# I'm pitting spring breakers **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 20, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858 "2020-03-20T02:12:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/21 "2020-03-20T20:25:55Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > The worst possible things anyone could do now FOR SOCIETY is to fly to another state or country (just BEING IN AN AIRPORT for a few hours is bad enough), then hang out for a week in close contact with a large group of people from all over the US, then return to their hometowns. [**Woman who flew from U.S. to China for coronavirus test faces criminal charges**](https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-18/woman-who-flew-from-u-s-to-china-for-coronavirus-test-faces-criminal-charges) A woman who flew last week from Massachusetts to Los Angeles — then to Beijing, where she tested positive for the new coronavirus — is under investigation on allegations of concealing her symptoms and putting fellow travelers at risk of infection. The woman took fever-reducing medication before boarding a plane and lied to flight attendants, according to Beijing’s disease control center and an Air China representative, who held a news conference on Monday. The woman, who was hospitalized and is receiving treatment, is under investigation for the crime of “impeding prevention of infectious diseases.” According to Chinese law, she could face up to three years of imprisonment or detention with possible forced labor, or up to seven years of prison if there are “serious consequences.” [/quote] _More at the link._ Up to seven years in prison in China. Good choice, lady! ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/22 "2020-03-20T20:48:10Z")
_I mucked up my post above. Here is the correct post._ > [@JKellyMap](#): > > The worst possible things anyone could do now FOR SOCIETY is to fly to another state or country (just BEING IN AN AIRPORT for a few hours is bad enough), then hang out for a week in close contact with a large group of people from all over the US, then return to their hometowns. > [@Los Angeles Times](#): > > [**Woman who flew from U.S. to China for coronavirus test faces criminal charges**](https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-18/woman-who-flew-from-u-s-to-china-for-coronavirus-test-faces-criminal-charges) > > A woman who flew last week from Massachusetts to Los Angeles — then to Beijing, where she tested positive for the new coronavirus — is under investigation on allegations of concealing her symptoms and putting fellow travelers at risk of infection. > The woman took fever-reducing medication before boarding a plane and lied to flight attendants, according to Beijing’s disease control center and an Air China representative, who held a news conference on Monday. > > The woman, who was hospitalized and is receiving treatment, is under investigation for the crime of “impeding prevention of infectious diseases.” According to Chinese law, she could face up to three years of imprisonment or detention with possible forced labor, or up to seven years of prison if there are “serious consequences.” _More at the link._ Up to seven years in prison in China. Good choice, lady! ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/23 "2020-03-20T22:08:53Z")
You can say that again Monty. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/24 "2020-03-20T22:20:23Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [This](http://www.declanfinn.com/2020/03/i-have-returned-from-italy-part-1-oh.html) is the tale of a right-wing fuckwit who decided not to cancel his Italian vacation. There’s a photo of them at the GoFundMe to pay their fine. Look like a fine pair of dopes. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/25 "2020-03-20T23:18:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The people we’re talking about here are the other ones. The ones who don’t listen to reason. These people need to have somebody shout at them and call them stupid. [The essence of how wisdom is handed down.](https://www.gocomics.com/wumo/2014/11/29) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/26 "2020-03-20T23:41:37Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [This](http://www.declanfinn.com/2020/03/i-have-returned-from-italy-part-1-oh.html) is the tale of a right-wing fuckwit who decided not to cancel his Italian vacation. :eek: > [@Dean Vernon Wormer](#): > > Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son. Adding in “belligerent” and “self-entitled” won’t help things either, Mr. Finn. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/27 "2020-03-21T00:33:11Z")
The beaches should have been CLOSED. Anyone showing up for spring break revelry should have been politely removed and sent home. Maybe with handcuffs. This article has generated intense outrage, but the fact is, these kids are simply the interviewed few of the enormous mass of oblivious, deliberately-ignorant Americans of all ages who are going to damn us to hell. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/28 "2020-03-21T00:48:15Z")
I have a 59-year-old coworker who was planning on laying out on the beach this week. She flew out to Florida last Thursday thinking everyone was stupid for worrying about this “flu.” I texted her earlier this week, curious how she was making out. She told me she was sad because Hollywood Beach (where her hotel was) was closed. So no sunbathing for her. She’s my friend, but I’m glad that her vacation was ruined. Serves her right for being so silly. Maybe next time she’ll bother watching the news and listening to people instead of living in a bubble. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/29 "2020-03-21T00:51:04Z")
Why would she watch the fake news? This is totally under control and the US has been perfect in how it contained the virus so quickly. I mean, that’s what I heard the POTUS say. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/30 "2020-03-21T00:58:00Z")
Young people are stupid and do stupid things. News at 11! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/31 "2020-03-21T04:22:32Z")
