disobeying social distancing, or not.

[gardenmom5]

how are people in your states doing?  even with rules in place?

packed beaches in Oregon, and Washington - as well as florida. (five spring breakers are reported to have it. no sympathy.)   my niece lives in a rural area of eastern Washington, they're expressing concern about the number of city people coming.  some own vacation homes and their going to their vacation homes.  hope they plan on bringing food and TP - it's not the city that gets stocked more than rural areas.

packed trail heads.  the UW had to close down access to their cherry blossoms because people were so packed in.

in WA - they've closed all campgrounds until the end of april.

it's like hello? do you not understand?  this isn't go out and party.

[Acorn]

Big church near me in Ohio had two services yesterday. Governor DeWine ordered shelter in place to start tonight. 

[gardenmom5]

the arboretum (owned by the UW) is closed.  dh and I went and walked at our local botanical garden yesterday (lots of daphne in bloom.  smelled wonderful.) - people were very conscious about distancing, even changing course of where they were walking to avoid others.  I appreciate that.  

[alisoncooks]

Some of NC's state parks have completely closed because of record attendance the last week. Like, cars lining up on the highways to get in and trails packed person to person. 

I wouldn't be cool with that level of crowding in NON-pandemic times! I truly don't understand people. 

[importswim]

We live by the beach in FL and last week had a ton of spring breakers which caused the local authorities to close the beaches and station LEO's at the bridge to check that only locals who lived on the barrier peninsula were the ones heading over. Even though it stinks to have the beaches closed I'm glad that they did so because us the locals are the ones who are going to suffer from spring breakers bringing the virus here (even though I think it's probably here anyway). The more people who are out the worse it'll get for our area. Hopefully a lot of them have gone back home (no doubt infecting their hometowns too if they have it lying dormant. Sigh). This post sounds crankier than I actually am about it, I'm just frustrated that our family is quarantining and socially distancing and will probably have to pay the price for those who think it won't affect them. All of our neighbors are elderly. It makes me mad for them. 

[Sneezyone]

I'm only seeing a few kids in our neighborhood playing in their yards or the cul-de-sac. I live in a double cul-de-sac that looks like a dog bone with one way in and one way out. People are staying in their homes, in this cul-de-sac, and talking to each other from yard to yard. There's only one person with a full fence. So....yeah...grocery errands and work (and only the military/DoD/essential gov't. affiliated people are going to work). I have to go to the post office this week but that's my only outing for the week. My neighborhood is transitioning between families who raised their kids/have grandkid visitors and new families with younger kids.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Sneezyone

[J-rap]

We're in one of the big cities in the midwest.  We we're not in shelter-in-place yet, but lots of daily guidelines and briefings.  Every single social-gathering type place is closed anyway,   When I've been in a line at the grocery store or pharmacy, everyone stands 6 feet apart.    People move apart from each other on the sidewalk (while still greeting each other  :)).  I really haven't seen people gathering anywhere.  Of course, our weather hasn't been too great either, so that probably helps!   But I'd say that we're generally a rule-following culture here that wants to do the right thing. 

[JustEm]

The governor in De had to close the beaches because people were filling them up on nice days.

I imagine playgrounds will be closed soon because the local huge county parks were filled with people and kids were packed on the playgrounds. Even the people walking the bike paths weren't keeping their distance.

We went to the creek at a state park in PA, just over the line, and there were more people in the parking lot than usual but everyone spread out along the creek and on the paths so everyone had their own private area to enjoy nature. 

[Annie G]

The county next to us has a shelter in place order. That county has the largest city within an hour. I don’t live in that county but I do live ten minutes away and go there to do nearly all our business.  With that background...

Our county has its first case, a local pastor who is currently in ICU on a ventilator. The church he pastors held services as usual yesterday (he was obviously not there) and last weekend the ill pastor held a foot washing ceremony. Tons of people, and he’s clearly too close to them based on the pics.  The church announced his illness this morning and then 90 minutes later posted they are cancelling all services and activities. 
 

