It's Official: Universal Orlando's Theme Parks Return June 5

I’m thrilled to see this! But, um... how exactly is the mask thing supposed to work at Volcano Bay? I guess you could theoretically wear one on the aqua-coaster, but they make no sense on the slides or in the wave pool or lazy river.

The water parks open both here and Legoland is the head-scratcher to me. I mean, it's one thing to keep a mask on a coaster or water ride but a place designed to keep you as soaked as possible sort of defeats the purpose.

I can also see some grousing on the longer wait times due to the rules although it's clearly going to be a while before attendance is how it once was so I suppose it balances out.

Also, I expect them to have a bit where if someone loses a mask on a coaster or such, they can get a replacement one offered rather than kicked out of the park.

No big complaints or predictions of doom and gloom and deaths tripling Mike? Wasn't it just a few weeks ago you were predicting nothing would open theme park wise until at least aug? Asking for a friend. Any answer is completely acceptable and welcomed.

Why would you post that?

Since 6:42 AM today (EDT), 1,170 people lost their lives because of COVID-19. That's about one person every 45 seconds. These theme parks are playing with fire.

Universal Guidelines: VB directive is no masks to be worn on the water rides. Only recommended for areas where distancing is difficult. The dry parks (IOA & USF) require masks to be worn except for eating and drinking.

I think its a huge mistake to not require reservations to get in the park, that place is going to be slammed. Did Universal forget that over 20 million people live in just Florida by itself? Add the fact that UO has a history of botching opening days, then add summer heat on top of that. Shanghai Disneyland sold its inventory for the entire week just a few hours after tickets went on sale.

Good luck!

I suspect that Universal's survey data has suggested to them that there's no need for advance reservations because they're not going to get anywhere near their limited-capacity number when they reopen.

I'm watching 'The Last Dance' ... And it seems odd and disheartening watching Michael Jordan high-fiving fans and players, and shaking hands and hugging strangers. Opening theme parks right now is such a risky endeavor. Handle with great care. If a cluster breaks out, the impact to that park and the entire industry could be powerful and indelible.

@TH: Half of those deaths are concentrated in the Northeast U.S. Florida has a relatively small number of 45 deaths today despite its large elderly population. While no one will officially say it, it appears summer temperatures will reduce the spread. As South America heads into their fall, the continent is becoming a hot spot (especially Brazil).

Robert we all know people sometimes do not answer surveys with the same answer that they actually will behave with. Especially when either fear or peer pressure is involved. Both are here. I am absolutely shocked they are not doing advance reservations. It is so easy to do advance reservations nowadays. That is really short sighted just to be able to extend less days for the annual passholders. So. a pass only gets extended more days passed june 3 only if you physically show up at the gate and get turned away. Considering not all attractions will likely be operating, This will mean a lot of mad passholders. Have they said how they are handing seasonal passes. They are normally blacked out in july 1-31 (both parks) but not in march or april or may before memorial day. So they would be efftively take away 30 days that the park was closed and not blacked out. with 30 days when both ride parks are blacked out.

@Twobits, let me put it another way: If a cluster breaks out, the impact to that park and the entire industry could be powerful and indelible

TwoBits---the CDC did officially say higher heat and humidity is expected to reduce the spread and be less contagious in these conditions. The CDC head announced they had done experiments on it. ON live tv. Pres donald J trump asked it is was possible to capture whatever chemical reaction occurs with head and humidity and put that into a pill or prescription drug. he specifically said doctors would have to formulate it. Maybe, that is not possible, maybe it will be in some future date. But. It's the same type of question that Walter Elias Disney would ask his team. A little bit future looking. Maybe not possible. But. You don't that unless you ask and do some research.

For that most of the media accused the president of telling people to drink bleach or spray lysol on their bodies. He NEVER said anything like that. I watched it live. My liberal wife agrees, she watched it live too. Fast forward to today. European countries and China are spraying people (Some situations) with disinfectant as they enter some places. (Not sure what the long term health effects are, they may be a bad idea but european countries and china are doing it). many places are also using UV light as a disenfectant to kill the virus on surfaces when people are not around. Research continues of developing it to safely use when people are around. Those types of things are also what the pres was asking about and most of the media went to the he's telling people to drink bleach complete and quite intentional lie. That was most of the news media's lowest hour in the history of news media, I believe.

