Georgia with an interesting experiment
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It's a good question, I was going to start a thread on it.
It seems like there are some businesses where you can match reasonable economics with reasonable safety, in principle at least.
(I say in principle, because I don't know how good our grasp is on the efficacy of particular social distancing and sanitization measures in particular environments, but let's set that aside for now. Also, different people will have different views on what constitutes 'reasonable' safety. Let's set that aside too)
Some business can probably operate with reasonable constraints and be economically viable. This is the best of both worlds. Your average local hardware store might well be in this category. People usually need something enough to be willing to stand in line if they need to, and the business model doesn't require high traffic to pay the rent.
Other businesses aren't so easy. A bad example would be sit-down restaurants in Manhattan or movie theatres. There may well no set of guidelines that would give reasonable safety to the clientele and support the economics of the business. This could put you in the worst of both worlds, where we create a significant disease vector and the business still isn't viable.
I would say gyms are firmly in the latter camp. In practice at least, since demand for them is concentrated at certain times.
@jon-nyc said in Georgia with an interesting experiment:
It's a good question, I was going to start a thread on it.
It seems like there are some businesses where you can match reasonable economics with reasonable safety, in principle at least.
(I say in principle, because I don't know how good our grasp is on the efficacy of particular social distancing and sanitization measures in particular environments, but let's set that aside for now. Also, different people will have different views on what constitutes 'reasonable' safety. Let's set that aside too)
Some business can probably operate with reasonable constraints and be economically viable. This is the best of both worlds. Your average local hardware store might well be in this category. People usually need something enough to be willing to stand in line if they need to, and the business model doesn't require high traffic to pay the rent.
Other businesses aren't so easy. A bad example would be sit-down restaurants in Manhattan or movie theatres. There may well no set of guidelines that would give reasonable safety to the clientele and support the economics of the business. This could put you in the worst of both worlds, where we create a significant disease vector and the business still isn't viable.
I would say gyms are firmly in the latter camp. In practice at least, since demand for them is concentrated at certain times.
Hardware stores here offer curbside services. Order it online or call and tell them what you need.
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
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If I were governor I would not have done this at this time. There was no need to have it be yesterday, except for politics. Could have easily been May 1 or could have started with things relating to the shore and islands. That said it does offer to the poor and minorities a reopening of their community which no one is talking about yet.
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@jon-nyc said in Georgia with an interesting experiment:
It's a good question, I was going to start a thread on it.
It seems like there are some businesses where you can match reasonable economics with reasonable safety, in principle at least.
(I say in principle, because I don't know how good our grasp is on the efficacy of particular social distancing and sanitization measures in particular environments, but let's set that aside for now. Also, different people will have different views on what constitutes 'reasonable' safety. Let's set that aside too)
Some business can probably operate with reasonable constraints and be economically viable. This is the best of both worlds. Your average local hardware store might well be in this category. People usually need something enough to be willing to stand in line if they need to, and the business model doesn't require high traffic to pay the rent.
Other businesses aren't so easy. A bad example would be sit-down restaurants in Manhattan or movie theatres. There may well no set of guidelines that would give reasonable safety to the clientele and support the economics of the business. This could put you in the worst of both worlds, where we create a significant disease vector and the business still isn't viable.
I would say gyms are firmly in the latter camp. In practice at least, since demand for them is concentrated at certain times.
Hardware stores here offer curbside services. Order it online or call and tell them what you need.
@Jolly Yeah, but hardware stores still need that impulse sale. That means in store traffic.
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This being the US, if Georgia experiences a large increase in illness, what are the chances that the Governor gets his ass sued?
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This being the US, if Georgia experiences a large increase in illness, what are the chances that the Governor gets his ass sued?
@Doctor-Phibes said in Georgia with an interesting experiment:
This being the US, if Georgia experiences a large increase in illness, what are the chances that the Governor gets his ass sued?
No chance at all. Phibes, this is America, and if we want to express our God-given right to put others in hospital because we don't want to wear face coverings like them damn antifa, that is our prerogative! You don't get to tell me that I need to keep other people safe, that's commie shit.
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The Georgia governor's tweet about this started with
"Due to favorable data & more testing..."
What data?
I think it is good that this process is starting. I hope there is some reasonable objective criteria, but I don't know what it is.
Also the opening doesn't happen until Friday so there is time to slow down or change course.
The idea that nobody will get sick if you yell and insult people enough cannot be the basis of our policy.
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It might be worth asking how many people in Georgia go to the gym.