Irresponsible.  Just because we aren;t under shelter in place doesn’t mean people should carry on as if no risk. 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Annie G

[Jean in Newcastle]

This is why government has to get involved more and more. I don’t understand why people are so clueless as to the Why or perhaps they just don’t care in which case I don’t understand why they are so selfish. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Selfishness? Denial? I am not sure what the root problem is but I am really frustrated. I texted a friend—oh, she is in Hawaii on spring break with her family. When she left last week, things “weren’t that bad.” Another friend just got back from Europe. Same story. I don’t know whether they are trying to justify their poor decision making or what, but the world I was living in two weeks ago didn’t have food or toilet paper in the stores, and we were all being told to stay home.

I suspect these will be the same people surprised to discover that their doctor’s office isn’t open and that the ER has long lines and that there are no open beds in the hospital.

I am adding them to the long list of people who have lost my respect lately.

[mom2scouts]

Someone in my city posted a video of the downtown area on a local Facebook page yesterday. It was absolutely empty. There wasn't a single moving car or person in the video. Obviously the guy taking the video was out and some of the restaurants are still doing carry out or delivery, but it looks like people are taking it seriously now.  A few weeks ago there were photos of college students having big pre-St Patrick's Day parties at the frat houses and the community was livid. Shortly after that, the college shut down the dorms and sent the students home. DH went to the grocery store yesterday and he said it was fairly empty and they had installed shields between the cashiers and customers and had placed lines on the floor showing 6 foot distances.

[prairiewindmomma]

Back on this point....the beaches were full here this past weekend. All of those beach towns are teeny tiny. Most don’t have any doctor offices, and the one little hospital has 29 beds. The residents of the beach towns are low income and predominantly elderly. The nicer housing is all owned by out of town investors who have turned them into short term rentals. The out of Towners came in, wiped out the little groceries, brought their germs in, and likely seeded a lot of disease since the counties they came from all have heavy community spread. I am really unhappy this morning. We are worse than Florida.

ETA: there are only a few roads to the coast. They should have blocked them and set up id checkpoints.

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by prairiewindmomma

[Pen]

In Oregon here. 

I don’t think my state Governor is willing to do enough.  And I think too many people in my state are taking it to be a big party.  Ignorance, denial, secret wish by teens and young adults to kill their parents, or the dissatisfied deliberately to create Mayhem and chaos? Idk. 

I think National Government will need to do what local cannot or will not. 

I signed the petition linked at end of 

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56

 

We are on personal own home lockdown, so I don’t really have a lot of first hand knowledge of what is happening.  Mostly from news pictures. 

Locally:

There’s definitely been a lot of traffic on nearby highways that I can hear. Probably some of the many people going to/from beaches. (We live near routes to Reedsport and to Florence.) 

On our own road and beyond us, There have been more daytime walkers (adults, families, dogs) than usual most of whom do seem to be doing a decent job of keeping some distance from one another.  

Also however, a crazy amount of smoking. Like stress is causing more smoking???  Go out to country to walk, and smoke as you go dropping butts all over?  In the fir needle duff? Luckily it is not terribly dry yet or I expect there would be forest fires.  Yet another form of human reckless crazy. Quite aside from damage to their own lungs.   

 

We live in an area that has had bad teen and young adult drug/party activity on National lands beyond, and there has been a huge upsurge in that.  That’s at night. I try to keep clear of them. I doubt they are social distancing at all. 

 

 I think our state is being way too lax and I can’t believe that Governor Kate Brown still wants to reopen public schools soon and won’t go to home based online / book based learning because of various ideas of social justice which are off base in my mind.  

Our former Governor, John Kitzhaber, who is a doctor has been blogging about doing more — probably still insufficient, but better, IMO.  

 

ETA: state Governor issued a Stay Home, Stay Safe order.  More than I expected. But I am still not sure that is enough.  

Also I think it is needlessly hard to understand what is covered and what is exempt.  

But I guess we will see.

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Pen
Stay Sage to Stay Safe ☺️

[Ottakee]

Michigan goes into lock down at midnight.