With all the smacking and poking, these discussions are becoming way too much like the Three Stooges (but like the Stooges, they're pretty darn funny). It's comical how the opening of a family theme park can invoke opinions of the President, political leanings of spouses, the biases of the press and way more. If you children cannot play well together then we will not go to the park this year. Go ahead and cry or hold your breath, won't change my mind. And, I don't care if your daddy is a fireman and can beat up my daddy, you children need to learn to behave.

Any word if they're doing shows yet?

@ TH

Sure theres risk, but how is not opening and not allowing businesses to survive a better solution?

They shouldn’t even open, We need to keep everything closed until a vaccine eradicates the virus in it’s entirety.

@typhoon2000: As much as that's the logical response, that could be another year and let's face it, no way can the economy (or nation mental health) survive that long. And even then,always a chance of recurrence.

@ Daniel Gavin: If a park opens, and suddenly 50 guests test positive and a dozen of those guests die from contracting the virus ... exactly how much longer after that does the "business survive"? Type in the name "Jeffrey Ghazarian" into a search engine and count the number of major media outlets that covered his story and put Disney in the headline or lead.

@TH: Mr. Ghazarian made headlines in March. Googling his name brings up many headlines but almost none regarding Disney or Universal because it doesn't matter. As sad as his death (and all deaths are) it was used to grab headlines and scare the youth who were not taking this virus seriously. It is by no means a cautionary tale about visiting theme parks in the age of Covid-19. Mr. Ghazarian will become, if he is not already, an outlier among the youth and middle aged. His death was due to underlying health conditions. Knowing what we know now about the disease... if you choose to visit a highly populated area without a known vaccine and/or underlying health conditions is opting to put yourself at risk. This is no fault of Universal or Disney. You as a person have the option to know your health, read reports like Mr. Ghazarian's, and decide for yourself if you should visit theme parks.

Fine print: Visiting Universal Orlando may result in exposure to COVID-19, a worldwide pandemic for which there is no known cure or treatment and where exposure may result in injury or death. Universal makes no guarantee of safety, regardless of the precautions taken.

It literally said as much in a tagline at the bottom of an Annual Passholder email sent yesterday.

Mirror- Spector (Lead): " A 34-year-old man has died in California after testing positive of coronavirus just days ago, and 2 weeks after visiting Walt Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida, TMZ has learned."

TMZ (Headline): "CA MAN DIES AT 34 Recently Visited Disney World In FL"

Fox News 7 (Headline): "‘He suffered a lot:’ California man who died from COVID-19 visited Disney World, Universal Studios."

People magazine (Headline): "34-Year-Old Calif. Man Dies of Coronavirus 2 Weeks After Visiting Orlando Theme Parks."

Miami Herald (Headline): "A California man who died from COVID-19 went to Disney World, Universal, reports say."

KUSI News (Headline): "L.A. County reports second death from coronavirus; person recently visited Disney World."

Fox 13 Tampa (Headline): "Glendora man, 34, dies from coronavirus; recently visited Disney World in Florida: Report."

New York Daily News (Lead): "Jeffrey Ghazarian, a 34-year old California man near LA has died, after a battle with COVID-19, just two weeks after he visited Walt Disney World."

El Sentinel (Headline): "Hombre que visitó parques de Disney y Universal en Florida muere por coronavirus en California, según reportes."

Inside the Magic (Headline): "34-Year-Old Passes Away from Covid-19 After Recent Visit to Disney World & Universal Studios."

---------

Now imagine if a dozen guests lose their lives. How many headlines and leads do you think that will generate? And how will that impact the theme park business?

>> Sure theres risk, but how is not opening and not allowing businesses to survive a better solution?

Do businesses exist to serve people, or do people exist to serve businesses?

Yes, there needs to be a balance, but businesses can be rebuilt, protections can be put in law against creditors, there’s a lot of levers here.

@davedisney could you send me a link where in Europe people are sprayed with disinfectant as I never heard that here and it is stupid.
Also you are aware that a virus does very well at 37 degrees Celsius or 33.8 degrees Fahrenheit. To fight it the body makes it's temperature higher (fever) and that kills the virus. As long as the outside temperature isn't at fever height it will have a ton of fun infecting people.

Also great to hear people are okay to have more people die in favor of capitalism, that is the American spirit.

