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Tuesday, November 01, 2022
Disney Traps Visitors Inside Shanghai Park After Covid Scare
gizmodo.com: Like a scene straight out of a B-horror movie, Disney announced Monday they had locked its gates to its Shanghai Disney park, keeping current and aspiring Disneyphiles out while also reportedly trapping guests inside.
I find it interesting how different countries around the world have handled the COVID-19 virus. Even though Shanghai's cases have been lower than the United States, I find it alarming that the government would require so much testing within such a short period of time. However, I believe that Disney could have handled this situation better by communicating with the general public and media better to ensure that everyone understood what was happening. However, as a major corporation I would understand how no one would want this knowledge to be public. I also find it interesting that if Disney is struggling to stay open and keep busy in Shanghai, I wonder how other companies and organizations are doing in Shanghai. How many of them have had to close because of the strict COVID policies from the government. Overall, this was an enlightening news article and I am glad that there was not a major COVID 19 spike in the population.
This article is a great highlight of the risks that still come with large-scale events happening around the world at theme parks and other large-gathering spaces alike. COVID-19 is still an active threat, and although a decent amount of the world’s population has actively gotten vaccinated, there are still new strains popping up, and more people are still actively being affected by the virus. Although it may seem a bit intrusive, the government of Shanghai has a specific yet effective method of preventing the spread of COVID within their society, and although it may seem like something scary at first, I find that ultimately the resort did what they needed to do to abide by their countries “zero-covid” protocols. Although it may seem like drastic measures especially to outsiders, China as a whole was hit hard with the virus, and has since recovered fairly quickly from the affair. It almost makes you wonder if measures like these should have been taken here as well to effectively annihilate the virus, and if something so drastic would have saved thousands of lives, and thousands of people from life-altering disabilities. Especially since there were no reports of mistreatment brought up within the article, I find that the actions were carried out in a successful and organized manner.
This article begs a big question for me: why is Disney even permitted to open the park if a single COVID case will lead to them having to hurriedly close the park and lock people inside until they can test negative? It can't be profitable for Disney to continuously open and close and open and close, so why would they even want to do it either? I can understand the position the city is in, what with China's hardline stance against COVID and the drastic, almost draconian policies they've enacted to try and deal with it, but it's also been shown that these methods don't exactly work very well either. If they did, then we wouldn't still be hearing about massive shutdowns happening in the country (not to say that they should do nothing, as I honestly wish the US would adopt a slightly tougher stance of their own). However, it does give us cause for discussion here in the US, and especially with what we do in theatre, since it demonstrates how necessary it is to have plans in place to deal with an outbreak of COVID effectively and responsibly; plans that all companies and industries will have to have moving forward.
Obviously, COVID was an unexpected and devastating tragedy your world had to face. It was really interesting seeing how different companies had to completely pivot. I am an avid Disney-goer, and once the parks shut down, it was so sad for my community. Not only did I miss Disney for fun reasons, but the parks alone provide thousands of jobs, and it was devastating seeing many people go unemployed and the company not treating them the best. I cannot believe how Shanghai Disney dealt with this COVID outbreak. “Videos originally posted to Chinese social app Weibo showed visitors had run to park gates only to find them shut. Police ushered guests behind metal fences and told them they had to await test results until they could leave.” It is especially sad to hear how COVID is affecting Shanghai, as we have luckily mostly recovered.
‘Tis wild that people are actually going to super crowded places while there is literally a whole pandemic going on still. It is also pretty wild that they decided that the best course of action was to keep everyone inside of the park until they tested negative. I just do not really see a better alternative at this moment in time. That seems like it is the only way to really guarantee that no one spreads covid outside of the park, especially if they have a “zero covid” policy. It is just so interesting that the park has been staying open even when they have apparently had multiple covid scares in the past couple of weeks or so. I just really do not understand why anyone would want to go somewhere like this right now, it does not make sense to me personally.
I would not want to get locked in a theme park, even if it is Disney, especially if there are people around me freaking out. I’m curious how long guests were stuck in the park as they waited for their test results. I also wonder what Disney would have done if a guest had tested positive. I get that Shanghai and China in general are using a Covid-zero policy, but yikes. I would definitely be questioning whether or not I would be visiting a theme park if there was a chance of that happening. Covid in general has made me more hesitant to be in crowded places, and getting locked in a crowded place is a big no for me. Heck I’m not even a fan of flying anymore, and I used to love it. Covid has made me more aware about how disgusting the general public is. Please cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.
