COVID-19 Affecting Your Plans?

The situation is rapidly developing, here is the latest executive order for NYS.
Schools and fitness centers closed, bars & restaurants are closed (except take-out), non-essential state workers working from home, etc.

health.ny.gov

COVID-19

health.ny.gov health.ny.gov
 
chandlerwest said:
While riding the Zion NP shuttle last week I had to wonder how this could last. I casually heard two groups from different locations in California and 7 young men from Japan. The world rides those shuttles. Sure enough the park stopped the shuttles yesterday. Sigh....
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So far 19.6% of the 51 confirmed cases in UT are from non-residents, so I can understand why smaller towns are concerned especially in spring break season. They just started up high throughput patient screening in St George for symptomatic individuals, so I expect our case load to rapidly increase.
 
Titans said:
The situation is rapidly developing, here is the latest executive order for NYS.
Schools and fitness centers closed, bars & restaurants are closed (except take-out), non-essential state workers working from home, etc.
Click to expand...

Still trying to understand where they are sourcing the authority to do some of this stuff. Haven't seen any declaration of martial law, yet from one day to the next there's restrictions being placed on freedom to assemble, freedom to travel, private businesses are being told if and how they can continue operations, etc.

Not arguing the merit or necessity of such actions, but the complete lack of discussion around the legal basis for it makes my 'Murica! nerve do a twitch.
 
From the Glenwood Springs Colorado Police FB (so much for my plans for tomorrow):

Glenwood Springs Police Dept
3 hrs ·
Due to Covid-19, GSPD would like you to reschedule any & all criminal activities until further notice. Much like you we are unaware how long this hiatus will last, but appreciate your assistance in slowing down, or stopping the spread of this illness. Together we can make a difference.
 
Funny post locally (though this is actually real not staged for humor), this is a picture of yesterday's Public Works staff meeting in my town:

87268
 
Wanderlust073 said:
Still trying to understand where they are sourcing the authority to do some of this stuff. Haven't seen any declaration of martial law, yet from one day to the next there's restrictions being placed on freedom to assemble, freedom to travel, private businesses are being told if and how they can continue operations, etc.

Not arguing the merit or necessity of such actions, but the complete lack of discussion around the legal basis for it makes my 'Murica! nerve do a twitch.
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My guess would be that it comes from the broad and kind of nebulous "police power" granted to the individual states via the Constitution.
 
The Southeast Utah Health Department has issued a Public Health Order that places strict limitations on food establishments, closes movie theaters and other public places, and orders overnight lodging establishments to only accept new reservations for rooms for "essential visitors" effective at 10 p.m. tonight. The full order will be posted on the City of Moab's website, www.moabtimes.com, on our "Coronavirus Updates" page, https://moabcity.org/551/COVID-19-Information-and-Updates

Here's part of the section dealing with lodging:
Overnight Lodging. Effective at 10 pm (MST) on March 17, 2020, all overnight and short-term lodging facilities (including but not limited to hotels, motels, condos, townhomes, guest homes, RV parks, and all camping on public or private lands) within Carbon, Emery, and Grand Counties may only check-in, rent, or lease to Essential Visitors and Primary Residents. Essential Visitors and Primary Residents may utilize public lands for primitive camping purposes. No camp shall be located within 200 yards of another camp and no camp shall consist of more than IO people. An Essential Visitor is any individual renting lodging or camping for an amount of time less than 30 days for the purposes of work within Carbon, Emery, and Grand Counties, or for an employer within the boundaries of Carbon, Emery, and Grand Counties, and their spouse and dependents. Primary Residents are any individuals renting lodging for periods of 30 days or greater or whose primary address is within one of the counties.
 
Wanderlust073 said:
Still trying to understand where they are sourcing the authority to do some of this stuff. Haven't seen any declaration of martial law, yet from one day to the next there's restrictions being placed on freedom to assemble, freedom to travel, private businesses are being told if and how they can continue operations, etc.

Not arguing the merit or necessity of such actions, but the complete lack of discussion around the legal basis for it makes my 'Murica! nerve do a twitch.
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From the Atlantic:

But under the U.S. Constitution, the authority to make and enforce laws relating to public health and safety falls squarely within the powers of the states under the Tenth Amendment. That is true regardless of whether the particular health and safety issue is also faced by other states—after all, every state experiences illness and crime. Although the federal government has assumed increasing responsibility for public health in the past few decades, characterizing domestic disease-mitigation efforts as an area in which the federal government “exercises exclusive or preeminent responsibility and authority” is plainly wrong.