Mirror- Spector: "It appears Jeffrey was a higher-risk patient. He had a history of asthma and frequent bronchitis as a child, though he outgrew that. He also had undergone surgery for testicular cancer back in 2016."

TMZ::It appears Jeffrey was higher-risk patient. He had a history of asthma and frequent bronchitis as a child, though he outgrew that. He also had undergone surgery for testicular cancer back in 2016."

ABC 7: "The coronavirus test came back positive on March 13. Dubler had been following the updates from Ghazarian's sister on Facebook. Ghazarian was a fighter who survived testicular cancer in 2016, his family said, adding that he fought hard in an attempt to beat coronavirus."

abc4news: "It appears Ghazarian was an at-risk patient, TMZ reported. He had a history of asthma and frequent bronchitis as a child. He also had beat testicular cancer in 2016."

KUSI News: "Ghazarian passed away Thursday morning. His family stated he had a history of asthma and frequent bronchitis as a child. He also had beat testicular cancer back in 2016, which made him a higher risk for contracting coronavirus."

Fox 13 Tampa: "His family stated he had a history of asthma and frequent bronchitis as a child. He also had beat testicular cancer back in 2016, which made him a higher risk for contracting coronavirus."

Most importantly is the global web search that eliminates most of the cherry picked Florida publications you chose to illustrate here...

The highlighted articles appear on the first page of google when you type in the name Jeffrey Ghazaria (out of 10 results) based on TH's citations:

Mirror- Spector (Lead): " A 34-year-old man has died in California after testing positive of coronavirus just days ago, and 2 weeks after visiting Walt Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida, TMZ has learned."

TMZ (Headline): "CA MAN DIES AT 34 Recently Visited Disney World In FL"

Some of them go on to mention his visits to WDW and Universal but ALL mention his underlying health conditions.

I think it is premature. Universal is taking a risk and it could backfire to all in the industry. Why don’t wait a couple more weeks to see what happens in Shanghai Disneyland and other parks in China?

Please note how AndrewL ignores the point of my post. If one death that is remotely associated with theme parks gets this much attention, what will the impact be if an dozen guests become fatalities? How many headlines and leads do you think that will generate? And how will that impact the theme park business?

AndrewL will come skipping back with a pithy rationalization in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Shocked that Universal is not using a online reservation system. Shanghai Disneyland was fully booked as soon as it opened its reservation system. Efteling restricted its reservation system to only passholders (who could only book for one date in a 2.5 week period), and the dates were booked in only a matter of hours after the online system opened. I guess we'll see what happens...

@Th

You didnt answer my question either which was how is the risk of reopening worse than staying closed and letting businesses fail. The unemployment is already at the highest since the great depression. Businesses are going bankrupt. The federal governemnt is taking on trillions of additional debt. Should we allow the economy to collapse because theres risk of reopening? Theres great risk with driving a car on a freeway but nobody suggests banning car travel until there are 0 deaths associated with it. We temper the risk with common sense laws and safety features in cars.

I see your concerns, THC, but what's the solution?

Maybe it's time for the system to find out just how bad (or not bad) things can get.

Actually Daniel, I did. I said the impact to the business will be greater if a cluster of fatalities is linked to a theme park. Note I said "a theme park" -- meaning if one park is linked to deaths, it could frighten consumers regarding the entire industry.

@TimmyH: I was talking to a pal about this, regarding the Disney parks. If the company could keep guests and cast members safe, maybe get some cash flow going with a hard ticket event like "An Evening on Main Street USA" limit guests to MSUSA with special entertainment and food, beverage and retail. Or actually make "Drinking Around the World" a sanctioned event at EPCOT. It gets the blood flowing while we wait for a vaccine or better testing or treatment.

America has become such a horrible place. The rest of the world is doing what any sane, rational people would do: follow the most scientifically reasonable method for re-opening.

Unfortunately, a third of Americas are under the spell of a vicious propaganda machine that causes them to do the bidding of the one percent and rush to reopen NOT on the basis of science, but on the one percent's desire to increase their wealth. The saddest part is that this deluded minority has been convinced they are risking their lives in the name of "freedom." They're so deluded they can't see that they've been conned into a death cult. These are the same people, of course, who protest for the wealthy gun manufacturers' right to keep selling the guns that murder our kids. It's unbearable.