[gardenmom5]

1 hour ago, alisoncooks said:

Some of NC's state parks have completely closed because of record attendance the last week. Like, cars lining up on the highways to get in and trails packed person to person. 

I wouldn't be cool with that level of crowding in NON-pandemic times! I truly don't understand people. 

makes me think of a little kid, who if you tell them NOT to do something they normally won't do anyway - they'll immediately go do it.

dudeling was like that.  "it's time to get in the car" "NO".  "i'm going to get to the car before you".  he immediately runs to the car . . . . 

[regentrude]

2 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

my niece lives in a rural area of eastern Washington, they're expressing concern about the number of city people coming.  some own vacation homes and their going to their vacation homes.  hope they plan on bringing food and TP - it's not the city that gets stocked more than rural areas.

The bolded makes perfect sense to me and isn't against any rules. People can distance much better in the country than in a city where they may be living in cramped apartments. 

[regentrude]

Here in my town, I have no ideas whether anybody is having large gatherings because I am staying home. The uni is closed, all restaurants are closed (takeout/curbside only) and there's nothing to do anyway.

Edited March 23, 2020 by regentrude

[regentrude]

3 minutes ago, OKBud said:

My assumption is that if I had a second home in a place I perceived (for whatever reason) to be safer, I'd probably make a run for it. But, again, it's not actually safer. It just seems like it.

Why do you say it's not safer? Fewer people = fewer opportunities to catch the virus. Living in a cabin in the woods by yourself has to be better than living in a 20 story building with a hundred other families, where, if you want to even step outside for a walk (which, yes, is still allowed and even encouraged under shelter-in=place), you have to touch door knobs and elevator buttons and surfaces shared with many

Edited March 23, 2020 by regentrude

[ktgrok]

12 minutes ago, regentrude said:

The bolded makes perfect sense to me and isn't against any rules. People can distance much better in the country than in a city where they may be living in cramped apartments. 

 

6 minutes ago, OKBud said:

 

The New Jersey governor told people to stop doing that. The issue is hospital space, which is insufficient for even people who live here full time. 

I don't personally have strong feelings about it one way or the other, and there are pros and cons for each family who has to decide to stay or to retreat. My assumption is that if I had a second home in a place I perceived (for whatever reason) to be safer, I'd probably make a run for it. But, again, it's not actually safer. It just seems like it.

 

4 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Why do you say it's not safer? Fewer people = fewer opportunities to catch the virus. Living in a cabin in the woods by yourself has to be better than living in a 20 story building with a hundred other families, where, if you want to even step outside for a walk, you have to touch door knobs and elevator buttons and surfaces shared with many

The issue is that rural hospitals are barely able to care for their own citizens, add in people visiting who normally live elsewhere and there is no way for them to provide the proper level of care if people start getting sick. So you can go and hope you don't catch it due to the greater distancing, but...if you do catch it your chances of good care are lower. 

[katilac]

7 minutes ago, OKBud said:

The New Jersey governor told people to stop doing that. The issue is hospital space, which is insufficient for even people who live here full time. 

How far away are these vacation homes? We have a camp two hours away, and I'm sure we'll be visiting it soon. If anyone gets sick, we'll head back home, just as we would at any other time. 

[regentrude]

2 minutes ago, OKBud said:

Sorry I wasn't clear. I am not, and the NJ gov was not, talking about cabins in the woods. 

We're talking about beach towns, where people still live closely together, but are several hours away from any major hospitals

I was responding to a poster who mentioned rural  Eastern Washington. That's fairly sparsely populated, isn't it? So, more cabin in the woods rather than beach house in a resort town

[Matryoshka]

6 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Why do you say it's not safer? Fewer people = fewer opportunities to catch the virus. Living in a cabin in the woods by yourself has to be better than living in a 20 story building with a hundred other families, where, if you want to even step outside for a walk (which, yes, is still allowed and even encouraged under shelter-in=place), you have to touch door knobs and elevator buttons and surfaces shared with many

Here people apparently have been streaming to vacation homes on Martha's Vineyard,  all packed together on the ferries. There are few grocery stores on the island, and the one tiny hospital has Zero ICU beds.  The vacation homes are much more densely spaced than most suburban 2-acre lots.But the real point is that the infrastructure there is in no way set up to accommodate these people off-season, and the hospital can't even handle *one* critical case.  And this is how things spread, when people move from higher risk to what were lower risk areas.

