Lockdown-weary Americans begin holiday season under pandemic pressures

[rooster59]

Lockdown-weary Americans begin holiday season under pandemic pressures

By Gabriella Borter and Susan Heavey

 

People visit at the Shops at Hudson Yards during early opening for the Black Friday sales in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 27, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pandemic-weary Americans entered the holiday season on Friday under strong pressure from political leaders and health officials to stay home, avoid gatherings and curtail Christmas shopping as they wait for promised COVID-19 vaccines.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hinted on Friday that the first of those medications could be close to government approval, as it posted notice of an emergency meeting for Tuesday to vote on the "allocation of initial supplies of COVID-19 vaccine."

 

United Airlines has begun using charter flights to put shipments of a vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc in place so the drug can be quickly distributed once it is approved, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have spiraled in recent weeks, prompting increasingly aggressive clamp-downs in many U.S. states.

 

One day after the nations marked a diminished Thanksgiving, malls and retailers imposing strict COVID-19 rules saw fewer Americans in stores for the traditional Black Friday start of the holiday shopping season.

 

"Remember, skip the crowds and shop from home this Black Friday," Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a first-term Democrat, wrote on Twitter, a sentiment echoed by many state and local officials.

 

Los Angeles County health officials on Friday banned all public and private gatherings outside of household members, carving out exceptions for church services and protests. Residents were urged to stay home "as much as possible."

 

Roughly 90,000 patients were being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals on Friday, a number that has doubled in the last month amid rising infections and is the highest since the pandemic began.

 

SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN CUOMO

 

The U.S. Supreme Court late on Wednesday struck down as unconstitutional an order by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo severely limiting the number of people who could worship at churches and synagogues in the state.

 

Cuomo dismissed the ruling as "irrelevant," saying it was narrowly tailored to specific areas no longer subject to the limits. But it could drive legal challenges against similar rules placed on houses of worship in other U.S. states.

 

"It is fair to say that this Supreme Court ruling has broader implications and governors would be wise to be guided by it in any attempts to single out houses of worship for disparate treatment," Randy Mastro, lead attorney for the Catholic Archdiocese of Brooklyn in the case, told Reuters.

 

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said this week her latest COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings also applied to indoor religious services, reducing the maximum number of worshippers from 100 people to 50.

 

Some medical centers and intensive care units are already being pushed beyond capacity.

 

"This is the reality we face when COVID-19 is allowed to spread unchecked – ICUs at capacity, not enough health care workers available," New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a tweet.

 

Grisham, a Democrat, did not say who she believed had let the virus spread unchecked. The governor has imposed a lockdown requiring all "non-essential" businesses to close and residents to stay home.

 

Around 880 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday in New Mexico. A hospital in rural Curry County was the latest to reach capacity in its intensive care unit this week, according to the county's Facebook page.

 

Some politicians and health experts fear Americans traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday could spread the contagion. Many heeded the advice to stay home for Thanksgiving on Thursday. But others chose to travel, saying they were willing to risk illness to see family members.

 

On the day before Thanksgiving, typically one of the busiest travel days of the year in the United States, more than 1.07 million people transited through U.S. airports - the most of any single day since the start of the pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

 

Over 4 million traveled through airports from Sunday to Thursday, compared to over 11 million for the same period last year, TSA data shows.

 

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Melissa Fares in New York, Susan Heavey, Lisa Lambert, Diane Bartz and David Shephardson in Washington, Anurag Maan in Bengaluru and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Bill Tarrant)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-28

 

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[Tug]

Lots of internet buying the malls are empty what a crappy year 2020 is...............

[thaibeachlovers]

 

 

 

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

- Pandemic-weary Americans entered the holiday season on Friday under strong pressure from political leaders and health officials to stay home, avoid gatherings and curtail Christmas shopping as they wait for promised COVID-19 vaccines.

and yet

 

Tens of Millions of Americans Projected to Travel for Thanksgiving Despite Covid Surge

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-25/u-s-travel-is-up-during-the-thanksgiving-holiday 

 

 

That's really giving the finger to the man.

 

[GinBoy2]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

Lots of internet buying the malls are empty what a crappy year 2020 is...............

I'm almost a 100% internet shopper, as I think most men are.

 

But my wife and her friend went out Black Friday shopping today. $400 later she came home.

 

She said it wasn't as busy as past years, but it certainly wasn't a ghost town

[thaibeachlovers]

11 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

I'm almost a 100% internet shopper, as I think most men are.

 

But my wife and her friend went out Black Friday shopping today. $400 later she came home.

