The first person I knew who got COVID was my friend’s nephew. He got it last April because he went to Florida for Spring Break when his college’s campus closed due to the virus. And the city to which he travelled was packed with like-minded college kids, most of whom got sick. One year and over half a million dead Americans later and we are right back where we started. Some states are repealing mask mandates, businesses are rushing to reopen and folks are looking for excuses to let down their guard. And the main reason to rush us into a second wave is – wait for it – Spring Break. Unlike last year, when cities were banking against scientists’ predictions, many of those same mayors are very worried by what this latest round of COVIDiots will bring. Namely, a super spreader event.
Some warm-weather cities are worried that spring breakers could lead to new COVID-19 outbreaks, nearly a year after the onset of the pandemic cut 2020’s spring break season short.
On Friday, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber appeared on CNN’s New Day and said the city is “very concerned” about vacationers, especially as Miami-Dade county averages more than 1,000 new COVID cases a day and different variants of virus continue to crop up.
“A lot of things are happening simultaneously,” Gelber said. “You have the variant down here, and we still are having sometimes dozens of deaths a day in our county.”
“And at the same time, we’ve got incredibly cheap round-trip tickets for 40 bucks from anywhere in the Northeast down here, discounted rooms and people who have been really pent up and wanting to get out with no other place to go than here,” he continued. “So we are very worried that there’s going to be a convergence of people here and a real problem in the aftermath of that.”
Steve Geller, the mayor of Fort Lauderdale’s Broward County, said he “will take action” to curb the partying if the city doesn’t.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic,” Geller told the Sun Sentinel. “I’m not opposed to college kids having fun — just not in the middle of a pandemic.”
Just FYI the CDC is still advising against non-essential travel, even if vaccinated at this time. I feel bad for these mayors that don’t have gubernatorial support. We spoke about some large chains that were adhering to mask mandates even when governors were lifting them. For small local businesses, especially bars and restaurants depending on Spring Break revenue, these mayors don’t stand a chance. Miami Beach mayor Gelber said police would hand out masks if businesses weren’t, but they can’t enforce anything. If people are already gambling with their health for a cheap plane ticket, I doubt they’ll take the necessary precautions once they get into a crowded party atmosphere. Both Miami and Ft. Lauderdale are already filling up with maskless tourists packing beaches and bars. I don’t know if these partiers think the pandemic is over or they never believed in it, but people who will lose the most are the servers and city inhabitants who can’t escape the tourists.
I’ll say it again – we are so close to ending this thing. We just got our first email with a very tentative date for the kids to reenter school. The CDC just approved vaccinated indoor gatherings without masks yesterday. It’s okay to hope, but not throw caution to the wind and undo what we have sacrificed to get here. If you are in a Spring Break area and your state is not supporting precautions, I’m sorry. I wish you much peace and I hope you can continue to protect yourselves.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Yeah, I’m in Texas and looking forward to being even more at home next week than usual. When I realized our governor was lifting the mask mandate just in time for Spring Break (which is focused exclusively across two weeks in March in Texas), I thought, “what an IDIOT!” And later realized that this was a feature, not a bug. Then my thoughts got a lot less charitable.
I am in Houston, and I thought the same thing. This was a deliberate choice not only to distract from the horrendous aftermath of the deep freeze, but also to throw some bones to the MAGAts. And I have very, very uncharitable thoughts about Abbott and his ilk.
An uncharitable thought crossed my mind when I read he was lifting all restrictions (with an impending 4th wave, thanks to more infectious variants)- besides this obvious distraction technique – was well, his brain is about as effective as his lower extremities.
There’s data from multiple countries citing a dramatic increase in infections of children and teens because of school and these variants. jfc.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m a mom of 3 young children (including a 3 month old) and have been doing virtual learning for now a year and live in Wisconsin, so we haven’t seen nice weather in almost 4 months, and we debated driving down the 15 hours to gtfo our house… we Neeeeeeeeed a fucking break. We have been doing the work like a lot of Americans and not seeing people and masking up, but the idea of letting my kids run in the surf and swimming in the ocean sounds pretty awesome too. But we opted against it only because a 3 month old who hates his car seat on a 15 hour drive sounds like more than I can bear… soooo We are gonna just have to wait three more months for things to thaw.
This has to be so tough. I’m in NY and the weather turned lovely this week, and I really feel like it was a lifeline. I feel so much for people in frozen states. I’m sorry.
Thank you. It is. The things that normally get us through winter we aren’t doing, like open gyms for my 2.5 year old and play dates and my 7 year old is such a trooper… it all just sucks. Next time I live through a pandemic I’m moving to the coast and riding it out there 😂
I’m in NJ and the warmer weather is a lifesaver, seriously. I took a drive for no reason and haven’t done that in months. I can’t believe how much my mood perked up. I also think my sinuses were slowly killing me from all the cold, dry weather, lol.