Too much for an amusement park site? Absolutely. But when you see those people spouting the lies they've been told to repeat, and arrogantly insist upon their god given right to become infected by a killer disease? Ugh, does anyone in Europe or Australia have a spare guest room? I want out of this madhouse.

The colonel writes: "America has become such a horrible place."

I Respond: No it hasn't.

Tell ya what @thecolonel, my wife has an aunt and uncle who are big into conspiracy theories. Maybe I could connect you up to them, and they can give you some conspiracy theory websites where your time could be better spent than making stupid posts on TPI.

Or if that doesn't work for ya, maybe we can start a Go Fund Me page to pay for a one-way ticket to get you out of this madhouse. Iran? North Korea? Maybe the PRC? You might get a better idea of what a horrible place is then.

Getting off the back and forth political rants for a moment, should the reopening go relatively okay without any mass pop-ups of infections, how long would it take for other theme parks to follow suit? Disney is clearly waiting to see the effects of Universal opening but will want to get back on track. Issue being that they're so much larger so harder to control the guests and other problems.

There's also the obvious factor in how Florida is being...a bit more lax on reopening than California which means that Disneyland, Universal and Six Flags, Knott's, Magic Mountain, etc are still closed for a while. It's astonishing to see just how fragile the theme park industry is and this is a shake-up that's going to affect it for a long time.

I didnt ignore your point at all TH. I simply don't agree that his death was used to fuel the dangers of going to a theme park. You saw the coverage one way and I saw it differently. His death was used to fuel the dangers to younger adults to get them to take this seriously.

I do actually agree with your statement that theme parks are playing with fire. I think this is too soon for Universal or any theme park for that matter. I just don't agree with your Jeffery
Ghazaria argument.

Florida is for sure being the guinea pig for COVID-19. Hopefully the heat and sun are able to bring the virus down through the summer there.

Just drove across WDW -- from 535 along Buena Vista. Disney Springs has very little traffic. Passed the Riviera (ghost town), DHS parking (abandoned), Coronado Tower (nothing). By the time we reached Osceola Parkway we'd seen maybe a dozen cars. DAK parking (empty).

And it's Memorial Day weekend.

AndrewL you are still ignoring the question. If Jeffery Ghazaria's death garnered that much media attention, how much attention would a dozen deaths attract?

OT--google tokyo bar aims to clean up with customer disinfectant spray. Several news org's around the world have articles on it. Also if you google schools open in UK, there are British articles that the teacher's union are pushing to spray children with disinfectant upon entry to the building. The article states (Daily mail, I believe) children have been sprayed with disinfectant upon entering school in South Korea and China with good results. I found similar articles of the gov't of India approving this.

So. Perhaps not Europe yet. But, it might be any day now. The UK gov't wants to open schools starting 6/1/20 and the teachers union says teachers will not feel safe unless the children are sprayed with disinfectant.

I know what is the medium to long term health effects of this? I don't think it is known. But evidently the Govt's of south Korea, China, India and the teacher's union's across the UK say suck it up and risk your children getting cancer later on, in order to make your teachers feel safe right now.

It boils down to this. The world has been locked down for two months now. Covid is a terrible disease, and it is shocking how many people have died, but most of the cases have been concentrated in certain areas, for example, most of the cases in the U.S. are in New York. Also, in general, the curve has been flattened, which was the main purpose of the lockdown.

The reason for the lockdown was never 'until we get a vaccine', or until it's 'safe', it was to prevent the overwhelming of the health care system. So I think that after two months experience, it's reasonable that areas that haven't seen huge numbers of cases reopen with caution and guidelines.

Is there a risk? Yes, of course. Should people still follow social distancing guidelines? Yes, of course. But I think it's reasonable for some areas to reopen, and see how it goes. If there's a huge spike, you can always pull back. But if the new cases are low, they can consider reopening further.

That said, I think it's simplistic and naive to think that people want to reopen just to 'get rich' or are 'selfish'. The world is not black and white, it's lot of grays. A lot of people are suffering because of the lockdown, and it's not the rich, it's the people who live paycheck to paycheck, people who are losing their businesses, and people who are stuck at home with abusive members of the family, just to name a few examples.

As for the media coverage, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the media tends to sensationalize because they want clicks or subscriptions. Are they right to report it? Yes, of course, but let's try to have a balanced view of what's going on.