 

She said it wasn't as busy as past years, but it certainly wasn't a ghost town

Don't include me in that. I like to see what I'm buying before I hand over the money.

[PatOngo]

Happy Covid America! It does'nt seem to bother them!

 

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Roughly 90,000 patients were being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals on Friday, a number that has doubled in the last month amid rising infections and is the highest since the pandemic began.

 

While the rest of the world reduces it Covid infections, the USA sets new records! Great legacy, Donald!

[Traubert]

262k. Dead, gone. When will they learn?

 

Shopping is more important?

[pegman]

It's looking a lot like a COVID Xmas.

[teacherclaire]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Happy Covid America! It does'nt seem to bother them!

 

 

While the rest of the world reduces it Covid infections, the USA sets new records! Great legacy, Donald!

And China is selling more products than ever! Coincidence? Or a wanted scenario?

 

   

 

  

[PatOngo]

4 minutes ago, teacherclaire said:

And China is selling more products than ever! Coincidence? Or a wanted scenario?

 

   

 

  

Sad reality!

[PatOngo]

4 hours ago, Traubert said:

262k. Dead, gone. When will they learn?

 

Shopping is more important?

A change of leadership may make a big difference!

[teacherclaire]

1 minute ago, PatOngo said:

Sad reality!

 

   

Were you aware of the fact that American medicine contains 80 to 90 % of chemicals from China?

 

Doesn't that make them dependent on China? 

 

IMO, people should stop buying the cheap <deleted>, pay more, but not that often. 

 

Opinion: U.S. dangerously dependent on Chinese drugs (detroitnews.com)

 

Not only the US. Pandemic proves why we must reduce our dependence on China (yourlifechoices.com.au)

[teacherclaire]

7 hours ago, Tug said:

Lots of internet buying the malls are empty what a crappy year 2020 is...............

Agreed. The newest normal suc_s big time. 

[PatOngo]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

 

 

and yet

 

Tens of Millions of Americans Projected to Travel for Thanksgiving Despite Covid Surge

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-25/u-s-travel-is-up-during-the-thanksgiving-holiday 

 

 

That's really giving the finger to the man.

 

 

Ahhh! The land of the brave and the home of the free! ????

[heybruce]

Hospitals are already being overwhelmed and the holiday insanity is just beginning.  https://www.yahoo.com/news/covid-overload-u-hospitals-stretched-195312573.html

[teacherclaire]

1 hour ago, heybruce said:

Hospitals are already being overwhelmed and the holiday insanity is just beginning.  https://www.yahoo.com/news/covid-overload-u-hospitals-stretched-195312573.html

Presents this year will mostly be digital thermometers from aeeh hmmm, well, China. 

[herwin1234]

A lot to learn here.

 

No crisis and no chaos in Thailand. Why? A smart and decisive leadership who makes decisions based on science, and united citizens who are smart enough to follow the rules. 

 

America...dumb divided citizens and leaders and politicians who politisize a crisis and THRIVE on division. 

[Lacessit]

Americans don't know what a really effective lockdown is, their attempts have been half-hearted.

[puipuitom]

2 hours ago, PatOngo said:

 

Ahhh! The land of the brave and the home of the free! ????

to go to their coffins...

[Scott]

Troll graphics removed.   It is a discussion forum.  

 

 

[ericthai]

4 hours ago, herwin1234 said:

A lot to learn here.

 

No crisis and no chaos in Thailand. Why? A smart and decisive leadership who makes decisions based on science, and united citizens who are smart enough to follow the rules. 

 

America...dumb divided citizens and leaders and politicians who politisize a crisis and THRIVE on division. 

yes, you do have allot to learn here. 

 

No crisis in Thailand??? You need to open your eyes, allot of people are out of work.

 

Smart , decisive leadership????  Come on, They say one thing one day and then something else a few days later and then it's all a misunderstanding. 

[Jeffr2]

22 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

 

 

and yet

 

Tens of Millions of Americans Projected to Travel for Thanksgiving Despite Covid Surge

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-25/u-s-travel-is-up-during-the-thanksgiving-holiday 

 

 

That's really giving the finger to the man.

 

More like a finger to their fellow Americans.  And because of them and other countries, we're unable to leave Thailand and come back easily.

 

Projections are 4,000 dead a day soon.

 

Interesting read:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/26/why-does-belgium-have-the-worlds-highest-covid-19-death-rate/

 

Why Does Belgium Have the World’s Highest COVID-19 Death Rate?

Individualism, regional divisions, and fragmented government authority have led the capital of Europe to fail where many poorer and less-connected countries have succeeded.