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It might be worth asking how many people in Georgia go to the gym.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Georgia with an interesting experiment:
It might be worth asking how many people in Georgia go to the gym.
Some guys do...
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Opening some of the highest risk stuff Friday and Monday. Gyms , restaurants, nail places, theaters.
Governor DeWine has been seen as the reasoned approach. Is everyone good with businesses re-opening in Ohio on May 1?
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Governor DeWine has been seen as the reasoned approach. Is everyone good with businesses re-opening in Ohio on May 1?
@Loki said in Georgia with an interesting experiment:
Governor DeWine has been seen as the reasoned approach. Is everyone good with businesses re-opening in Ohio on May 1?
People can look at the same facts and reach different conclusions
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Governor DeWine has been seen as the reasoned approach. Is everyone good with businesses re-opening in Ohio on May 1?
@Loki said in Georgia with an interesting experiment:
Governor DeWine has been seen as the reasoned approach. Is everyone good with businesses re-opening in Ohio on May 1?
I haven't seen the details. Its not really about a date, its about the preparations and the details of what's being opened and how. I would imagine, based on how I've seen him operate so far, that he has a coherent plan driving the date. But again, I haven't seen the details.
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Only non-witches get due process.
- Cotton Mather, Salem Massachusetts, 1692
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@jon-nyc said in Georgia with an interesting experiment:
He has no political cover now. I wonder if he’ll proceed.
He will walk it back and take heat for it. But in this news cycle it will be 15 minutes. States have to open up before they go bankrupt. We will be watching the wildebeests crossing the Serengeti and taking bets which ones will make it, which will turn around and which ones will float down the river. But soon enough the whole herd will make a run for it.
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Gyms. First phase. Same with Trump’s plan.
I don’t get it. Who wants to be six feet away from a dude on a treadmill for 30m.
@jon-nyc said in Georgia with an interesting experiment:
Gyms. First phase. Same with Trump’s plan.
I don’t get it. Who wants to be six feet away from a dude on a treadmill for 30m.
h/t wtg:
When President Donald Trump revealed his guidelines for "opening up America again" last week, among the bolded names of businesses and institutions that could reopen were restaurants, movie theaters and places of worship -- so long as they adhered to strict social distancing protocols. Tucked near the bottom of the list, right above a warning that bars should stay closed, was a curious inclusion: gyms.
While an integral part of many Americans' routines, gyms and fitness clubs would seem to present a particular risk for contact spread of a contagious virus. Filled with people sweating and breathing hard, sharing equipment and spaces, gyms are in many ways the last kind of business to prioritize during a deadly pandemic.
Their inclusion follows a last-minute lobbying push by an industry not known for flexing its muscles in Washington. While not every major company was part of the effort, conversations with 10 leaders in the fitness-club business reveal an influential network of relationships that kicked into gear over the past few weeks and helped move gyms to the front of the line -- even to the surprise of many in the industry.
Noteworthy figures in the effort include a Trump-loving fitness-center owner in Pennsylvania, Rudy Giuliani's son Andrew, billionaire real-estate mogul Steve Ross and the US Surgeon General.
Among the most influential advocates is an Iranian-born founder of one of the country's largest fitness club chains, Bahram Akradi of Life Time Fitness. Akradi has been pitching governors and the Trump administration on what he calls a "comprehensive, multifaceted tactical plan" to fight the coronavirus and rebuild the economy. He now finds himself on one of Trump's economic recovery working groups and in conference calls with the President himself, including on the day before Trump released his new guidelines.Multiple people at fitness-center companies -- from executives at giants like Gold's Gym to independent health clubs -- told CNN they did not expect gyms to be mentioned in reopening plans from either the Trump administration or Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who announced Monday fitness centers were included in several public-space business that could begin reopening by the end of the week.
"We just really lucked out and were able to get our message into a couple of the right people's hands," said Meredith Poppler, a top official at the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, the industry's main trade group.
Poppler told CNN that in recent weeks IHRSA, which receives funding from many of the brand-name gym companies, began a full-court press to deal with the economic fallout hitting gyms and fitness clubs. That included hiring more lobbyists and aggressively pressing its message about the importance of physical fitness during a pandemic to lawmakers in Washington as well as officials in the Trump administration.The messaging worked even better than they'd hoped.
"We were as surprised as anyone when we saw President Trump announce the three phases and that gyms were in the first phase," said Poppler.
Only non-witches get due process.
- Cotton Mather, Salem Massachusetts, 1692