THAT'S IT!! ALL OF YOU. GO TO YOUR ROOM. I'M CONFISCATING YOUR DAVY CROCKETT COONSKIN CAPS AND YOUR HOT WHEELS. YOU CAN HAVE THEM BACK WHEN YOU APOLOGIZE AND LEARN TO PLAY NICE. AND DON'T THINK YOU'RE COMING OUT TO WATCH WORLD OF COLOR. WHEN YOUR FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE STUDIO, HE WILL HAVE A FEW WORKS FOR YOU TOO.

@davedisney - the daily mail is basically a comic not a reliable source of news. There is absolutely no way kids are going to be sprayed with disinfectant and teachers are NOT asking for that!

If the Magic Kingdom opens to 25% capacity that means every 10 days more than 100,000 people are in the park. Add in CMs (let's assume 1,500) and it's definitely over 100k.

Throw in the other three WDW parks that's half a million people every ten days.

Half a million ... All interacting with each other ... During a pandemic ... What could possibly go wrong?

I think you should think about how many people are interacting during a single day, not over the course of 10 days. Other things to consider, I'm sure a lot of people will not go at first because of fear, and most of the people who do go will still be somewhat paranoid about getting close to others. Also, I'm sure the theme parks are not going to open all at once, it's wise to take a stepped approach and see the effect before loosening more restrictions. Reopening does involve risk, but keeping everything closed until it's completely safe is not realistic and not taking into account the whole picture.

@TH

"I said the impact to the business will be greater if a cluster of fatalities is linked to a theme park"

Yes I know you said it and I understand the risk, but you didnt demonstrate that this risk is greater than not opening and allowing businesses to suffer and fail further. If people get the virus at a theme park it will be bad for business, but how is that worse than staying closed and not getting any business? Thats what I dont agree with because both are really bad for business but at least if they open they have a chance to make money. Staying closed is a guarantee to not make money.

@Disfan re: both your comments --yes, yes, YES! Thank you!

UKCoasterMan and everyone else. Mr. UK coaster. Do you live in the UK, said respectfully? I just googled UK teachers union disinfectant the sun, the metro, the express, newspunch, a few others all have the same story about teachers demanding kids have disenfectent sprayed on them daily. Are there that many newspapers/news orgs in the UK who are like CNN in the USA?

TH Creative---So. during jan and feb and up to march 15, you had 75 percent capacity at the theme parks. With no social distencing and most people not using hand sanitizer and no one wearing masks. That is why Dr fauci and Dr birks and others (I am sure you) assumed that Orlando was going to blow up as bad as or worse than NYC and half of the elderly would die by april 30. Yet it did not happen. Not ever remotely, remotely close.. Is the CCP virus more contagious than the flu. probably so. But not so much more, than life has to stop. This hysteria is crazy. Should people 65 or older or anyone who lives with someone who is especially vulnerable wait until there is a vaccine yes. Every one else NO! there may very well not be a vaccine until 2022 or later. Nothing to going to change to further reduce the risk very much. If orlando or anywhere else hits 85 percent ICU bed capacity, we can tap the brakes and ban some activities for a short time for the hospitals to get ICU space. this can and must be managed. Not suspend the constitution of the united states.

I am adopting the way Daniel and Davewhatever are dancing around the question I am asking:

If the Orlando theme parks open and off a dozen people who visit DIE from COVID-19 what will be the impact on the business?

I guess they think, "Twelve people dead? No biggie."

@davedisney: No one wants to "suspend the Constitution." In fact, courts have been ruling governors have the right to do these shelter orders. Pandemics are nothing new in history, they just are for this time in the U.S. And come on, a significant difference between being asked to wear a mask in public for the health of others and having numbers tattooed on your arm. Anyone ranting on "we are literally a police state" has no idea what such a place actually is.

I agree that deaths in a cluster will be bad. Look what has happened to the cruise industry. I couldn't imagine going on a cruise if and when they start back up. Most of that opinion is based off the media coverage of what the passengers on some of those ships had to go through and the deaths.

Frankly, I believe the US parks should wait their turn so to speak. Shanghai was the first to close and just reopened. Tokyo was second and they haven't even reopened yet. They closed almost a full month earlier than the US parks. I understand that they remain closed because the Japanese government extended its state of emergency order; so maybe without that Tokyo parks would already be open again. Still...We shouldn't even be talking about reopening until some of these other countries (that closed up much earlier) start to come back online.

