Coronavirus (cancellation, crime, home)

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

As someone who has worked in airline industry for 16 years:

1) No mandate was ever ordered for middle seats to be blocked. A few airlines did block the middle seats on their own accord. Alaska, Delta, and Southwest were them.

2) No major outbreaks have taken place on airplanes in the US. This was done not because they thought it would make things safer (Ive heard that from people at Delta and Southwest), but it was a marketing ploy. They were getting money from the government to stay afloat so it didn't matter as much. It didn't work. Their counterparts who didn't employ such techniques received just as many (and sometimes more) travelers and revenue.

3) If you force the blocking of middle seats, prices will skyrocket. You have to think who that will effect. It won't affect business travelers. They have the money to pay it. It affects personal, leisure, and those wanting to visit friends and family.

What needs to be done with regards to the airlines is....nothing. Keep the mask mandate in place and let all else stay the same.

Mask mandate, ha. The one that allows everyone to remove them once the snack carts come out. The virtue signaling mandate. They need to go back to temp checks and call it good.

[goodheathen]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Variants aren't going away. We can't postpone the inevitable. Besides, do you want this fear to last forever? Because that's what more lockdowns would bring. People cowering inside their homes afraid of their neighbors just like the last, going on, two years now.

I literally had a neighbor almost get herself killed trying to dodge me as I was getting a trashcan. She dove over my shrubs and ran between my vehicles to get around me as a car was coming up the street. That was crazy.

This is late 2021. No one cares about your anecdote. People do care about not getting sick and have some legitimate fear as long as the virus is prevalent. Reckless lack of precautions is why this keeps going. Government will have to step back in and get people used to safe interpersonal behaviors and regular testing (probably self-testing soon). One of the best things American institutions could do is a blackout of holidays for at least the next year. Pretend they don't exist, minimal sales, no travel deals, etc. - it's those occasions the virus feasts on.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by goodheathen

This is late 2021. No one cares about your anecdote. People do care about not getting sick and have some legitimate fear as long as the virus is prevalent. Reckless lack of precautions is why this keeps going. Government will have to step back in and get people used to safe interpersonal behaviors and regular testing (probably self-testing soon). One of the best things American institutions could do is a blackout of holidays for at least the next year. Pretend they don't exist, minimal sales, no travel deals, etc. - it's those occasions the virus feasts on.

Anddddddd none of which will happen. Political suicide at this point. The last holdout for the feds is the mask mandate and we've seen how toothless that is as well it should be. Every flight I had last year was nothing but chin diapers once the food carts came out.

[As Above So Below...]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Anddddddd none of which will happen. Political suicide at this point. The last holdout for the feds is the mask mandate and we've seen how toothless that is as well it should be. Every flight I had last year was nothing but chin diapers once the food carts came out.

Its true literally none of that will happen, however what Im most interested in (as a person whose employment depends on the well being of the airlines) is keeping them flying. I don't care about masks one way or the other. I only where them where Im required to, but if they are keeping the industry flying, relatively healthy, and keeping demand for flying higher. If masks are helping do that, Im all for them.

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by jbgusa

So another lockdown?

Our governor is too feckless for a sequel. He's fine with wearing the 'bare minimum pieces of flair' like keeping the emergency order in place for no reason while he runs around promoting his stupid children's book. Besides that, he wouldn't obey it himself.



There has to be actual leadership to initiate an effective lockdown.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Anddddddd none of which will happen. Political suicide at this point. The last holdout for the feds is the mask mandate and we've seen how toothless that is as well it should be. Every flight I had last year was nothing but chin diapers once the food carts came out.

No matter what you say or what data there is lockdowns, "New York on pause", and "shelter in place" are the answers.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

Its true literally none of that will happen, however what Im most interested in (as a person whose employment depends on the well being of the airlines) is keeping them flying. I don't care about masks one way or the other. I only where them where Im required to, but if they are keeping the industry flying, relatively healthy, and keeping demand for flying higher. If masks are helping do that, Im all for them.

Oh, I'm all for keeping the status quo for the same reasons. I have to fly. So long as I can take it off immediately after being seated, great. I'll continue to bring a great big water with me when boarding and sip it the entire time mask free.

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by jbgusa

No matter what you say or what data there is lockdowns, "New York on pause", and "shelter in place" are the answers.

Problem is sustainability. We gotta keep the lights on, the water flowing and the food grown and distributed. In order to do that, all the ancillary support has to be in place for those industries, including things like maintenance and childcare. And for that, the tendrils extend to support for the support like industry to supply them. Even if we scaled back the meaning of 'essential worker' to it's core, bridging a functioning society with a true-to-form lockdown isn't achievable. We need a lot of people running around to keep the country operational.



Short of sequestering everyone to small groups on an island, we're going to have to deal with covid being a part of life for awhile.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

Its true literally none of that will happen, however what Im most interested in (as a person whose employment depends on the well being of the airlines) is keeping them flying. I don't care about masks one way or the other. I only where them where Im required to, but if they are keeping the industry flying, relatively healthy, and keeping demand for flying higher. If masks are helping do that, Im all for them.

I am in New York and Kathy Hochul is driving fast down the lockdown road. There's now an indoor mask mandate that may require me to mask up while playing tennis, and the Cantor to mask up while on the beema. Masks worked OK during lockdown but they are not consonant with basically being open.

Originally Posted by joosoon

Problem is sustainability. We gotta keep the lights on, the water flowing and the food grown and distributed. In order to do that, all the ancillary support has to be in place for those industries, including things like maintenance and childcare. And for that, the tendrils extend to support for the support like industry to supply them. Even if we scaled back the meaning of 'essential worker' to it's core, bridging a functioning society with a true-to-form lockdown isn't achievable. We need a lot of people running around to keep the country operational.

Short of sequestering everyone to small groups on an island, we're going to have to deal with covid being a part of life for awhile.

We basically agree. I am anti-lockdown.

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by jbgusa

Masks worked OK during lockdown but they are not consonant with basically being open.

What's worse is the original sales pitch for getting the vaccine was we'd be done with masks and be back to some semblance of normalcy. How well that worked out...
But I can't entirely blame leadership for those broken promises (plus I don't even care about masks one way or the other) because they were acting on optimistic information from pharma and 'the science' at the time. But the fact remains, they oversold the vaccine with respect to how we'd be moving forward. That's one thing, but a lockdown would be a complete reversal and huge step backward. It would also mean admitting they were wrong and make it that much harder to sell whatever the next big advance happened to be (likely, a revised vaccine).


But I don't think we need a redirect right now. All signs are pointing to the vaccine being effective against the latest and greatest variants so until that changes, and WHO/CDC sound the alarm bell, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.