Should the Desert Circuit be cancelled? Or are you going?

[IPEsq]

Whoa ok guys, remember this thread is about whether a show in Southern California should continue to happen. Not horse shows generally. The numbers and hospital capacity in So Cal are not good. Last spring, this scenario would have cancelled shows. So, why not now? At all times, most of us have had a choice whether or not to participate in a show that is carrying on. I say most because I don’t know that grooms and other show employees have much choice if they want to keep their jobs. And so one question is, should a barn participate and essentially remove some of that choice from some people (employees) even if clients could still opt out?

At my office, some of our IT and other staff have had to continue working in the office in order to keep things running for the company and to help make telework possible. While local restrictions have varied about whether other non-essential staff could go into the office, our policies for coming into the office have remained very strict. The most open at times required mask wearing, health screening before entry, and you had to be on a schedule to come in so they could ensure people were distanced. No use of common kitchens or conference rooms. Etc. Other companies in the same industry have been more open, more people back in the office.

So, if you leave it to the people to decide what to do for themselves and their employees and coworkers and clients, you will have various choices being made. The original question is whether the situation is so dire in So Cal currently, also factoring in that people travel to horse shows (vs a regular office), and so should the managers and/or local government have shut DC down and eliminate the choice whether or not to attend.

I am not sure what the correct answer is, but mixing communities with people traveling is probably not a great idea when community spread is high. In Colorado last summer, the first shows were supposed to be restricted to CO trainers only, although I heard that wasn’t really being enforced/people were finding ways around it. California is huge so you’d have to have some more regional restriction to do the same thing. But my friends in Germany tell me that they are back under very strict lockdown and their numbers are still bad. So maybe lockdown isn’t the answer to ease the strain on the So Cal hospitals. But it seems like cancelling a big show circuit wouldn’t be a terrible idea if only just to keep more people out of the area.

[PonyPenny]

What about those traveling to WEF and Ocala? Arizona is starting up soon. Horse shows are a business and a pretty essential one for those who make a living training, competing, and buying horses. It really doesn’t matter what people think anyway. The show is not being canceled. Week I is happening currently. Can we put this topic to bed and move on?

[PonyPenny]

What do call someone who passed their boards to become an MD? Doctor. The same can be said for teachers. Those that can do. Those that can’t teach.

[mmeqcenter]

This is like when someone tried to tell me riding her horse is essential to its health because it has to stay show ready. Umm. No.

With this logic, literally all jobs are “essential,” because everyone has bills to pay, therefore nothing should have ever shut down, should never shut down, and we should just let millions die to establish herd immunity.
Oh right.
That’s exactly what Tepublicans actually DO want to do.
Because Capitalism.

ESSENTIAL means essential to society as a whole, not to one person’s (or 10, 20, etc.) income. Hospitals, gas stations, grocery stores. Those are essential. Riding a horse around a ring for a ribbon is not. Full stop.

[TrophyHusband]

@PonyPenny

Can we put this topic to bed and move on?

But then, what new topic can we create to facilitate such easy and voluminous virtue signaling?

[Bristol_Bay]

@TrophyHusband

But then, what new topic can we create to facilitate such easy and voluminous virtue signaling?

Or selfishness signaling.

[endlessclimb]

Eh, there was someone on the boards who was a data analyst who made those now proven false models. He/she is still around here - ~30yrs old and a self-proclaimed expert in the field.

People were lining up to applaud her conclusions drawn from faulty data, and they still are. I blame the media and the blips of press releases for giving scary numbers without context. Context doesn’t fit in a 1 minute content window.

Restrictions do not work. So Cal is the prime example of that. I know people moving strictly because of the draconian measures the government has taken there.

(and yeah, moving across the country in middle of a pandemic is stupid, especially from California…)

[vxf111]

What do you do for a living so we can sh*t on it just because, @ponypenny?

[Training_Cupid]

Clarification for people who may not be aware, for purposes of CA’s health orders 0% ICU capacity does not literally mean there are no ICU beds available. There is a complex formula used to calculate it, but basically the state wants 30% of a hospital’s ICU beds to be used for COVID patients. If that 30% is exceeded, the actual bed availability is reduced. (Pre-covid, most hospitals generally had 80-90% ICU beds filled.)

[BigMama1]

@endlessclimb

Restrictions do not work. So Cal is the prime example of that. I know people moving strictly because of the draconian measures the government has taken there.

Restrictions absolutely work if they are implemented uniformly and widely (ie not varying county to county or city to city), if people from areas without restrictions are prevented from entering areas with restrictions, and if a high enough percentage of the population actually complied with the restrictions. Those conditions have yet to be implemented anywhere in the US, to my knowledge, and there is a large pushback from people there claiming their “freedoms” give them the right to ignore common sense and public health guidance, so it’s no surprise the patchwork quilt of “restrictions” hasn’t been very effective. Look at the many other countries where restrictions have been very effective at keeping fatality rates low and protecting hospital capacity.