[Kassia]

15 minutes ago, Ktgrok said:

The issue is that rural hospitals are barely able to care for their own citizens, add in people visiting who normally live elsewhere and there is no way for them to provide the proper level of care if people start getting sick. So you can go and hope you don't catch it due to the greater distancing, but...if you do catch it your chances of good care are lower. 

 

I live in a semi-rural area and was in the hospital last June and our hospital was at full capacity with many patients waiting to get beds.  They had people in the hallways and stuck in the ER because there were no rooms available.  I was told this happened there frequently.  

 

I'm not sure what to do if my adult kids want to come home now with the stay at home orders.  One lives in Boston, the other in Indiana.  One has a girlfriend in a different state and her area has a lot of confirmed cases and sees her most weekends (including this past weekend).  Neither of them have been especially careful with isolating themselves like we at home have.  I'm hesitant to have them come home because of the possibility they are contagious.  Plus, the food/toilet paper issues.  I barely have enough food for my family living here (3 of us) and our stores are out of stock of everything - I don't now how I'd feed my sons and possibly their girlfriends as well (one son lives with his gf).  They haven't mentioned coming home yet, but I suspect they will - esp. with Easter approaching.  I feel like a terrible mother not wanting them home!  

 

[katilac]

7 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

 The vacation homes are much more densely spaced than most suburban 2-acre lots. 

The vast majority of suburbs are much more densely spaced than 2 acres!

The average for new builds is 1/3 of an acre. Of course, that means many will be bigger, but 2 acres is really huge and nowhere near the reality of most suburban dwellers. 

[Matryoshka]

5 minutes ago, katilac said:

The vast majority of suburbs are much more densely spaced than 2 acres!

The average for new builds is 1/3 of an acre. Of course, that means many will be bigger, but 2 acres is really huge and nowhere near the reality of most suburban dwellers. 

Here most new builds in the outer burbs are 1-2 acres per zoning laws. The small lots date back to post-war, or are in places much closer to the big city, or are in places that are cities themselves. 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Matryoshka

[katilac]

2 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

Here most new builds in the outer burbs are 1-2 acres per zoning laws. 

That's a lot of lawn mowing!

 

[prairiewindmomma]

This is the west coast. The coast range mountains (which range from Washington State to California) push right up against the coast. There are small pockets with sandy beaches.  Many beach rentals are actually condos. The spaces between the homes is often less than 10 feet.  There are a few older properties high up on the bluffs, but those are typically inhabited by the mega rich or the very old. 

[rebcoola]

I'm in Eastern Washington and people are everywhere doing everything.  Hundreds were at riverside playing volleyball. A large percentage is not taking it seriously thinks the rules are really just for westsiders.   

[Matryoshka]

1 minute ago, katilac said:

That's a lot of lawn mowing!

Lol, yep. But we live in a forest, so usually most of the acreage is trees.

[prairiewindmomma]

Adding....all state parks are closed.....so tens of thousands of people are all crowding into the towns. It is literally wall to wall cars. At one point, the highway to the coast was backed up for about 65 miles. It is complete insanity.

[gardenmom5]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

The bolded makes perfect sense to me and isn't against any rules. People can distance much better in the country than in a city where they may be living in cramped apartments. 

it does only to a certain extent.   - grocery stores in rural areas are not stocked as often, or as well, as in larger metro areas.  are they brining enough supplies with them to stay in their cabin and not have to go into town for a month?

and as has been mentioned - these areas don't have advanced care hospitals - they have the basics and can't provide medical care for anyone coming in from out of town.

