Halloween

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Halloween has a lot of potential to be a super massive super spreader event.

I expect political leaders to develop a national strategy and to work with tv, radio and social media to repeat guidelines. PSAs etc. If 5% of electorate is informed on Halloween guidelines and 95% isn't, 40% want to listen to Trump, we're fucked.

So the CDC actually has some statements about risk...but no one is doing much with making people aware or implementing policy based on them. If I personally were to expound on the guidelines, I'd say:

1. If you live in a locked down area, display decorations. Don't give out candy.
2. If you think you or someone in your household might have it, don't hand out candy. Don't go trick or treating either. Turn off your lights. Do decorations. Spooky music...whatever but not candy.
3. Hand out candy as follows. Wash hands. Make goodie bags. Leave goodie bags outside distant from house. Stay distant. Wear mask if outside.
4. When getting candy, wear a mask. Stay socially distant. Only go to houses that leave goodie bags on table/platform away from house. Don't receive candies from people directly.​

I am not even sure what to say about apartment buildings.

Anyway, someone needs to advocate for something like above. It will be unpopular...but if not, just a few weeks after Halloween hospitals will be at max capacity.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Why would it be a super-spreader event? Contact is short at each house. It's a hazard but nothing like things like sporting events.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Why would it be a super-spreader event? Contact is short at each house.

Yes, contact is short at each house, but there are 100 houses and potentially kids all putting their hands in a germ bowl or an infected person handing out candy to every single kid. You are missing the touch aspect to the candy. You also have kids being supervised by their parents, crowding up to the house to get stuff, breathing the same air over and over. This stuff stays in the air for a while and it also stays on objects (like candy wrappers) for a while without dying. You just need one household in the neighborhood to have a sick person and all the kids in the neighborhood can get sick. Then, later the kids pass it onto their siblings and parents. People are meeting in small gatherings of 25 persons without masks often, too, and this will insanely spread in a matter of 2-3 weeks.

It's a hazard but nothing like things like sporting events.

It's orders of magnitude more dangerous than a single sporting event. You have the whole country nearly interacting with with their whole neighborhood, following their paths in the air, touching things that everyone else touches. Across nearly the whole country. To put it in perspective, same level of interactions and same scope across the country, it would be like fully reopening schools, no masks, no social distancing for 2 hours across the country and having the kids get their lunches in the cafeterias. None of that is being done for a reason.

 

[Politesse]

Do Samhain instead! Just thirteen people, and if you need to socially distance, you can just make the circle wider.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/holidays.html

Moderate risk activities

• Participating in one-way trick-or-treating where individually wrapped goodie bags are lined up for families to grab and go while continuing to social distance (such as at the end of a driveway or at the edge of a yard)
• If you are preparing goodie bags, wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 second before and after preparing the bags.​
• ...

Higher risk activities

• Participating in traditional trick-or-treating where treats are handed to children who go door to door
• ...

 

[ideologyhunter]

Safety first, America. I'm using a T-shirt cannon to shoot Twizzlers at the rugrats.

 

[Worldtraveller]

I haven't lived in my house long enough to know what Halloween is like around here. I don't plan on putting out candy, or answering the door.

I am thinking of, to avoid potential constant doorbell ringing, putting up a sign that says due to covid, we won't be handing out candy.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I'm getting the 6-packs that are packaged together, so each kid gets a 6 pack, it'll be more expensive, but it has been a tough year for them. That keeps the candy itself clean. I think I'll hand out the candy to keep hands in the bowl down. Probably need an ingress/egress plan, up one way, down the other. Seems quite paranoid, but it is a pandemic!

 

[fromderinside]

Halloween has a lot of potential to be a super massive super spreader event.

I expect political leaders to develop a national strategy and to work with tv, radio and social media to repeat guidelines. PSAs etc. If 5% of electorate is informed on Halloween guidelines and 95% isn't, 40% want to listen to Trump, we're fucked.

So the CDC actually has some statements about risk...but no one is doing much with making people aware or implementing policy based on them. If I personally were to expound on the guidelines, I'd say:

1. If you live in a locked down area, display decorations. Don't give out candy.
2. If you think you or someone in your household might have it, don't hand out candy. Don't go trick or treating either. Turn off your lights. Do decorations. Spooky music...whatever but not candy.
3. Hand out candy as follows. Wash hands. Make goodie bags. Leave goodie bags outside distant from house. Stay distant. Wear mask if outside.
4. When getting candy, wear a mask. Stay socially distant. Only go to houses that leave goodie bags on table/platform away from house. Don't receive candies from people directly.​

I am not even sure what to say about apartment buildings.

Anyway, someone needs to advocate for something like above. It will be unpopular...but if not, just a few weeks after Halloween hospitals will be at max capacity.

Scary.
Very Scary!

Too soon?

 

[funinspace]

Verdaderamente: Dia de Muertos

Halloween has a lot of potential to be a super massive super spreader event.

I expect political leaders to develop a national strategy and to work with tv, radio and social media to repeat guidelines. PSAs etc. If 5% of electorate is informed on Halloween guidelines and 95% isn't, 40% want to listen to Trump, we're fucked.

So the CDC actually has some statements about risk...but no one is doing much with making people aware or implementing policy based on them. If I personally were to expound on the guidelines, I'd say:

1. If you live in a locked down area, display decorations. Don't give out candy.
2. If you think you or someone in your household might have it, don't hand out candy. Don't go trick or treating either. Turn off your lights. Do decorations. Spooky music...whatever but not candy.
3. Hand out candy as follows. Wash hands. Make goodie bags. Leave goodie bags outside distant from house. Stay distant. Wear mask if outside.
4. When getting candy, wear a mask. Stay socially distant. Only go to houses that leave goodie bags on table/platform away from house. Don't receive candies from people directly.​

I am not even sure what to say about apartment buildings.