@Andrewl: One thing to keep in mind on Japan is how it's an island with a population crammed into major centers (Tokyo has more street traffic in one day than NYC in a week) and a different mindset than Western culture on work being a priority. That's not a good combination for a pandemic situation.

MikeW: That's a valid point and something I was not considering.

TH--Dude respectfully. I spent 100 words very directly answering you and anyone else worried about that. There was 1 direct link (the man you mentioned) who visited in all of jan and feb and up to march 15. Not 12. 1. I would not be opposed to disney saying anyone over 60 yrs cannot visit in June or July. except, it's unconstitutional, so I am opposed for consistency and libertarian reasons. People over 60 should know full well by now they are the ones who have a 60-65 approx 1% risk of dying 65-70 Approx 2 1/2-4 percent over 70 yrs 4-7 percent chance of dying. Of course, if someone is sure they have no underlying health conditions those numbers go down.

Yes. I do respect people enough to make reasonable decisions with their health and those they live with. I know some will say, man but there is a chance of giving it to someone not in your family.

If you really want to be that risk averse as a society. Than plan on all of the rides rusting and being completely non operational and Disneyland being much smaller and have much less rides upon reopening in 2022! yes 2022. There is not guarantee an effective vaccine will be available until then if ever. It could very well be later than that

Mike W--somehow you got me confused with someone else. Where did I saw anything about tatoo's on anyone's arm? I did not. totalitarianism and dictatorship and facism is NOT the same as invoking Hitler. I'm Jewish. I am very very careful before using the word Hitler or nazi in regards to a group, unless i am sure. If you study history (as I have) there were a bunch of regimes who called themselves Nazi's before Hitler. Mussolini being the most famous but other countries before him, too. The prior Nazi's were very repressive (along the lines of communists), basically Hitler without the killing of particular groups (other than the political opposition) which is what I said before.
Your comment about state courts. One's I have seen so far. Governor's do not have all power after 28 days and without legislative approval Oregon and Ohio. Michigan ruled Gov Whitmer has full CCP powers ultimate authority. They are the only one through. 2-1 so far against the governors having surpreme no limits power to do anything they want to you and me. Although a judge in Michigan also ruled again yesterday that the 77 yr old barber has a right to work, irregardless of the gov. So. Michigan is not all in with the authoritarianism, either.

@davedisney: I apologize if I sounded too much on Nazi remarks but then you were the one acting like trying to keep infections low in a pandemic is "suspending Constitution." The Founding Fathers never meant for the Bill of Rights to be a suicide pact.

Also, I have sadly seen people at forums, in other seriousness, say "the Nazis treated the Jews better than this." I know, insane but that's the mentality taking hold, that trying to keep a pandemic down translates to tyranny.

Revolutionarywarjournal.com/diseases-and-epidemics Contagious disease killed a much greater percentage of the population than we can ever imagine tolerating. You or me. The founding fathers and all people fighting for freedom and liberty were aware that these were contagious diseases and could thus(hypothetically) be reduced if people were further apart. As time passed in the 1600's people must have realized that a far greater percentage of the population died from these diseases than in rural areas. Both in britan and the US. but, they continued to congregate in cities so civilization would progress. And. Yes to have a little fun every once in a while.

eventually. Some rookie scientists realized that certain people who contracted mild contagious diseases (notably cowpox) then became immune from getting smallpox which in some decades literally killed 30 percent of populations in some cities. It took 100 yrs or more for a vaccine to eventually be developed. In the meantime, the colonists proceeded to intentionally infect as many people as possible with the more mild cowpox to gain the immunity to the more deadly smallpox.

A form of herd immunity. SO. Yes. people died in droves of contagious diseases from the time of rebellion to establish the united states through the industrial revolution.

And. Yet those brave souls considered all of the freedom, and liberty,
to be much more important and worth taking health risks to fight for and maintain. The most important of these ideals they fought for on this memorial day was the freedom of speech (1st amend) and the freedom of Assembly, including freedom of religious assembly(first amend). Placing them first intentionally as being the most important.

one can say going to a theme park is not what they were thinking of in 1776. probably not and it we get close to 85 percent capacity of ICU beds we can impose 14 days quarentines of travelers from those counties. Until we get to that point (or even 80 percent), let's let up of the hysteria.