6 comments:
I find it interesting how different countries around the world have handled the COVID-19 virus. Even though Shanghai's cases have been lower than the United States, I find it alarming that the government would require so much testing within such a short period of time. However, I believe that Disney could have handled this situation better by communicating with the general public and media better to ensure that everyone understood what was happening. However, as a major corporation I would understand how no one would want this knowledge to be public. I also find it interesting that if Disney is struggling to stay open and keep busy in Shanghai, I wonder how other companies and organizations are doing in Shanghai. How many of them have had to close because of the strict COVID policies from the government. Overall, this was an enlightening news article and I am glad that there was not a major COVID 19 spike in the population.
This article is a great highlight of the risks that still come with large-scale events happening around the world at theme parks and other large-gathering spaces alike. COVID-19 is still an active threat, and although a decent amount of the world’s population has actively gotten vaccinated, there are still new strains popping up, and more people are still actively being affected by the virus. Although it may seem a bit intrusive, the government of Shanghai has a specific yet effective method of preventing the spread of COVID within their society, and although it may seem like something scary at first, I find that ultimately the resort did what they needed to do to abide by their countries “zero-covid” protocols. Although it may seem like drastic measures especially to outsiders, China as a whole was hit hard with the virus, and has since recovered fairly quickly from the affair. It almost makes you wonder if measures like these should have been taken here as well to effectively annihilate the virus, and if something so drastic would have saved thousands of lives, and thousands of people from life-altering disabilities. Especially since there were no reports of mistreatment brought up within the article, I find that the actions were carried out in a successful and organized manner.
This article begs a big question for me: why is Disney even permitted to open the park if a single COVID case will lead to them having to hurriedly close the park and lock people inside until they can test negative? It can't be profitable for Disney to continuously open and close and open and close, so why would they even want to do it either? I can understand the position the city is in, what with China's hardline stance against COVID and the drastic, almost draconian policies they've enacted to try and deal with it, but it's also been shown that these methods don't exactly work very well either. If they did, then we wouldn't still be hearing about massive shutdowns happening in the country (not to say that they should do nothing, as I honestly wish the US would adopt a slightly tougher stance of their own). However, it does give us cause for discussion here in the US, and especially with what we do in theatre, since it demonstrates how necessary it is to have plans in place to deal with an outbreak of COVID effectively and responsibly; plans that all companies and industries will have to have moving forward.
Obviously, COVID was an unexpected and devastating tragedy your world had to face. It was really interesting seeing how different companies had to completely pivot. I am an avid Disney-goer, and once the parks shut down, it was so sad for my community. Not only did I miss Disney for fun reasons, but the parks alone provide thousands of jobs, and it was devastating seeing many people go unemployed and the company not treating them the best. I cannot believe how Shanghai Disney dealt with this COVID outbreak. “Videos originally posted to Chinese social app Weibo showed visitors had run to park gates only to find them shut. Police ushered guests behind metal fences and told them they had to await test results until they could leave.” It is especially sad to hear how COVID is affecting Shanghai, as we have luckily mostly recovered.
‘Tis wild that people are actually going to super crowded places while there is literally a whole pandemic going on still. It is also pretty wild that they decided that the best course of action was to keep everyone inside of the park until they tested negative. I just do not really see a better alternative at this moment in time. That seems like it is the only way to really guarantee that no one spreads covid outside of the park, especially if they have a “zero covid” policy. It is just so interesting that the park has been staying open even when they have apparently had multiple covid scares in the past couple of weeks or so. I just really do not understand why anyone would want to go somewhere like this right now, it does not make sense to me personally.
I would not want to get locked in a theme park, even if it is Disney, especially if there are people around me freaking out. I’m curious how long guests were stuck in the park as they waited for their test results. I also wonder what Disney would have done if a guest had tested positive. I get that Shanghai and China in general are using a Covid-zero policy, but yikes. I would definitely be questioning whether or not I would be visiting a theme park if there was a chance of that happening. Covid in general has made me more hesitant to be in crowded places, and getting locked in a crowded place is a big no for me. Heck I’m not even a fan of flying anymore, and I used to love it. Covid has made me more aware about how disgusting the general public is. Please cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.
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