COVID-19 & Coasters: Coronavirus Impacts on the Amusement Industry

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Jonesta6 said:
Is that a responsible gesture when the whole reason the parks aren't opening or have strict guest rules and/or lowered capacities to help lower the chance of spreading the virus?

I don't think it is, especially when all that gesture accomplishes is to increase potential spread at open parks, and possibly take that many more slots needed in the reservation system. Plus those parks wouldn't necessarily see much extra revenue from upgrading people to a multi-park pass.
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The parks are for-profit businesses and have put together plans to open in other states. VA isn't special. The 1000 person cap is arbitrary and has little relation to science, unless you want to argue uncapped capacity on bars is a good idea. Nearby MD and PA have a 50% capacity rule, but not the arbitrary cap, so their parks will actually benefit at VA park's loss.

I assume Cedar Fair and SEAS are going to fight this, whether via lobbying or a lawsuit. If they are unsuccessful with that, as a token of good gesture to their customers, allowing them to visit other parks isn't a bad way to show goodwill with their customer base and maybe keep them from getting passes at other parks (e.g. Six Flags America).
 
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Jonesta6 said:
How does death rate plus recovery rate factor in - are the differences coming from either?

Also, unless I'm mistaken, aren't there several issues with how the hospitals are recording cases?
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Since that report, critical cases have gone up to 16511. But still lower than 16827. Certainly the numbers fluctuate. As far as deaths, on June 12th at 12:23 PM there had been 116034 deaths (of 932,120 closed cases). Now we are at 123303 (and 1,129,331 closed cases). So going on percentages, the closed case death rate on June 12th was 12.4% (I know that's higher than you've heard. I think the numbers most report are overall deaths/cases - here I am talking only about closed cases. And yes that is very alarming). And now the percent is 10.9%. So it's down 1.5 percentage points.

Of course it is hard to interprete these numbers. I find them interesting, though.
 
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I said it the other day and some people here didnt like it, but it would be in BGW and KDs best interest to team up and take the state to court. From the way I understood the phases we will be in 3 basically till the rona is over. When will that be? Will it ever be? BGW was the chain cash cow for many years and still very well could be but with it no longer doing its part how long can Seas stay like this? Ill give in and admit that the park cant just go back to normal but there needs to be a happy medium where they can still turn a profit in ways other that taking payments from guests with no park open.
 
I don't know, or support, or don't support, nor have verified authenticity of the "news" outlets. Just answering the question on stories out there. The one site seems heavily biased, but provides links to their resources that seem credible. Reliable or not, this is some of what is out there concerning inaccurate reporting of cases.

Washington health officials: Gunshot victims counted as COVID-19 deaths
If a COVID-19 patient dies of a gun shot wound or in a car crash, or a tree falls on a coronavirus patient and kills them? It’s listed as a coronavirus death.
CDC admits to giving misleading COVID-19 testing data. Several states have been making the same mistake.
'Probable' COVID-19 Death Reporting Varies by State
Questions raised over accuracy of US coronavirus death toll
CDC wants states to count ‘probable’ coronavirus cases and deaths, but most aren’t doing it
CDC, the government’s disease-fighting agency, is conflating viral and antibody tests
NY Times publishes list of COVID victims on front page, caught including suspected homicide victim
How COVID-19 Deaths Are Counted
San Diego official reveals only six of county's nearly 200 COVID-deaths are 'pure, solely coronavirus' deaths
Washington health official says state counted some gunshot victims as COVID-19 deaths
Fewer COVID-19 deaths reported in Colorado after health department changes fatality categorization
Colorado Case Data
New York Admits Knowingly Under-counting Nursing Home Deaths After Quietly Changing Reporting Rules
Colorado Coroner Says State Mischaracterized Death

Anyway, quite a bit.
 
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These cases are a drop in the bucket compared to the 123,000 deaths so far in the United States. Additionally, there is a difference between a few isolated cases and a systemic problem of hospitals over reporting.

I would also ask who is the source of this dark theory? That information alone provides clues to its intent and validity.