I think at this point we’re only going to dip down into the 40s at lowest during the day. Hallelujah.
Hey lurker-
Spring is definitely here- 60 the last two days, all the snow is gone, and redwing blackbirds, seagulls and grackles are back. I have also heard robins, but not many of them (have returned).
Better days for outside fun are around the corner ( I’m in NE WI).
I am so very sorry. When mine was little, the car seat was classified as a torture device. Thankfully, we live in NYC and spent very little time in a car – we walked everywhere and Kiddo didn’t mind the stroller or being carried in a sling.
But I promise – Spring is coming! It has been in the 60s yesterday and today in NYC. The finish line is in sight. We will get there.
Instead of spring break, my daughter’s university is having classes through mid-April, then sending everyone home to finish online. Meanwhile, we’re masked and waiting for our vaccinations. Florida and Texas governors are useless.
Both my kids’ universities are doing the same thing. Seems like a lot of universities cancelled their spring breaks so maybe that will help prevent a huge influx. Although my older son had a 2-day break last week and has said a good number of students still traveled for a long weekend so the school’s plan to prevent students from traveling over break didn’t exactly work.
I have a remote co-worker who went to FL for the winter months as he always does. He said he wished he hadn’t this year as the unsafe practices all around him have forced him to stay home most of the time. He said recently there was a music festival with 20,000 unmasked people near him. I can’t even imagine.
UW Madison has cancelled spring break- kids get Friday off at the end of that week for a 3 day w/e, but that’s it. They are working straight through to the end of the term. No one is happy about it, but it is understandable and will keep Madison and surrounding communities safer.
Both my kid’s universities have no spring break this semester. Instead classes will end a week early. Smart way to prevent the students from leaving and bring covid back to campus.
I just posted above that this backfired on my older son’s school where students still traveled last week when they had a 2-day break. The anti-mask parent brigade on FB was proudly defiant about their kids still being entitled to a “normal” college spring break. Smh.
Yikes. Everyone at my daughter’s university is taking it very seriously. But it’s a very science oriented school.
Merrikat, Same with my younger son’s school. But my older son’s experience at his university has been eye opening. More MAGA types around him than he realized, taking cues from their parents. They seem determined to fight Covid restrictions, ruining it for the many students do take this seriously.
I’m 33 and highly confused about how I am currently on a full Spring Break from my online classes. In the fall we had a 2 or 3 day break then ended everything before Thanksgiving with exams the first week of December. I could have sworn we were doing a shorter spring break this year. My school is offering on campus classes so I dont know what is going to happen in the next few weeks. I’m in TN so it seems especially weird to have a full Spring Break
The pandemic is never going to end, is it?
Yes, it will but not this year. Do think things are opening up. I live in a very strict state and there is talk of now allowing people into stadiums in the next few months.
I don’t understand how lifting a mask mandate is even supposed to help businesses; if there’s another spike, they’ll just have to shut down again. They need customers alive. It really can only be cruelty and preying on ignorance. People are … is it just ignorance or arrogance? Or is it selfishness or deliberately trying to weed out the “weak”? I don’t know but it is crushing to see.
My daughters uni is still having spring break. She will be flying home for a week where we will have to quarantine. So sick of this. I wish her school stopped break a d sent them home early.
What Spring Break are they talking about? I don’t about other universities but in WV there is none. 90% classes online, campus is half empty, no spring break. The kids don’t go home until finals.
U of California schools are off for spring break, even though they are closed and only doing virtual classes. I was surprised to hear that my friend’s son was flying home for a week. Seems to negate the efforts to keep things closed.
Living through this pandemic in this country is like groundhog day. At regular intervals, there’s the headline: “health experts are worried that a huge spike will follow after [thanksgiving/christmas/spring break/4th of july/memorial day/whatever]” and sure enough, that spike always comes, and the pandemic just grinds on and on, because as a people, we’re apparently incapable of sacrificing anything whatsoever for the greater good.
Yeah, what a lot of tourist town politicians don’t realize is that the Mayor from Jaws is not supposed to be an aspirational character.
🤣
I have heard (anecdotal) stories of college aged people “cutting the line” on getting the vaccines because they can more easily navigate the the technology needed to book these appointments than the prioritized older people. In my state the rollout has been a disjointed mess where you need to stay up until the wee hours of the morning and book in under a minute the appointments that drop. If this is true, maybe some of the spring breakers will be vaccinated. Which like, good that they’re vaccinated before traveling, not nice that they cut the line.