> [@MortSahlFan](#): > > I just wanna get drunk and fuck I plucked this statement out of context. Lots of unprotected, often anonymous sex going on too. What could go wrong with that? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/32 "2020-03-21T04:51:22Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Young people are stupid and do stupid things. News at 11! How young do you think the governors and mayors are? Yes, young people do stupid things. That is no reason, especially now, for those in authority to enable such stupidity. And it’s idiots like that being able to do the stupid things they’re doing, along with idiots like the woman in my link above, who are keeping this damn thing going, at least in part. And, yes, I take that personally because, thanks to this pandemic, my wife are stuck in different countries. So cram your trite “truisms” where the sun doesn’t shine. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/33 "2020-03-21T07:34:56Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > This article has generated intense outrage, but the fact is, these kids are simply the interviewed few of the enormous mass of oblivious, deliberately-ignorant Americans of all ages who are going to damn us to hell. No, I reject this “everyone is doing it” argument. The enormous mass of Americans of all ages are at worst following their normal routine and exposing themselves and the people in their regular social circles. Most people are not traveling from all over the country to hang out in a large crowd of people all week and then fly back to their hometowns. It’s like these spring breakers set out to spread the disease as widely as possible. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/34 "2020-03-21T10:06:07Z")
If you consider “following the routine” to be acceptable, then you have to acknowledge that traveling for Spring Break is part of the routine for a lot of students. I don’t accept either one. They’ve been told. Their colleges and high schools shut down. Yes, other methods should have been there to stop them, like closing the places where spring breakers go or restricting travel to those locations to rescue workers and those going home to family, but that doesn’t let the students off the hook for their stupidity. I personally believe they deserve a punishment beyond simply not being able to go wherever they wanted to go. Granted, I understand that many were “punished” by having to pay a large amount of money to return back home, but I’m not for the airlines being able to profit off their stupidity, either. I don’t care if it was “routine” for them. Everyone had to give up their routines. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/35 "2020-03-21T10:11:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There have been ample polite advisories telling people they shouldn’t gather in unnecessary crowds. Reasonable people, including young college students, listened and took heed. > > The people we’re talking about here are the other ones. The ones who don’t listen to reason. These people need to have somebody shout at them and call them stupid. The point (yes, that was that woosh sound overhead), was that deliberately distorting the facts on the ground is a no-no, tempting as it may be to exaggerate things for effect. Ever heard of Peter and the Wolf? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/36 "2020-03-21T11:49:11Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [This](http://www.declanfinn.com/2020/03/i-have-returned-from-italy-part-1-oh.html) is the tale of a right-wing fuckwit who decided not to cancel his Italian vacation. Jeez, talk about your Ugly American. Of course, like any self-reliant RWinger, he ends by begging for money. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/37 "2020-03-21T12:08:13Z")
I live in a small city with three colleges. Everyone here is making huge sacrifices. I’m lucky that my sacrifices don’t involve huge material loss or huge lost-forever opportunities (as it does for many here), but it’s very real even for me — my child was enjoying what will forever be the best classroom year of his life, and now it’s almost certain that 25% of it will never happen. The good news is that we have only 5 confirmed cases now (in three households)…AND quite a few people are actually getting tested (we are lucky to bask in the penumbra of the famous Mayo Clinic). Our actual infection rate is currently quite low. Our ACTUAL infection rate. Not many undetected carriers, almost surely. In other words, all this sacrifice has a really good chance to actually WORK here. People all over the city really are taking the maximum precautions — staying in their homes, and serious social distancing. In three or four weeks, we could be almost certain to be RID of this thing. EXCEPT for just one possible vector to spoil the whole thing: PEOPLE COMING IN FROM ELSEWHERE. Unfortunately, given the timing and our college population, that mainly means one thing: SPRING BREAKERS. Even just a few infected returning students ruins all the sacrifices the thousands in this city are making right now. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/38 "2020-03-21T12:16:33Z")
ETA: At least our dorms are closed. Many of our spring breakers will return to their rented rooms here in the city — those are the ones I was referring to in my post. Some will go to their parents’ homes, typically in some town or city elsewhere in the state. That population won’t affect us here in our city…but they might be even worse for society overall, or not — not sure of the epidemiology of that. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/39 "2020-03-21T13:35:49Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [This](http://www.declanfinn.com/2020/03/i-have-returned-from-italy-part-1-oh.html) is the tale of a right-wing fuckwit who decided not to cancel his Italian vacation. What a total tool. And, for a “professional writer”, pretty bad at writing. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858/40 "2020-03-21T15:33:01Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > What a total tool. And, for a “professional writer”, pretty bad at writing. He is a [Sad Puppy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Puppies). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-pitting-spring-breakers/849858.md?page=3)