51 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Why do you say it's not safer? Fewer people = fewer opportunities to catch the virus. Living in a cabin in the woods by yourself has to be better than living in a 20 story building with a hundred other families, where, if you want to even step outside for a walk (which, yes, is still allowed and even encouraged under shelter-in=place), you have to touch door knobs and elevator buttons and surfaces shared with many

are they brining all of their own supplies? to last several weeks at least?  most don't, and the towns can't support the influx buying up their supplies.   their isn't medical care to support outsiders if they get ill.

- this is one of the things my niece is seeing, and they're not on the beaches, they're in a mt. town.

Edited March 23, 2020 by gardenmom5

[gardenmom5]

49 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I was responding to a poster who mentioned rural  Eastern Washington. That's fairly sparsely populated, isn't it? So, more cabin in the woods rather than beach house in a resort town

it's still TOWNS, small towns, with few amenities/resources.  almost none of those people are bringing enough supplies that they dont' have to go to a store.

[regentrude]

nm. don't have the time.

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by regentrude

[regentrude]

It' not just college kids on spring break. Apparently even certain senators are reckless (or dumb) enough to go swimming in the senate pool while awaiting their test results...

Edited March 23, 2020 by regentrude

[MEmama]

Well I thought our beaches might be a safe place, but nope. I read today that some have had to be closed due overcrowding. In many ways it seems like a perfect place to go (especially in places like here where there usually so much space and so few people), but obviously it’s no longer safe if everyone has the same idea.

Our nearby state parks have been beyond capacity so we are discovering new to us, out of the way trails. 
 

Some of our towns are begging people from away to not come. It’s so hard, but we just don’t have the resources for extra people. 😞 

[katilac]

24 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Adding....all state parks are closed.....so tens of thousands of people are all crowding into the towns. It is literally wall to wall cars. At one point, the highway to the coast was backed up for about 65 miles. It is complete insanity.

That's crazy! 

13 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

it does only to a certain extent.   - grocery stores in rural areas are not stocked as often, or as well, as in larger metro areas.  are they brining enough supplies with them to stay in their cabin and not have to go into town for a month? <snip>

are they brining all of their own supplies? to last several weeks at least?   

That's why I was asking another poster how far away these people tend to live. Camps and cabins are really common in my area, but they're usually just a couple of hours' drive. People go there for the weekend, maybe a bit longer, not for weeks or months at a time. A substantial number of people heading to their cabin or vacation home will have no intention of staying for several weeks. 

Of course, if things got bad enough, we might want to stay there for several weeks! In which case we would bring our supplies as we always do. People have seen the grocery stores at home, I don't think many are likely to think that heading to a somewhat remote cabin with no supplies is going to be a good time.  

In addition to sheltering in place in a different setting for a few days, there are also practical reasons. Various items of routine maintenance can be delayed but only for so long. We personally can get to our camp and back again without interacting with a single soul, with an added gas station trip on our return. I don't think that's much of a risk, but I'm willing to be convinced. 

4 minutes ago, regentrude said:

There isn't going to be medical care in the city where they came from either. There may be more and bigger hospitals, but here are vastly more people, too - this issue will be the same everywhere. 

This. Plus, I do think most people would just head home if they felt sick, and there would be sufficient time in the vast majority of cases. We've had illnesses and injuries at the camp before, and our rule of thumb is: go home for illness, stay local for snakebite, gunshot wounds, and chainsaw injuries 😄

[Jean in Newcastle]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

The bolded makes perfect sense to me and isn't against any rules. People can distance much better in the country than in a city where they may be living in cramped apartments. 

Not when they are using up the limited supplies for those rural community and are going to overtax the limited health resources if they get sick or make others sick. 

[gardenmom5]

6 minutes ago, katilac said:

That's crazy! 

That's why I was asking another poster how far away these people tend to live. Camps and cabins are really common in my area, but they're usually just a couple of hours' drive. People go there for the weekend, maybe a bit longer, not for weeks or months at a time. A substantial number of people heading to their cabin or vacation home will have no intention of staying for several weeks. 

Of course, if things got bad enough, we might want to stay there for several weeks! In which case we would bring our supplies as we always do. People have seen the grocery stores at home, I don't think many are likely to think that heading to a somewhat remote cabin with no supplies is going to be a good time.  