Anyway, someone needs to advocate for something like above. It will be unpopular...but if not, just a few weeks after Halloween hospitals will be at max capacity.

Scary.
Very Scary!

Too soon?

It will be a freak show...worse than going to Mallwart, CostCo, or Home Depot...ten times worse than Labor Day barbeques.

 

[BH]

I live in an apartment complex. Very few trick or treaters. Some years none. Mother lives on the side of town everyone things gives out lots of candy. Traffic is bumper to bumper and I have no doubt the trick or treaters are well into the hundreds at her place alone.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Halloween has a lot of potential to be a super massive super spreader event.

I expect political leaders to develop a national strategy and to work with tv, radio and social media to repeat guidelines. PSAs etc. If 5% of electorate is informed on Halloween guidelines and 95% isn't, 40% want to listen to Trump, we're fucked.

So the CDC actually has some statements about risk...but no one is doing much with making people aware or implementing policy based on them. If I personally were to expound on the guidelines, I'd say:

1. If you live in a locked down area, display decorations. Don't give out candy.
2. If you think you or someone in your household might have it, don't hand out candy. Don't go trick or treating either. Turn off your lights. Do decorations. Spooky music...whatever but not candy.
3. Hand out candy as follows. Wash hands. Make goodie bags. Leave goodie bags outside distant from house. Stay distant. Wear mask if outside.
4. When getting candy, wear a mask. Stay socially distant. Only go to houses that leave goodie bags on table/platform away from house. Don't receive candies from people directly.​

I am not even sure what to say about apartment buildings.

Anyway, someone needs to advocate for something like above. It will be unpopular...but if not, just a few weeks after Halloween hospitals will be at max capacity.

Scary.
Very Scary!

Too soon?

In my neighborhood, with 200 or 300 homes (I don't remember, I used to know), the kids are kind already overlapping, so as long as you limit candy selection to one person, the person handing it out, set up a queue, and a place to enter and leave, and the candy is prepackaged prepackaged, the risks aren't going to be that high. Of course, it does clip the nuts off the social aspect of it, but the candy is there to sweeten the deal.

 

[Shadowy Man]

We are foregoing trick-or-treating this year and having an outdoor Halloween party with two close families who we’ve seen only once since the lockdown started.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Why would it be a super-spreader event? Contact is short at each house.

Yes, contact is short at each house, but there are 100 houses and potentially kids all putting their hands in a germ bowl or an infected person handing out candy to every single kid. You are missing the touch aspect to the candy. You also have kids being supervised by their parents, crowding up to the house to get stuff, breathing the same air over and over. This stuff stays in the air for a while and it also stays on objects (like candy wrappers) for a while without dying. You just need one household in the neighborhood to have a sick person and all the kids in the neighborhood can get sick. Then, later the kids pass it onto their siblings and parents. People are meeting in small gatherings of 25 persons without masks often, too, and this will insanely spread in a matter of 2-3 weeks.

Touch isn't that big a vector and while the kids will crowd it's mostly going to be with their own group, kids they were already exposed to. If they go out in larger groups there's likely to be spreading, but I don't see it reaching super-spreader level. The contact between kids and houses is short.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I haven't lived in my house long enough to know what Halloween is like around here. I don't plan on putting out candy, or answering the door.

I am thinking of, to avoid potential constant doorbell ringing, putting up a sign that says due to covid, we won't be handing out candy.

Simple fix--make sure your house is dark. If nobody's home they rarely even try ringing the doorbell.

Admittedly, until this year there have been no trick-or-treat age kids on our street (now we have one that's barely old enough), hence no trick or treating.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

We are foregoing trick-or-treating this year and having an outdoor Halloween party with two close families who we’ve seen only once since the lockdown started.

And the CDC says it's such events that are a big spreader these days.

 

[Toni]

I'm still not sure how we will handle it. Some years we have a good number. Other years: one or two or under 10. I definitely don't want to do anything to put kids/families/us at risk. I've considered making a tube out of PVC pipe and sending candy down through that from the second floor balcony......But I don't want to deal with the PVC pipe after...

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I'm still not sure how we will handle it. Some years we have a good number. Other years: one or two or under 10. I definitely don't want to do anything to put kids/families/us at risk. I've considered making a tube out of PVC pipe and sending candy down through that from the second floor balcony......But I don't want to deal with the PVC pipe after...

If you look at what the CDC says, you can put a table out with goodiebags away from the house. Wash hands first. Putting these things a distance doesn't merely decrease person to person interaction, also getting table away from porch will create natural ventilation so covid will linger much less than if on your porch. It's still considered moderate risk, but at least it is not high risk.

 

[crazyfingers]

https://www.mass.gov/news/halloween-during-covid-19

Massachusetts guidelines are above.

I'm glad my teens are too old to go out.

We will still carve some pumpkins and put out the blowups. We have never had more than 4 families. We will individually pack one ziplock of candy per person and leave them on the front walk with a sign to touch/take one bag per kid. They will be the same. We will keep the glass front door shut. No one goes out or comes in.

If my kids were still trick or treat age we would not go out but do a flashlight candy hunt on our property just for my kids.

 

[Shadowy Man]

We are foregoing trick-or-treating this year and having an outdoor Halloween party with two close families who we’ve seen only once since the lockdown started.

And the CDC says it's such events that are a big spreader these days.

It will be less than ten people. We will be outdoors. We will all be wearing masks and keeping socially distant. I am more at risk at Target or the super market.