Partygoers have been packing Arizona bars. Now the state is a coronavirus hot spot

[Mike 03]

Los Angeles Times
By KATE LINTHICUM STAFF WRITER
JUNE 15, 2020 3:26 PM UPDATED 5:12 PM

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — On Friday night, like nearly every other weekend for the past month, the bars and nightclubs in downtown Scottsdale were packed.
Dance floors were jammed. Lines to get in stretched for blocks. And almost nobody wore masks or gloves.

When Gov. Doug Ducey lifted Arizona’s stay-at-home order May 15, giving the green light for much of the state’s economy to restart, he said residents had the right and responsibility to gauge the risks posed by the novel coronavirus and to act accordingly.

“What an Arizonan decides to do is up to them,” he said.

Now, as confirmed cases of COVID-19 soar here, making Arizona a national hot spot for new infections, it’s becoming clear that many residents chose to go back to life as normal as if nothing had changed.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the state’s thriving bar and nightclub scene.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-15/partygoers-have-been-packing-arizona-bars-and-nightclubs-now-the-state-is-a-coronavirus-hot-spot

Didja hear that guys and gals? It's up to us! That's some great Republican leadership, the kind we've been led to expect.

[customerserviceguy]

1. But

it's a dry hot spot.

[marybourg]

3. lol

[soothsayer]

2. Why is it always bars?

So much cheaper to drink at home anyway.

First thing those Wisconsin folks did was rush to a bar, too, if you’ll recall.

Story in Florida today talks about 16 or 18 friends who caught it at a bar celebrating reopening.

Even NYC is having problems with people congregating outside restaurants, drinking.

[customerserviceguy]

6. It is cheaper to drink at home

and don't I know it after three months, but it is desirable to be able to converse with other bar patrons while buying somewhat more expensive beer, and that's what the bar is really selling. I would imagine that the combination of long-needed human contact and lessened caution from drinking is what makes people more susceptible to getting C-19 in this way.

After a couple of beers, you tend to want to forget that this whole thing ever happened.

[Cirque du So-What]

4. I read a ranking of risky activities in the time of COVID-19

At the apex of risky activities: going to bars.

[soothsayer]

5. Prolly cuz you also get careless as you drink

Same reason the army told soldiers not to drink alcohol while taking penicillin for VD.

The alcohol didn’t (doesn’t) hurt the penicillin, but the alcohol made the STD-positive soldiers want to spread it.

Also: inside, not distancing, etc. (for Covid)

[Cirque du So-What]

7. Also - loud talking / yelling

Requires more forceful expulsions of air, spreading droplets.

[soothsayer]

8. Yes! A perfect storm

[AZ8theist]

9. I witnessed some restaurants that were packed BEFORE the order was lifted..

Also, at local QuickTrips (gas and convenience stores) NOBODY is wearing masks. I just shot off a letter to that company that because of the non-wearing of masks, I will no longer stop at any of their stores again. Ever.

[rurallib]

10. "What an Arizonan decides to do is up to them," he said.

Well if they were doing ONLY to themselves that would be OK. But when you're spreading disease you are not doing it only to yourself.

They are infecting other citizens some of whom will die. They are infecting the elderly and the children and medical personnel. People who get themselves infected through reckless acts should be charged with a crime.

There will be people they infect who will have problems for the rest of their lives.

Bastards.

[Ptah]

11. +1

[DesertRat]

12. I have a relative in Pinetop-Lakeside

who said that every restaurant/bar up there is packed, no masks in sight.