In addition to sheltering in place in a different setting for a few days, there are also practical reasons. Various items of routine maintenance can be delayed but only for so long. We personally can get to our camp and back again without interacting with a single soul, with an added gas station trip on our return. I don't think that's much of a risk, but I'm willing to be convinced. 

This. Plus, I do think most people would just head home if they felt sick, and there would be sufficient time in the vast majority of cases. We've had illnesses and injuries at the camp before, and our rule of thumb is: go home for illness, stay local for snakebite, gunshot wounds, and chainsaw injuries 😄

In "normal" times - people only go there for a weekend, or maybe a bit longer.  these are NOT "normal" times.   while people bring some supplies - they expect to be able to buy items at the local grocer.  when a few dozen other people have the same idea - you have stores that are cleared out.

this can hit fast.  Italy has said patients can seem like they're getting well, just before they nose dive and need to be in the hospital.  a two to three hour drive when you're that sick, isn't possible.

 

I expect our gov will enact a shelter-in-place order tonight because of people with this type of attitude.

[gardenmom5]

26 minutes ago, regentrude said:

It' not just college kids on spring break. Apparently even certain senators are reckless (or dumb) enough to go swimming in the senate pool while awaiting their test results...

and seniors - who think "everyone's gonna die", so why should they take precautions?

[prairiewindmomma]

The grocery store in the beach town we go to in normal times is like the size of a gas station. Most residents drive to the nearest city once a month for a big stockup. Normally with the tourist crowd everyone eats out, only restaurants have mostly closed at this point.

This is spring break week—the normal beach season doesn’t start until June. 
 

 

[katilac]

1 minute ago, gardenmom5 said:

In "normal" times - people only go there for a weekend, or maybe a bit longer.  these are NOT "normal" times.   while people bring some supplies - they expect to be able to buy items at the local grocer.  when a few dozen other people have the same idea - you have stores that are cleared out.

this can hit fast.  Italy has said patients can seem like they're getting well, just before they nose dive and need to be in the hospital.  a two to three hour drive when you're that sick, isn't possible.

 

I expect our gov will enact a shelter-in-place order tonight because of people with this type of attitude.

But that's why I pointed out that, at this point, people have already experienced the fun of quarantine grocery shopping. I don't think most do expect to be able to buy items at a local grocer in a small town. 

And definitely I don't think they should head anywhere if you "seem like they're getting well" because that means they've been sick to begin with! I'm talking about healthy people who start feeling sick; I do think a couple of hours' drive home is very doable even if it's Covid or flu (not driving themselves). 

 

[Jean in Newcastle]

We need slogans like “keep calm and carry on “. How about “We won’t beat this alone”. Or. “Think of others, not just yourselves “. 

[Arctic Bunny]

Yeah, if we go to our cabin, it will be self-isolating because there isn’t another person for miles, and we’d be bringing all our own supplies, including water, and generator fuel, because the nearest store of any kind is about 40 miles away. I fell like that’s a different kind of isolation than Martha’s Vineyard, lol. 

[MEmama]

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed an influx of out of state cars in the nearby fishing community where I work (I’m not leaving the house to go around town but I assume it’s the same here).  I really don’t like the idea of saying that people need to stay away, but truly they do. There is no store down there, which means everyone has to come to my town to shop, and the groceries are already struggling to keep up. There are no restaurants open in the off season, no one to provide delivery, nothing at all open. I don’t think most people from away are prepared. And I know for a fact that the hospital in my town isn’t prepared for what’s coming, especially with an additional tourist population. Of course it is true that there are no laws against it, but it seems like common sense to stay in place when you’re being asked to stay in place. 

https://bangordailynews.com/2020/03/23/news/hancock/bar-harbor-to-tourists-please-stay-away/
 

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/03/23/york-closes-beaches-after-weekend-crowds-fuel-virus-concerns-in-coastal-towns/

[Pen]

2 hours ago, OKBud said:

 

Well right, but also, if you're in an area where the virus has thoroughly taken hold, like NYC, and you go somewhere where they haven't had any cases yet,... with such a long incubation period... you're more likely than the local populace to be carrying it. 