[Casey09]

https://www.newsweek.com/covid-lockdowns-have-no-clear-benefit-vs-other-voluntary-measures-international-study-shows-1561656

Obviously this article talks about voluntarily restricting travel, but I’m not sure at all that there is widespread objective evidence that government restrictions work to prevent virus spread.
If you look at cases per 100,000, countries that have very strict measures sometimes surpass the US, which has been much less strict.

[Peggy]

@Casey09 There are too many variables and no control studies. Restrictions tend to get put in place in areas that have a higher incidence of cases.

The spring restrictions worked in California but they stupidly opened things up too fast. By the time they put the winter restrictions in place it was like putting out a brush fire with a hose.

[Bristol_Bay]

@Peggy

The spring restrictions worked in California but they stupidly opened things up too fast. By the time they put the winter restrictions in place it was like putting out a brush fire with a hose.

Yes, and it made people think everything was fine, when infections were increasing even before Memorial Day Weekend.

[vxf111]

It’s hard to believe someone would denigrate a profession like teaching. Certainly there are good and bad teachers but where would any of us… literally ANY OF US… be without them?

I bet if each of us thinks about it, we can remember one teacher that had a formative impact on us. Mine was Mrs. Tucker in 5th grade. She made these fake dollars called “Tuck-Man-O-Grams.” You could earn them for all kinds of things-- doing well on an exam, reading a book harder than your assigned reading level, staying through recess to help set up the classroom for a speaker, being kind to another student outside your friend group–anything. At the end of the year she told us we were going to cash in our Tuck-Man-O-Grams for prizes. What she didn’t tell us was that she invited our parents-- and she had kept a running list of everything we had done to earn then. She called us up one by one to pick our prizes (trinkets I’m sure she bought out of her own pocket) and read out our accomplishments. I can’t remember many times I felt as proud as hearing all of our “good deeds” read together. There was not a dry eye in the room. She’s not the only teacher who left a lasting impression on me.

I bet if you thought about it, you too would remember one. Even PonyPenny.

I don’t know too many other professions that so frequently touch lives in as profound a way as that.

[BigMama1]

@TrophyHusband

But then, what new topic can we create to facilitate such easy and voluminous virtue signaling?

I’m always puzzled when I see this “virtue-signalling” phrase being used. Is it wrong to care about others and try to do the right thing? Is it wrong to expect that others should as well?

I definitely prefer people sharing ways they are coping with doing the right thing to people boasting about how self-centred they are and how little they care how their choices affect others.

[Peggy]

Zero percent availability could mean they were right at that 30% of ICU beds occupied by Covid patients, so there are beds available. Or it could mean that there are literally no beds. Or something in between.

Given that hospitals are putting ICU beds in gift shops and ambulance drivers are being told not to bring any patients (all, not necessarily Covid) to the ER if they can’t be revived in the field I’m going to guess that we’re probably in between.

[Bristol_Bay]

@PonyPenny

What do call someone who passed their boards to become an MD? Doctor. The same can be said for teachers. Those that can do. Those that can’t teach.

I’ve been reading this over and over to try and make sense of it. Maybe if you had been a more attentive student you’d have learned to edit for clarity.

I’m a teacher, by the way, recently retired. I know I’m not the only educator posting on this thread. I’ve seen my share of Ivy League grads passing through the profession on their way to something “better.” They are always shocked at how difficult it is and how much skill is involved. Many people (especially college-educated parents) think they could do my job, that anyone can teach. It’s a fallacy. If you truly think teachers can’t “do,” come spend some time in an inner-city underfunded classroom. You won’t last a day.

We all know the horse world is populated by great teachers who no longer ride, as well as by great riders who lack the patience and communication skills to pass their knowledge along.

Thank you, @vxf111for reminding me to respond to that nonsense post.

[MHM]

@Bristol_Bay

Many people (especially college-educated parents) think they could do my job, that anyone can teach.

The good news is that many of them have probably learned their lesson the hard way in the past year. And they were only trying to do it on a very small scale.

[TrophyHusband]

@BigMama1

I’m always puzzled when I see this “virtue-signalling” [sic] phrase being used. Is it wrong to care about others and try to do the right thing? Is it wrong to expect that others should as well?

It is certainly not wrong to care about others, it is, in fact, virtuous to care about others. It is not virtuous to exclusively define “caring” in such a way as only one’s version of “caring” is the correct way to “care” and anybody who may approach things differently is “not caring.”

@BigMama1

I definitely prefer people sharing ways they are coping with doing the right thing to people boasting about how self-centred [sic] they are and how little they care how their choices affect others.

I know… because you are virtuous and the other people are not. Right?

[BigMama1]

I try to do the right thing and to think of others as much as possible. So do most people I know. It doesn’t make me virtuous but it does make me compassionate.

FYI “self-centred” is the correct spelling where I live.