How Is Covid-19 Impacting Life in Your City?

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

The U.S. never really cut off travel, though. We only cut off direct flights from China, and closed the land border with Canada and Mexico. We never forced people arriving from abroad to do mandatory quarantines. We didn't even require proof of negative COVID tests to board a plane to the U.S. until January of 2021.

This should've been mandatory from the start.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

I'm not sure what Ontario is doing but limiting travel from its neighbors in any form seems to me an excessive measure.

Maybe but it is nothing new in Canada. The first interprovincial border controls were brought in a year ago.

In general Canadians seem willing to accept harsher measures than Americans.

[kool maudit]

It's spring now and the streets are full. We don't wear masks here, and the patios are out.

There are, however, restrictions on opening hours and party size etc. I work from home and do not take public transit, so I am basically either at home, at the gym or walking outside these days; I am employing private restrictions that I see as working well within my own life. But I like that the streets show no visual trace of all this.

Our current caseload is about 30% worse than that of Ontario per capita and they are experimenting with what I had always considered to be... things that other countries did.

That said, they have fewer COVID-19 deaths than we do, and our Canadian SSP members seem to favour strict measures, so it's not as if the government has no mandate.

I am happy to have moved from Canada to Sweden before all this.

Most other Anglosphere people I know here are far more critical of the Swedish approach.

We all know a lot of people who have had COVID.

What can I say? In a pandemic situation, you treat the ill, quarantine the infected and otherwise go on -- that's how I view it. In some cases, zero-tolerance approaches can achieve better results, if we narrow our definition to the exact issue at hand, but I see them as dangerous and imbalanced in an overall sense.

[jtown,man]

Looks like the doom and gloom predictions about Texas were and are still false.

When Bill Maher is telling you Florida is doing better than NY, you know you are wrong.

[10023]

Originally Posted by someone123

Maybe but it is nothing new in Canada. The first interprovincial border controls were brought in a year ago.

In general Canadians seem willing to accept harsher measures than Americans.

Canadians have the same subservient nature as the Brits it seems. Too much "oh, mustn't grumble" leads to being enslaved.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Looks like the doom and gloom predictions about Texas were and are still false.

When Bill Maher is telling you Florida is doing better than NY, you know you are wrong.

It always was a bit partisan, wasn’t it

But you can’t deny facts. Lockdowns just aren’t that effective. They just give people an excuse to wear pajamas all day and still collect a paycheck

Get your vaccine, then get out there and help rebuild our economy. And stop being a whiny brat

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Except cruise ship passengers.

Jim Cramer (CNBC host) says the CDC is acting like it's trying to put the cruise industry out of business. They have offered to resume cruising with only vaccinated passengers and crew, and they have eliminated other risky business like the buffets of old, but so far the CDC won't let them sail even under those conditions.

Who wants to cruise when you're forced to wear a mask the whole time? My wife's family are big time cruisers and they've expressed zero interest because it would be a shitty experience.

[chris08876]

I'd probally wait for a cruise. I've been on several and if there are any restrictions, won't be fun. A cruise is about many things. One traveling but the others include eating until your stomach suffers a rip, like the sound that a pair of jeans makes ripping at a funeral, drinking Whiskey at the Solarium at 7am and having one's bathroom towels made into little animals. Don't forget Doctor Love... the Jamaican Bartender who makes the best Mai Tais out there. Just won't be the same with a mask and social distancing requirements.

[Centropolis]

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Looks like the doom and gloom predictions about Texas were and are still false.

When Bill Maher is telling you Florida is doing better than NY, you know you are wrong.

I don’t know. Not much happens indoors in Florida unlike New York. It’s the only place even a lot of the bars are outside, pool and beachside. Whereas New York is an indoors kind of place, when it’s allowed to be. Lately, the authorities may have been forcing them outside but dining outdoors in NY in winter, even with heaters, strikes me as not very pleasant.

Anyway, Florida could be “distancing” more than NY in spite of itself.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by JManc

Who wants to cruise when you're forced to wear a mask the whole time? My wife's family are big time cruisers and they've expressed zero interest because it would be a shitty experience.

A lot of people apparently. First of all, I’ll never get the intense hostility to wearing a mask. It doesn’t bother me at all.

But in fact, the cruise companies have had boomtime bookings for next year, assuming they’ll be allowed to leave the dock by then. If your relatives want to do any cruising in the next few years, better book the cruise now.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by 10023

Canadians have the same subservient nature as the Brits it seems. Too much "oh, mustn't grumble" leads to being enslaved.

I think there is truth to this and the Canadians who really don't like it and would be more influential here tend to relocate to the US or elsewhere. There are strong selection effects in Canada.

Ontario is the worst place in Canada right now with a bunch of weird restrictions they had to walk back and lots of cases. Many other provinces have had a mix of not so heavy restrictions and lower than average covid risk.