Also this might be helpful:

State Action on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

NCSL's database that brings you up-to-date, real-time information about bills related to and responding to COVID-19 that have been introduced.
www.ncsl.org
 
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gnwatts said:

State Action on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

NCSL's database that brings you up-to-date, real-time information about bills related to and responding to COVID-19 that have been introduced.
www.ncsl.org
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That's very interesting. While the 10th amendment gives the states the right to pass relevant laws, the follow-up link shows that the only action our legislature took was getting permission to pack it up and head home without completing the session. Everything else that Polis and local mayors have been up to is not coming from new laws.

There must be some sort of emergency powers rule, or else they just figure people are so freaked out about things they will let it slide.
 
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IntrepidXJ said:
Essential Visitors and Primary Residents may utilize public lands for primitive camping purposes. No camp shall be located within 200 yards of another camp and no camp shall consist of more than IO people.
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This is crazy. It may end up affecting a geocaching/camping event I have planned for next month, as well as the BCP meetup, if the order gets extended beyond the initial 30 days (which ends April 16).
 
Udink said:
This is crazy. It may end up affecting a geocaching/camping event I have planned for next month, as well as the BCP meetup, if the order gets extended beyond the initial 30 days (which ends April 16).
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Do they really have that authority over federal public lands?
 
Wanderlust073 said:
Still trying to understand where they are sourcing the authority to do some of this stuff.

Not arguing the merit or necessity of such actions, but the complete lack of discussion around the legal basis for it makes my 'Murica! nerve do a twitch.
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Great question @Wanderlust073 .... Uncharted waters. The ramifications are brutal either way and it will be felt for a long time. There's also a generational war brewing over this. A friend of ours has a younger sister in Italy and her attitude changed once several close friends and family members died. In Italy many ignored the initial advise of social distancing and it's a dire situation now.

Rick just forwarded me this wrt your question. That could lead to legal challenges.
spectrumlocalnews.com

What New York's New Coronavirus Law Does

The bill was signed into law early Tuesday morning.
spectrumlocalnews.com spectrumlocalnews.com

WSJ article about the same- need subscription
www.wsj.com

New Law Expands Cuomo’s Power During Coronavirus Outbreak

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law Tuesday that expands his emergency management powers, a move that drew bipartisan criticism but that the Democratic governor said is justified by the current coronavirus outbreak.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com
 
IntrepidXJ said:
Do they really have that authority over federal public lands?
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From my reading of the laws (26A-1-114 and 26A-1-108), they do.

26A-1-108 (1)
A local health department has jurisdiction in all unincorporated and incorporated areas of the county or counties in which it is established and shall enforce state health laws, Department of Health, Department of Environmental Quality, and local health department rules, regulations, and standards within those areas.
 
Titans said:
Great question @Wanderlust073 .... Uncharted waters. The ramifications are brutal either way and it will be felt for a long time. There's also a generational war brewing over this. A friend of ours has a younger sister in Italy and her attitude changed once several close friends and family members died. In Italy many ignored the initial advise of social distancing and it's a dire situation now.

Rick just forwarded me this wrt your question. That could lead to legal challenges.
spectrumlocalnews.com

What New York's New Coronavirus Law Does

The bill was signed into law early Tuesday morning.
spectrumlocalnews.com spectrumlocalnews.com

WSJ article about the same- need subscription
www.wsj.com

New Law Expands Cuomo’s Power During Coronavirus Outbreak

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law Tuesday that expands his emergency management powers, a move that drew bipartisan criticism but that the Democratic governor said is justified by the current coronavirus outbreak.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com
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Good stuff. I'm a WSJ sub, though the level of toxicity in the comment section there has reached ungodly proportions as of late.

We need more data around this, and quickly. While every dead person is a heartbreaking experience for their loved ones, someone needs to start making decisions based on faceless and accurate numbers.

Interesting analysis here: https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17...e-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/
 
Wanderlust073 said:
We need more data around this, and quickly. While every dead person is a heartbreaking experience for their loved ones, someone needs to start making decisions based on faceless and
Interesting analysis here: https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17...e-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/
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this is exactly why the absolute bungling of testing is such a massive problem. We have S Korea as probably the best model of how to successfully manage this and pretty much the first pillar of what they did was testing on a massive scale in order to track and isolate outbreaks. Just yesterday I heard of someone who works in a hospital (in CO), has symptoms and may have infected patients and other hospital staff and initially was denied a test because she hadn’t had contact with a known case or someone from certain countries. She eventually was able to get it but that’s insanity at this point.

Again, it almost doesn’t matter how “deadly” it is and I agree the mortality rate is likely lower that some of the figures. What matters is finite amount of services at any given time and we DO know this is very contagious with other factors that make it spread readily (lots of people with little or no symptoms, long incubation).

anyway, as this plays out I really hope we can learn some big lessons. We’ve known something like this was coming and we’ve at least botched the early part of this round but still plenty of opportunity to learn and prepare for next time.
 
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