Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

Dave, in the article I linked to above they had a percentage of people in Ohio 16 and up.

I'm not sure where they got that figure, but I'm guessing they just....

1) Figured out the 16 and under population of Ohio

2) Subtracted that from the total population

3) Used # of people who have gotten at least one dose to get the percentage

With regards to what hambone mentioned, the stories and images coming out of India, specifically, are absolutely horrific. I have no other words to describe it.

It's bad in India. And by the way, it's an example of why we have to stop treating government as the enemy instead of holding it accountable. It plays a role that other institutions can not.

Did I read they have a Prime Minister who loves to encourage huge, adoring crowds?

Kings Island has released their updated their safety protocols. I'm more excited about going, especially the last two bullet points.

Changes from Last Season:

• Reservations will only be required for visiting Soak City Water Park. Both Season Passholders and Single Day Ticketholders will need reservations for Soak City.
• Temperature checks for guests have been discontinued at the front gate.
• The health screen questionnaire will be conducted by associates at the front gate and will not be conducted through the Kings Island mobile app.
• There will be no limitations to ride capacity for most rides.
• Guests aged 10 years and older are required to wear face coverings while indoors, unless actively eating and drinking. Face coverings are not required outdoors unless it is not possible to maintain 6’ of social distancing. Face coverings should completely cover the nose and mouth, and not have exhalation valves or vents, which allows virus particles to escape.

Cedar Point has the identical verbiage on their site as well.

I didn't think Cedar Fair would drop the mask mandate this soon with their more precautious than most safety procedures as a whole as a chain. Heck, I didn't think they'd drop the every other row thing even though most everyone else has.

I'm guessing that its a State by State basis. Kings Dominion is requiring face masks at all times.

Looks like reservations are required at Cedar Point for both the main park and the water park. At KI, only the water park requires a reservation.

This seems like overall good news. It does seem like masks are going to be non-existent everywhere outside, regardless of the intent to "use them where needed".

I also don't quite understand the age 10 limit for indoor masks. My kids are 6 and 8 and have been wearing a mask at school all year long. Typically it has been age 5 and up require a mask in most places I have seen.

That does seem arbitrary, and particularly weird because they're the ones that can't be vaccinated yet.

I see lots of people pushing back against kids wearing masks. "How can they possibly be expected to wear masks all day?" I've been to Disney several times during the pandemic and I rarely saw a kid...even a young one...without a mask. The fact of the matter is...they can wear masks and typically are handling this better than a lot of adults.

My kid, with autism, has been doing it since January in school.

Isn't Ohio's state mask mandate only above age 10? If so that could be why the park is using that cut off.

Kids are better than the adults. Most I see don’t give a **** unless their parents do.

Curious about the queues. For some reason some people insist on being my barnacles. Maybe people will more actively keep away if being closer means they have to wear a mask.

Paisley sussed it. Ohio's current mask mandate says, in part...

a. Except as provided herein, all individuals, in the State of Ohio shall wear facial coverings at all times when:
i. In any indoor location that is not a residence;
ii. Outdoors and unable to consistently maintain a distance of six feet or more from
individuals who are not members of their family/household; or
(...)
b. The requirement to wear a facial covering does not apply when:
i. The individual is under ten years of age;
(...)

Cedar Point and Kings Island are doing exactly what the State requires of them. Or so; there is another requirement in there that is kind of interesting...

9. Signage
i. All businesses and organized gatherings, where possible, shall post clearly visible signage at all entrances to each of their grounds or premises requiring all persons entering to wear a facial covering. The text shall state that all persons are required to wear a facial covering and engage in social distancing at all times in or on the grounds or premises.

....except that the required signage suggests a requirement ("wear a facial covering...at all times...on the grounds") that does not actually exist in the Order.

Also I suspect that Cedar Fair knows something that the rest of us don't about the State's health orders.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Staying 6 feet apart indoors does almost nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19, MIT study finds

I'm sure we've all seen/read this info by now. What caught my eye is the reference (and link) in that article to the website/tool to change the model variables and see the results. The same website/tool I shared here 5 months ago. (the subsequent conversation here is fun too)

It's funny how much we've been so sure of along the way.

Also, this whole idea of the 6-ft thing being outdated was being touched upon last August - 8 months ago! So why is it really gaining traction right now?

I dunno. Finding it very interesting, at this point in the whole thing, to look back. It's how we learn.

Wasn't one of the very first findings out of China in regards to infection in a restaurant where people much farther than 6' apart were infected? I thought that was what initially pointed to ventilation as being a key driver.

I’m so confused. Is that article saying “life is not black and white, people.”? Because that’s pretty much all I get from it. It seems to be advocating for some kind of...slider of distance and risk. Is this news somehow?

I remember super early on hearing that I should imagine everyone else smoking and how I would best mitigate my inhalation of second hand smoke. That has been a good rule of thumb that seems to match emerging research - basically no risk outdoors unless you’re right up on someone; ventilation, masks and some amount of distancing indoors, but none of these are foolproof.

Exactly. That article/study isn't covering new ground as far as I can tell? I've long understood the risk calculation to be basically proximity x duration, where "proximity" includes details about the environment (volume, ventilation, etc.).

Standing 6 ft behind someone in line at the grocery store is adequate if you're not spending much time there. Sitting 60 ft away from some in a restaurant is not adequate if you're spending a couple hours there, especially if the ventilation is poor (e.g. any restaurant in Michigan the last 2+ months).

Or, as they put it, "a better way of controlling indoor exposure is to do individual calculations based on variables for that space."

Business Insider is a glorified link farm, so I wouldn't put a lot of stock in their "analysis" of anything. The MIT study doesn't say 6 feet is "useless," it says it depends because it's one of several inputs that can measure overall risk. I don't think this is much of a revelation.

That said, people can't even figure out that their nose is connected to their lungs and that they should cover it, so the 6 feet thing is the closest thing you can give to stupid people in hopes of some kind of compliance. Which brings me to today's news...

From the New York Times:

Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer need to wear masks outdoors if they’re walking, running, hiking or biking alone, with members of their household, or if they attend small outdoor gatherings, federal health officials announced on Tuesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped short of telling those people that they could shed their masks altogether in outdoor settings — citing the worrying risk that remains for transmitting the coronavirus, unknown vaccination levels among people in crowds and the still high-caseloads in some regions of the country.

The second part is the important part. The CDC is saying in a muted way that the vaccinated are basically in doorknob licking mode, but because of the big box of stupid out there, and the fact that you can't tell the difference between a vaxed person and a poser, the recommendations stand in the more tight coupling of people.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we're VIP assholders again at WDW. We're vaccinated, and pretty comfortable with what they're doing while my 11-year-old is waiting for the trials to conclude.

This may be too personal, but I'm curious how you feel about taking your kid to the parks. We've been waiting for DL to reopen for 14 months (cancelled a huge trip last April) and my wife and I are both vaccinated, but my 11, 9, and 7 are not and will not be for many months. We're waffling on the relative safety of going.