The restrictions don't bother me so much now that we have vaccines. I don't get the people who were skeptical that vaccines would be developed and yet also bullish on lockdowns. There is also a kind of "immunity denialism" that is not talked about much. The media barely acknowledge that people have resistance to covid after their immune system successfully fights it off.

I also think the notion of "lockdowns" is somewhat misleading not, as most say, because the lockdowns would work if only they were harsher, but because there never was a plan to lock everything down and have people come and deliver us food in space suits. People still needed to go to work, live with roommates and older relatives, etc. Around here it feels like governments have tried to draw attention away from this by blaming covid cases on elective "bad behaviour" like partying. As if the poorest people around here are all partying it up in ski chalets in the weekend and that's why they are getting covid. It has nothing to do with them working as line cooks or in chicken plants or living with 5 other roommates. Poorer countries had no hope whatsoever of doing society-wide lockdowns.

[sopas ej]

I just see it as, there are people who can adapt, and there are people who can't.

[Pedestrian]

Google, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Salesforce and Facebook and Uber have announced that they will be bringing their employees back to the office.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...-one-2021.html

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...-one-2021.html

No surprise there.

[SlidellWx]

Offices opening up is not a surprise as more get vaccinated. In my group of friends here in NOLA, all of them have had to report back to the office over the past couple of weeks. My office has moved into the next phase with near full staffing allowed, but still no outside visitors or travel permitted.

New Orleans is now 37.4% vaccinated among the total population as of Monday, and the adult vaccination rate has crossed the 50% mark. The positivity rate has been averaging between 0.5 and 0.8% for the last several weeks and there are only 52 people (out of 1,270,500) hospitalized in the metro area with COVID. It's safe to say that herd immunity has been achieved here based on those numbers. Hopefully, the current 1am bar closure time will come to an end soon.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

A lot of people apparently. First of all, I’ll never get the intense hostility to wearing a mask. It doesn’t bother me at all.

That's you. I could not imagine spending several thousand on a cruise where you have to wear a shitty uncomfortable mask and social distance the entire time. Plus, they've scaled back the buffets and pools which are a huge draw for a lot of cruisers. Sure, some people will be enthusiastic but others are going to take a hard pass until things let up more.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by JManc

That's you. I could not imagine spending several thousand on a cruise where you have to wear a shitty uncomfortable mask and social distance the entire time. Plus, they've scaled back the buffets and pools which are a huge draw for a lot of cruisers. Sure, some people will be enthusiastic but others are going to take a hard pass until things let up more.

Again: There are apparently enough people willing to accept the conditions that will exist to fill the ships if the CDC will let them sail.

Royal Caribbean Reports Strong Cruise Bookings, Higher Pricing
February 22, 2021
Aaron Saunders
Contributor

(2:15 p.m. EST) -- Cruisers hoping for rock-bottom pricing when cruise operations resume shouldn't get their hopes up. During its fourth-quarter 2020 earnings call today, Royal Caribbean Group executives noted that bookings for 2021 and 2022 remain strong, with prices higher, on average, than in 2019.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5904/

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by homebucket

No surprise there.

I don't know. I got a lot of blow-back here every time I predicted it would happen sooner than people think. And guess what: A lot of those employees WANT TO come back. The office has a social as well as work function for many.

[10023]

Originally Posted by someone123

I think there is truth to this and the Canadians who really don't like it and would be more influential here tend to relocate to the US or elsewhere. There are strong selection effects in Canada.

Ontario is the worst place in Canada right now with a bunch of weird restrictions they had to walk back and lots of cases. Many other provinces have had a mix of not so heavy restrictions and lower than average covid risk.

The restrictions don't bother me so much now that we have vaccines. I don't get the people who were skeptical that vaccines would be developed and yet also bullish on lockdowns. There is also a kind of "immunity denialism" that is not talked about much. The media barely acknowledge that people have resistance to covid after their immune system successfully fights it off.

I also think the notion of "lockdowns" is somewhat misleading not, as most say, because the lockdowns would work if only they were harsher, but because there never was a plan to lock everything down and have people come and deliver us food in space suits. People still needed to go to work, live with roommates and older relatives, etc. Around here it feels like governments have tried to draw attention away from this by blaming covid cases on elective "bad behaviour" like partying. As if the poorest people around here are all partying it up in ski chalets in the weekend and that's why they are getting covid. It has nothing to do with them working as line cooks or in chicken plants or living with 5 other roommates. Poorer countries had no hope whatsoever of doing society-wide lockdowns.

Yes. And because of this there was no point to even trying. For example it is pointless to make “non-exempt” travellers quarantine for 10 days when entering the U.K. when almost 40% of people entering the country are exempt from this requirement (and everyone has to test negative). It’s just PR nonsense for the paranoid types to show that your government is protecting you.