We have learned that if we need to (for ICU bed capacity) we know how to reduce hospitalizations within a 14-20 day lag time by shutting down the "non essential areas of the economy" hopefully we wont get there again. If we just assume the worst, you end up with horrific decisions like the ones the gov's of NY, penn, and NJ made to return covid positive patients to nursing homes. resulting in thousands upon thousands of extra deaths, because they believed the incorrect modeling and death simulations of needed those ICU beds for younger people who had more life expectancy. That is called rationing care and death panels by government fiat. ICU beds that remained empty and as still massively empty today

@davedisney: Even if herd immunity works (and the jury is out on that), it requires a very long time and allowing at least 70 percent of the population infected and no guarantee the virus won't mutate somehow. Also, using a method from the 18th century (when they didn't even know what blood types were) seems foolish in modern society and medical advances.

And I think most hospital workers would agree it's best to not wait until 85 percent of beds are filled, they're overwhelmed as it is. As for the talk on "Freedom of religion," no one is being barred from praying via online services. The Pope has openly told Catholics to just stay home and do mass online. As one pastor nicely put it on the news: "A church is important but the people who belong to a church are indispensable."

The front page of the New York Times is a list of the 100,000 Americans who have died of this in the last two months. That is not "hysteria," that is an absolute fact. Given Florida just passed 50,000 cases and rises, the danger is very real and the rise of cases in places reopening shows there is a major risk in too many people thinking "the worst is past, we can get back to some normalcy" when it can spike too easily again.

Over the last 30 hours, 23,104 cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States and 1,051 people died as a result of the virus. That comes to about 43 lives lost every hour.

But yea, let's open Disney World because, otherwise, the world's largest, multi-national communications company may be less profitable.

TH-In reality you can take the total number of confirmed cases and multiply it by at least 10. Perhaps more. use that against the death rate. Suddenly the death rate become very very very small. Serious, but very small. The last time, I went to disney world In mid Jan, I sat near a 80 yr old man on the monorail, with a button that said on Chemo. He looked fairly weak too. I'm certain he knew quite well, that he was risking himself by going to WDW, before the general pop and your state GOV was paying attention to covid. Just from possible contraction of the general cold. He choose to go anyway.

If I was in the condition, would I wait one year to go to WDW. Yes. Before I knew about covid, would I have made the same decision that sweet man did yes. If I'm 84 and it's 2023 would I still go to WDW even if Covid still exists. YES.

I will wear the masks indoors and when it's not 90 degrees. Have lots of CM's enforce it. But. man you cannot micromanage peoples lives like that, when we still have ICU bed capacity. It's immoral and against our values.

Mike--I believe even Gov Cuomo of NY said recently that he will loosen up on the restrictions as long as ICU capacity does not go above 80 percent. So. Ok. between 80 and 85 percent to loosen up is a fair debate to have among reasonable people. Individual Churches in your neighboorhood, (just like dine in restaurants) will go OUT OF BUSINESS if they are not allowed to open at least until Oct. It's obvious sociological theory that if you are watching the service on TV, people will give much less and also gravitate towards "star" religious leaders who have more charisma. The result would be you would have a limited number of star you tube religious leaders and much much less physical churches. That would likely cause churches to become more politically active, so Liberals and socialists should consider that sometimes it's harmful to get what you wish for.

I never ever said we should practice blood letting or 18th century medical practices. You should have known I was only citing deaths from contagious diseases in the 1700's and 1800's because you were disputing that the people who wrote the US constitution was considering COVID. They experienced contagions that were far more deadly. That is the only reason, I did that research for you and cited large portions of it. As 1 political leader that I disagree with rants and raves C'mon mad. You are better than that. Don't be a pony faced horse soldier. cut the malarky.

@davedisney: On the religious aspect, we Catholics don't really go for "star" leaders but our local priests via online. And we still support our churches with online donations. It's different for other parts of the faith but Catholic and Evangelical pastors are much different in other regards.

And I guess I'd be more insulted by "Pony faced horse soldier" if I knew what that actually meant.....

Mike W--Joe biden famously says both those things. Sorry, forget you are from another country and may only get a realitively small amount of US News. Actually, glad you mentioned it. I forget to mention that I read catholics in Italy have been masses again. The Pope is not a star leader? Aside from the pope, just because it has not happened in the past, does not mean it won't happen now, if churches have to stay closed for a long time. Jews have not really have tele-leaders either, but I certainly believe it would change if the temples continue to be closed. My wife was very involved and went 2/3 of fridays as well as assisting most sunday's for kids activities. (Jews do services on friday's mostly). Since the 3/14 lockdown began she has watched exactly one teleconference service.