As I understand @Jonesta6’s logic, because someone accused hospitals of misreporting cases, we should assume it may be true, unless they can prove themselves innocent? You cannot prove a negative, so that is an impossible standard. It also flies in the face of our legal principles: they are innocent until proven guilty.

This is why conspiracy theories are so dangerous. They defy evidence and logic, and rely on distrust to propagate themselves.
 
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I would venture to throw out there and say that regardless of the capacity being limited to 1K exact or any percentage, they are both rather arbitrary. I believe capacity should be redefined based on the amount of space that can be given per person, say a 6ft radius per person, something that will allow for everyone to distance properly.

Just by saying to cut capacity by 50% may not actually allow for the physical distancing needed, it may still be too many people. Whatever number of people can fit into a space provided there is a 6ft radius should be the capacity limits since that is what all of this is being base off of.
 
VonDerrick said:
I would venture to throw out there and say that regardless of the capacity being limited to 1K exact or any percentage, they are both rather arbitrary. I believe capacity should be redefined based on the amount of space that can be given per person, say a 6ft radius per person, something that will allow for everyone to distance properly.

Just by saying to cut capacity by 50% may not actually allow for the physical distancing needed, it may still be too many people. Whatever number of people can fit into a space provided there is a 6ft radius should be the capacity limits since that is what all of this is being base off of.
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DC is doing square footage in its guidelines and MD is as well to some extent. The challenge with 50% capacity is it’s based on fire marshall requirements, not biology, which means they are looking at egress points and fire prevention measures such as sprinklers to determine capacity vice social distancing.
 
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To @Nicole's point - it's not so much a conspiracy theory than pointing out plausible holes with the way data is collected and presented.

Professionally, this is the kind of thing I deal with all day long. An example that folks familiar with CMS and Google Analytics reporting may understand is when you have the same metric name across both platforms but the numbers are different - sometimes not by much, sometimes by a wide margin. This usually is due to how 2 different systems collect and present their data - neither is technically wrong, but only one is useful for accurate reporting. It takes someone with that understanding and knowledge of the business needs to know which one is the source of truth.

Bringing that back to hospitals and COVID-19 data, because there's nobody sitting on the federal level providing guidance, and each hospital/hospital group is left to use their own standards, there's no consistency in how the data is captured, thus meaning subsequent reporting may have a wide margin of error, which is hard to determine considering the variability of all input sources.

To the much larger picture, while the data gives an indication of what's happening, my opinion is that there's still enough fuzziness to the whole thing to make any kind of rational informed decision. However, because life goes on and like it or not people need money to live, government has found it necessary to open things back up to some extent. I just hope history treats their decisions kindly.
 
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Governor Northam just stated that he is not interested in lifting the 1,000 person cap on theme parks at this time. He said he wants to open theme parks as soon as possible, but he also said he’s been in close contact with both parks and explained to them his reasons for the restrictions. He cited the fact that there are lots of places in the park where people are touching the same things and they cannot control people coming from out of state to visit the parks.
 
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Talk about digging a deeper hole. Just about any business can not control out of state visitors. After all, would that not be discriminatory?

Diving in further, a lot of smaller places have a lot of high touch areas. That is why the business would develop a cleaning and sanitation regimen that would make that fear non-existent. How many tables and chairs at a bar are constantly touched by people frequently? I would imagine a ride vehicle maybe very close to the same with reduced capacity.
 
I dont see any reason they couldnt open to just Va residents based on ticket purchases and existing passes registered address. If the govoner says he does not want people from other states then it falls on him not the park.
 
I'm tired, I'm bitchy and there's really just one thing to say here.

There is zero safe way to reopen a theme park right now—anywhere. Data currently indicates that any increased amount of travel and interaction between people is going to increase cases of COVID-19. I'm sorry that people want their theme parks back, but it will kill people. No matter what rules and regulations you try to put in place, people will die.

A roller coaster and some fried food isn't worth that. Life will not be back to normal—or safe—until people are vaccinated.
 
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I agree with that sentiment along with wearing a mask outdoors in such an environment is necessary but will be uncomfortable.

My question is if we're going to see a much longer shutdown and possibly some of the larger affected parks closed for good? No way creditors won't come calling in their debts and if there's no income generation they'll want to pull out, right?
 
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