Peter wrote:
Interesting stuff re skiing – here
Just a combination of three basic truths:
- Skiing is locally/regionally the by far dominating driver of the economy in some areas of the Alps
- Early experience (e.g. from glacier skiing) that it is practically impossible to impose even basic distancing rules for skiing
- a rat race on between European regions on who is the fastest to spread the virus again is the last thing we need
I think that’s true but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you open the bars then of course they will be packed. The whole point of apres ski is to be in a bar so tightly crowded that one can barely move. That’s “the culture”! Everybody gets plenty to drink 
The other bit is the ski lifts. In some places, and at certain times, there is plenty of capacity. For example at Cervinia, Jan 15-22 2020, I had the cable car to myself for the first three hours each day. What makes it difficult is some aggressive person who demands the windows are closed.
The open lifts (chairlifts) are probably ok. What makes it difficult is some aggressive person who demands the cover is down 
And one doesn’t catch anything when actually skiing.
I reckon the risk would be very low if the traffic levels were like I described above, Jan 2020 but they probably won’t be because – like when Cervinia opened on 24 Oct with massive queues and closed the day after – everybody will be trying to go skiing at the same time.
Peter wrote:
Interesting stuff re skiing – here
Last Sunday, the Polish Minister of Economic Development stated that there is no way the tourist attractions, hotels and ski lifts will be allowed to open anytime soon (I believe the time frame that was mentioned was 100 days).
Two days later the same fellow happily announced that a “sanitary protocol has been agreed” and that ski lifts will be able to open. The first ones already have, it seems. Hotels, restaurants, gyms and the like are still not allowed to open.
On a semi-related note, once the reporting of new cases was “centralized” (reported only by the main office, not regional offices of the Sanitary Bureau) they immediately fell from ~25k to ~15k…
That’s funny
To me it is obvious that skiing can be made very safe. Whether it can be done with large numbers turning up is another matter. And unless you have police hanging around every point where people can enter a lift (which often is halfway up a slope) most people will disregard any notices and will pile into the lifts until no more will fit in. Most of them don’t believe they can catch it anyway…
Peter wrote:
And unless you have police hanging around every point where people can enter a lift (which often is halfway up a slope) most people will disregard any notices and will pile into the lifts until no more will fit in
Absolutely! and it’s not only the lifts itself but also or even more the lines in front of the lifts. Experience unfortunately shows that most people don’t even think about keeping 1.5m distance there…
BeechBaby wrote:
AlsoPlease ‘’no they must be Covidiots’’ or worse, Conspiracy Theorists
No, they are just plain idiots
This is absolutely fine. Choice is good. There will be airlines that require people to be vaccinated and/or tested, and the ones who want to minimise their Covid risk will go there. There will be airlines that won’t, and all the ‘what, me worry?’ brigade will use those. Let’s see who wins – my money is on the Covid-banning ones as the people in the middle, all things being equal, will go with the safer option.
Not everything requires regulation. Smoking was eradicated from airliners trough a mix of customer and crew pressure (who did not want to end up reeking of smoke after every flight) and regulatory action, even Japan, where until very recently smoking in restaurants was permitted and socially accepted, got rid of it around the year 2000, and that did not require a law.
Cobalt wrote:
This is absolutely fine. Choice is good.
The “funny” thing about the people pretending that they are “pro choice” is that they only mean “pro their choice”:
They absolutely and unconditionally demand that they have the choice to do what ever they like. At the same time, however, they equally absolutely and unconditionally deny other people (like shop owners, flight crew, etc.) the right to choose that they only want to serve people who are wearing masks, are vaccinated, etc.
In the quoted example – if they were really pro choice and not only pro egoism, they would actually celebrate that an airline exercises the choice to protect their employees against people that are not vaccinated, even if they chose to act differently. That’s exactly what choice is about!
That’s they I don’t like these people to be called “Covidiots” – because they are not and we must not excuse their behavior by stating that they have just limited mental abilities to under stand what they are doing. Many of them do very well! Those are just plain Coroneogoists!
It is a smart business decision by Qantas. Most smart people, faced with
will head for, guess which one?
And, more importantly, most stupid people will head for the same one! This is because while they perhaps don’t care about infecting somebody else, they don’t want to catch it themselves.
Unless the 1st option is cheaper, but which airline is going to discount the tickets, knowing they are going to attract even more infectious passengers because those who aren’t infectious will be mostly flying with the other one So, in a short time, any airline which doesn’t require some sort of test or vaccination is going to look terrible on due diligence in looking after its staff. And face higher staffing costs, due to more of its staff catching it and being off work, or in hospital…
On another topic, long term CV19 health issues appear to be mostly unrelated to the severity of the original illness, and the “condition” of the subject. Still not a lot of research is available, partly because the range of symptoms is very broad.
There is always some money to make in segmented markets just question of the size
I guess Qantas move ensure they get the big lot of pax who care a lot about two-way infections, while the travel agent & his operator get the niche market of non-vaccinated people, both will charge premium according to their “plus service” and everybody is happy…
