The end of tourism?

I’ve wondered about that.

I already avoid hospitals as much as possible because of C. diff. on curtains between patients, bed trays, cafeteria trays, and probably every other surface.

I got C. diff. years ago from sitting in a surgery waiting room, while a friend’s friend had surgery. I never saw a patient and was never anywhere but the hallway and the waiting room.

If the Covid-19 virus is just as plentiful in hospitals, that’s really terrifying.

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I know. I was supposed to go back to my dentist for a mold for a permanent partial plate back in March, but I’m still wearing the temporary plate he made me while the gum where he extracted teeth healed up. I’m not that concerned about actually being in his examination room, as I’m sure everything is well sterilized, but it’s sitting in his small waiting room that is stopping me from going back for the permanent plate right now. Even if there wasn’t anyone else sitting there when I was there, I’d have no idea if a person who was in there an hour before me was wearing a mask, or had freshly washed hands, etc. And what about the person in his chair before me? They are breathing right out into the air, with their mouth wide open.

Might have something to do with that your place is drop dead gorgeous!

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Cdiff is a tough one. It requires hand washing with soap and water. Alcohol based hand sanitizers do not work for that one. Another reminder that in all our focus on the corona virus people may be forgetting that there is other stuff to worry about out there!

I meant to post the article I read and got called away. Here it is.

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Thank you for the article. I’ve shared it widely.

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This is like walking on shifting sands…what we think we know changes everyday. About 2 weeks ago Dr Fauci & CDC states there was low risk from surface contamination and high risk from airborne.

Just thinking—I would imagine risk would be different depending on where you are. In the hospital, higher concentration of sick people (but wearing masks). , probably higher quantity of virus on surfaces. Restaurant=fewer people than hospital, small % may be sick, lower concentration of virus on surfaces.

I hate That you had c-diff. It is a terrible illness (If you have a dog or cat—it’s like Giardia for humans)
I’m curious how did you isolate it to this source? C-diff is a highly communicable illness. Hard shelled spore, difficult to kill (Clorox or intense UV rays). Community acquired C-diff is far more common than hospital acquired.

Shopping carts are harbingers of every germ in the world. Walmart carts are scary.

A Real Estate broker friend in Coastal SC shared she has been working crazy hours for the past 3 weeks. People from NY & NJ are buying properties as soon as they hit the market. They don’t want to be “stuck” in NY, NJ when the fall 2nd wave hits.

A 3rd floor Walk-up condo in my neighborhood just sold for an amazing premium price. Actually the 5 condos that were for sale 2 weeks ago ALL are in due diligence this week (sold but awaiting title checks & loan final approvals)

Maybe the flavor of travel is changing to be “go stay at your 2nd home”.

History—in the spring peak, SC kicked out all short term renters. Some cities had check points to enter. You had to be property owner or have a long term lease to be allowed access. (Covid 19 Medical & military responders were exempt)

Certainly for people with certain means or in certain areas. The next few years will be interesting.

Several people in that surgery waiting room on that day came down with it. At the time I got it, I had been isolated at home for weeks after a devastating event in my life. My first and only outing was with the friend to wait with her in the hospital.

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Thank you. Now I understand.

My dentist had me call when I got there and wait in the car until they were done and sanitized from the person ahead of me. No waiting room time. Perhaps you could recommend this.

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Thanks for the suggestion- I’ve been meaning to call him to see how he’s dealing with it, so I’ll see and that’s a good suggestion. What concerns me is that even if he sterilizes from the person before me, the virus droplets can hang in the air and infect others for at least 3 hours. He can’t really disinfect the air, unless he has some specialized equipment.

I keep reading articles on this so called “end of tourism as we know” it. It’s stupid to assume whole industry is dead due to 1-2 year setback.

What are you assuming - that people will stop travel? Sounds dumb? That’s because it is.

Dont be fooled, hypocrites who say ‘good riddance’ to overcrowded cities and rubbish-strewn natural wonders are same people who is going to whine due to economic downturn, when their pay-checks wont arrive in time.

Speaking for myself, not as some professional writer looking for a story, I assume tourism as we know it will end because it’s bad for the environment. This particular moment in time caused by the pandemic has given us a look into what is possible years sooner than I thought. We may well go back to what was before but there is every reason to believe it will be temporary.

The kind of radical restructuring of the economy that was proposed and declared impossible was implemented virtually overnight.

As for the economic pain, that always happens. It happened with colonialism, it happened with the industrial revolution and it’s happening now with the ascendancy of China. Maybe covid will be the big immediate disrupter like the Black Death was.

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Really scary article but The authors themselves point out they tested for DNA particles and can not say if the virus was viable or could cause infection. When a surface is cleaned perhaps the virus’s ability to infect is gone it’s deactivated—but nuclear matter is left behind. The ability for the virus to infect others is everything… So … maybe this is not as bad as it sounds

As I said in the article I linked to above:

It will be different, that’s for sure but that’s how it goes. After all, travel is different now than it used to be a hundred years ago, even fifty or ten years ago.

And, being the eternal optimist:

It’s changed. It’s continuing to change. It’s evolving. That’s what the world, the human race, does. Don’t complain about it, evolve with it. Be ahead of the rest.

That’s very much the kind of hosting I do and the kind of guests I get- travellers, not tourists. I’ve invited guests to a beach party with my friends, walked around the downtown core pointing out things that might be of interest to them, told them about a nice cafe or restaurant a few blocks outside of the touristy area they’d never know about otherwise. Gone out to dinner with them, taken them to a beach they wouldn’t be able to get to or even know about. We’ve had long conversations over a bottle of wine late into the night. They’ve left me artwork they’ve done, and sweet notes and some bring thoughtful “hostess gifts”. I’ve had guests from Germany, New Zealand, France, Mexico, Canada, the US, Brazil and Japan.
I know for a lot of hosts it’s just a business, but for me it’s always been more than that. I can’t host now in my shared-home situation as long as the virus is a threat, but it’s the hosting of these guests I miss more than the income, which was never an income I relied on, although it certainly helped out.

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In the 5 months I’ve been following the covid story (since late January as I prepared to to go to New Zealand) everything has been worse than expected, not better than expected. It’s only one study but the collection of studies taken as a whole together with the idiocy of my fellow Americans has me feeling grim.

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