking specifically because of COVID-19. SIX is tanking because it's a tire fire. I suggest giving this thread a read.

^^SIX isn't tanking specifically because of COVID-19. SIX is tanking because it's a tire fire. I suggest giving this thread a read.

I knew that thread existed but couldnt find it, thanks.

Starbucks up here (maybe everywhere else too?) is only serving their beverages in their own cups.

No personal cups are allowed to be used, at this time.

And the beat goes on...

Living in the Netherlands I'm really surprised the Efteling is still open as the first person to be diagnosed here lives in Loon op Zand what is the township of the park. Now I'm not concerned at all but we have a tendency to overreact in the Netherlands so I guess we will see how it goes, still expecting it.

^^ Wait, what? Since when did Starbucks let you bring in your own cup?

^ Since as far back as I can remember. It's a Starbucks cup, sure.

Red, with the main logo on. Holds a Grande-size coffee drink.

And you get 10 cents off your purchase, if you use one.

But other people I've see, sometimes have their own, actual, personal coffee cup.

Non-Starbucks theme. And they are usually getting just brewed coffee. Not the

frappuccinos or lattes.

EDIT to add: I think the "Alternate Title" is a better one, too. More TPR-ish.

This is the one I have. Got it over the holidays a couple of years ago.

Oh wow, what a cool idea. Never seen that around these parts. And agreed on the alternate title.

Seattle is the hot spot in the USA now, although California is catching up. Now that some testing is going on cases are being found all over the country. Wash State public health estimates a couple dozen lurking for each confirmed case.

Seattle yesterday had about the number that Italy had on Feb. 22. Now Italy's hospitals in the hot zone are getting overloaded, which makes treatment more difficult.

Seattle city urged citizens to work from home yesterday. Too many cancellations happening to count. seattletimes.com has a good list.

A couple theme parks are saying they are cleaning more and using sanitizer. Prelude to closures.

A conference I was planning to attend this weekend made the "cleaning more" offer just before they realized the situation was bigger and canceled.

Brace for impact and help your neighbors.

I'm bracing for impact from the hysteria, but hoping that the country magically turns off the news and learns basic math skills first since there's no actual reason for any of this panic...

Here's today's update. The death rate continues to drop as we test more people, though most countries are still doing a terrible job at testing people, including America. The more people we test, the more the death rate plummets but of course news networks won't report "death rate drops" they'll report something like "Coronavirus cases SURGE in America as thousands of new cases are found and pandemic threats loom AHHHHHHHHHHH" and Americans will freak the f*ck out about good news because god forbid we think critically, ever.

Source

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Look at the South Korea number. The death rate is inflated but it's probably closer to the real number than anything else. They have a great healthcare system and while they don't test everyone (so the actual death rate is a bit lower) they do a better job of testing than anyone else and there's a decent sample size. Their death rate is 0.65% just on known cases. Logic would dictate that the actual death rate is *probably* well below 1/2 a percent because they know the death rate but not the total case number. We don't know that number. Nobody does.

South Korea is interesting because of the low death rate but also low recovery rate, so far they seem to be unique as most other more heavily hit countries are reporting a higher death rate. I agree this might be explained by a higher number of tests being performed or a more efficient health system, but there could be other explanations. Since they're somewhat unique, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that their death rate is closer to the "actual" death rate.

The WHO recently actually increased the death rate from initially 2% to 3.4%. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/#who-03-03-20

I'm bracing for impact from the hysteria, but hoping that the country magically turns off the news and learns basic math skills first since there's no actual reason for any of this panic...

 

Here's today's update. The death rate continues to drop as we test more people, though most countries are still doing a terrible job at testing people, including America. The more people we test, the more the death rate plummets but of course news networks won't report "death rate drops" they'll report something like "Coronavirus cases SURGE in America as thousands of new cases are found and pandemic threats loom AHHHHHHHHHHH" and Americans will freak the f*ck out about good news because god forbid we think critically, ever.

 

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Source

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Look at the South Korea number. The death rate is inflated but it's probably closer to the real number than anything else. They have a great healthcare system and while they don't test everyone (so the actual death rate is a bit lower) they do a better job of testing than anyone else and there's a decent sample size. Their death rate is 0.65% just on known cases. Logic would dictate that the actual death rate is *probably* well below 1/2 a percent because they know the death rate but not the total case number. We don't know that number. Nobody does.

Fear and shock draw viewers and more viewers help them sell ads. That's the bottom line.