 

 

Yes this.  

If a person were known to be virus free then being out of city might be better (along with suitable quarantine) .  But there would be a good chance that there could be people leaving and taking the virus with them.  If they take everything they need and go with complete isolation in the vacation home that might still be safe, but I doubt most do that.  They probably still get gas, go to grocery store, or otherwise do things other than complete isolation. 

I had a mini argument recently with someone irl about this very sort of thing.  Though related to a west coast city. 

 

[katilac]

5 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

  (five spring breakers are reported to have it. no sympathy.)    

Aww, I can always have sympathy for the follies of youth, and I don't even think they are much to blame in this case.

The beaches were open with no restrictions. Domestic flights were going strong, with no recourse for refunds. Festivals, concerts, and conferences were as scheduled. Numerous cities and states had zero social distancing policies in place, and indeed many officials were not only downplaying it but actively urging residents to eat out and such. Oklahoma's governor tweeted photos of himself and his family in a packed restaurant a mere week ago, with the hashtag #supportlocal. Also a week ago, Trump hosted a foreign delegation at a restaurant at his public resort, and then said he wouldn't be taking any particular precautions after two people at his table were dx'd with Covid 19. 

The White House itself made frequent statements in January and February regarding the virus being (light paraphrasing) very much under control; totally under control; pretty much shut down; not a big deal; no worse than the flu; our cases are going to be close to zero in a few days; and more.  It was very much still being minimized into March, with more serious responses and acknowledgements only coming in the last week! Yes, a national emergency was declared March 1, but statements continued to clash with that strongly. 

The 18-yr-old who decides it's okay to go on spring break in these circumstances is not most at fault in this scenario. 

Edited March 23, 2020 by katilac

[Pen]

 

47 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

“Think of others, not just yourselves “. 

 

This one.   

[importswim]

11 minutes ago, katilac said:

Aww, I can always have sympathy for the follies of youth, and I don't even think they are much to blame in this case.

The beaches were open with no restrictions. Domestic flights were going strong, with no recourse for refunds. Festivals, concerts, and conferences were as scheduled. Numerous cities and states had zero social distancing policies in place, and indeed many officials were not only downplaying it but actively urging residents to eat out and such. Oklahoma's governor tweeted photos of himself and his family in a packed restaurant a mere week ago, with the hashtag #supportlocal. Also a week ago, Trump hosted a foreign delegation at a restaurant at his public resort, and then said he wouldn't be taking any particular precautions after two people at his table were dx'd with Covid 19. 

The White House itself made frequent statements in January and February regarding the virus being (light paraphrasing) very much under control; totally under control; pretty much shut down; not a big deal; no worse than the flu; our cases are going to be close to zero in a few days; and more.  It was very much still being minimized into March, with more serious responses and acknowledgements only coming in the last week! Yes, a national emergency was declared March 1, but statements continued to clash with that strongly. 

The 18-yr-old who decides it's okay to go on spring break in these circumstances is not most at fault in this scenario. 

Respectfully, I disagree. I live in a beach town. We'e seen a greater influx of spring breakers in the past 2 weeks. That's after the National state of emergency AND time enough for most to know better.

 There may be some people who have no idea but the majority fall into one of two camps: Things aren't going to be as bad as they're all saying (people are panicking for no reason), or it won't affect me (or maybe a 3rd, everyone's going to die at some point).

I totally sympathize with those wanting to still take their vacations (DH's work is directly related to people doing just so), but I wish they'd err on the side of caution.

[Jean in Newcastle]

My 95 year old mom who has gone through The Great Depression and WWII is taking this pandemic totally in stride.  She understands what it means to not get everything you want just because you want it.  I don't have sympathy for people whining about not having vacations and dinners out and playdates especially when we live in times when we still have so much.  We have the "vacation" of Netflix and can still get take out and can still interact with people online.  I realize that there are real problems out there - people who have actually gotten sick or have lost family members or who have lost jobs and/or income but amazingly most of the whining is not coming from them.