@davedisney: Actually, I live in the Chicago area and my Catholic church is emphasizing that even when they reopen, it's better at-risk people stay home rather than live services.

I know it's a sunday, but this is still the lowest numbers since very early march. texas one death. Georgia who closed late and opened early 2. Florida who we were assured would be another NYC and Italy only 4 deaths.

DaveDisney -- are you trying to be intentionally misleading? Just 3 days ago on Thurs May 21, Georgia tied its second-highest ever daily death toll at 78. A low number 1 day doesn't make a new trend. Plus, weekend numbers are ALWAYS low, there's a lag. If you looked at a chart you'd see this. BTW Sunday's Georgia toll is currently at 5 and may still go up for the day. Tomorrow will likely be a spike, as is usual for Monday (due to that lag in reporting I mentioned).

Much of what else you say is tinged with misinformation. I don't even know where to begin, so I won't.

That said --- I support efforts to reopen Universal. I'm actually strongly considering planning a trip for late June. I'll be wearing a mask, sanitizing my hands, and keeping my distance from everyone else. They are taking every precaution possible. If it doesn't work, they'll close again.

But its very dangerous to let your guard down. stay vigilante, this is NOT even remotely over. Strong chance we see a spike from Memorial Day festivities.

@atiblaze: Sadly, I highly doubt even with spikes there will be another close down as there was already places up in air over the first ones. It'll now be "well, clearly the sheltering didn't work so just have to live with it" and let the toll rise.

I very specifically said, I know it's a sunday for the reason that I do know there is less data transmitted on sundays. Looking on my calender, the states that I mentioned were very flat all this week compared to the prior week ending may 17 over the rolling 7 day periods very fair reporting. The site, I am taking for is realclearpolitics.com which is a very bi partisan source. they report their only data sources for the US as the CDC, And NHC. You are right though. they did just update georgia up to 5. Usually the data is finished for the day earlier. I believe Georgia is east coast time zone 3 hrs ahead. Still, Georgia along with Wisconsin and Florida was supposed to be hell on earth having 200 deaths a day each or more by now according to the predictions of CNN/CSNBC/WA PO/ny times/CBS/ABC/NBC etc just a few weeks ago. Modeling like that is what led to lots of thousands of unnecessary deaths by the gov's of NY, NJ,and PENN. Sending covid posative patients back to nursing homes where PPD was lacking and the aides aren't trained nearly as well as hospital nurses.

The assumption made is that the models were untrue. Perhaps the models were correct (or somewhat close to correct) and the actions taken prevented the worst from occurring.

There is generally a stark contrast in how many are viewing this. Those that work closely with the disease or who have otherwise been impacted speak of its ruthless devastation. I rarely see someone impacted say "nothing to see here, move along."

We absolutely need to have a strategy to balance the risks of COVID-19 so that we can return to something resembling a healthy society. But hope is not a strategy. Phased re-openings? Out the window shortly after they were announced. What's the alternative plan? There is none. We decided that it would be a good idea to let the dog drive for a while.

@TH: I will answer your question. If a dozen park goers die, it will grab headlines. It will grab huge, sensationalistic headlines. It will be a headline more eye catching than the equally true headline “99,988 Vacationers Still Alive a Month After Returning from Disneyworld”. Since the media wants to broadcast doom and gloom (a practice that has been going on for YEARS, not just the last few months), we will get the bad news headline and not the good.

Funny about how several people who were debating me (just a few weeks ago) about how the sky is falling any theme parks will be too risky for all of 2020 to dec 31, are suddenly pretty muted in be critical of Universal's opening? TH is being consistent (perhaps he has an underlying condition or lives with someone who does), but several other people are quite muted on whether it is wise suddenly? I support Universal's opening, but don't understand why they are not doing reservation only? I also have not heard what capacity that are going to work with 25, 30 percent? Seems like they are going to have hours long lines to get in with no reservations. Wisconsin did that with voting in some places without a big increase in cases in the state in comparison to other states (they are still approx 25/50 per capita) but why do it when reservation systems really don't cost all that much and seem like they are the future eventually. Did Universal spend zero money on this already well known tech pre march and post march??