The WHO recently actually increased the death rate from initially 2% to 3.4%. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/#who-03-03-20

... which is based on known cases. They key word in that statement is "reported" but people like to gloss over it because then it's not as scary. 101,565 known cases, 3,461 deaths. That's how we got to 3.4% but we know that number is unbelievably wrong.

South Korea is only an outlier because they're actually testing people. Not all people, but more than most countries.

Fear and shock draw viewers and more viewers help them sell ads. That's the bottom line.

Yup

Maybe we can find out more about this from trump and his speaky speak at the 2020 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition. Oh wait, it's been cancelled due to, guess what?

Quote,

“Today, following recent reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HIMSS announced it is clearly necessary to cancel the 2020 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition,” a statement from HIMSS said.

The cancellation is a huge loss for the Central Florida economy. The convention was expected to bring in more than 40,000 people to the area.

Source,

https://www.wesh.com/article/himms-health-conference-trump-orlando-canceled/31249113#

 

... which is based on known cases. They key word in that statement is "reported" but people like to gloss over it because then it's not as scary. 101,565 known cases, 3,461 deaths. That's how we got to 3.4% but we know that number is unbelievably wrong.

 

South Korea is only an outlier because they're actually testing people. Not all people, but more than most countries.

 

How do we know its so unbelievably wrong, i haven't been able to find a study that supports that the number of actual people infected is a lot higher than reported. I'm definitely not saying it's not a fair assumption based on the south korea numbers, but its way early to call. And even with a low death rate, having a lot of sick people at the same time can be very disruptive.

I live in the Netherlands and over the last couple of days the number of infected people has been steadily increasing, fear is we'll have a northern Italy type of situation over the coming weeks. People from Tilburg who are feeling ill have just been ordered to stay indoors and public events will be canceled, wondering what issues the Efteling is going to face since they're pretty close to Tilburg.

How do we know its so unbelievably wrong, i haven't been able to find a study that supports that the number of actual people infected is a lot higher than reported. I'm definitely not saying it's not a fair assumption based on the south korea numbers, but its way early to call. And even with a low death rate, having a lot of sick people at the same time can be very disruptive.

Because if it's not wrong then it means that the death rate in America is 10 times higher than South Korea and 7 times higher than a cruise ship full of old people in close quarters and even though we've tested a laughably low amount of people we just got crazy lucky with our tests and got everyone (testing for a disease where over 80% of cases are known to be so mild that there would be no reason for anyone to proactively go and get a test).

This is a worldwide number so even a few countries not testing well will artificially inflate the percentage of people who die, especially if some of those countries have a large amount of cases / people.

The Netherlands have had 128 cases and 1 death. We have twice as many reported cases and 14 times as many deaths. Small sample size, sure... but we're also not on the ball with testing people, a bunch of other countries are likely in that same boat and it's throwing off the numbers. Maybe you guys know what you're doing but over here we're kind of a sh*tshow.

^ And ^^ One extremely good thing is that here in the Netherlands they try to find the people who are infected, like we now get a bunch of students who went skiing in north Italy back who all get tested just to make sure. After the first case they tested all the people he had been around and this is why that number starts to double almost each day here (Yesterday we had 83 cases the day before that 41 or something close to that.), so expect that number here to skyrocket the next few days, weeks.

Oh wow, what a cool idea. Never seen that around these parts. And agreed on the alternate title.

Unfortunately, I still have to drag my Starbucks personal cup around, to prove I have one, so I can still get some cents off my purchase. Which honestly, is cool of them to still do. As long as I have the cup to prove it, lol.

The epidemiologists are scrambling to guess what the fatality rates really are. Since so many people will never know they had The Disease, the rates are not that high (whether less than one, 2.3 or something else). The two big problems:

- a minority of cases require medical attention, some of them intense hospital stays and no country has enough surge capacity to handle this.

- closing things down to slow the spread has already triggered lots of economic shocks, supply disruptions.

There is also uncertainty if "recovered" means no lingering health impacts. Perhaps the milder cases won't have that, but the worse cases can have permanent lung damage even they survive the experience.

I have thought for years that theme parks would be good places to have adjacent farms. They're usually open only during the growing season. Some have lots of land that could be used for this (rather than depending on food from distant lands). Making things more locally is likely one of the many shifts this will cause.

I like the story from Japan about how their rollercoaster operators (some parks, not all?) frequently clean the seats on the trains.

The cruise ship industry is probably over for now. Perhaps it will revive afterward if people forget about this time. Sure wouldn't want to be on the ship off San Francisco now.

That farm thing is a great idea. Let's make an educational boat ride out of it that's always a walk-on.

I also have a follow-up question... um... what?