# So... How many people is too many? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [July 2, 2020, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114 "2020-07-02T23:18:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114/21 "2020-07-07T16:53:26Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Are you serious with the part I bolded? It strikes me as incredibly myopic. Republicans are in charge and they are making the decision of dollars \> people. That’s all there is to that. It reflects poorly on Republicans and makes no mention of Democrats? Tough crap; maybe don’t be the problem. Dollars \> people… can you quantify that? Can you quantify how much more Republicans are valuing dollars than Democrats, who are also managing reopenings, etc.? When a political actor reopens anything these days, are they valuing dollars over human lives? Specify! Quantify! That’s my point. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114/22 "2020-07-07T16:53:38Z")
Well, when we shut down the first time, it was because they were throwing out wild numbers like 2.5 million dead in the U.S. One might argue it’s because of that shutdown that we are not doing even worse, but I do wonder if we had had a crystal ball if we would have shut down as hard as we did. I mean, the numbers are bad, but not “4x the Spanish flu” bad (and the death demographic is much much different). ---
**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:** [July 7, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114/23 "2020-07-07T18:22:14Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > > > Are you serious with the part I bolded? It strikes me as incredibly myopic. Republicans are in charge and they are making the decision of dollars \> people. That’s all there is to that. It reflects poorly on Republicans and makes no mention of Democrats? Tough crap; maybe don’t be the problem. > > Dollars \> people… can you quantify that? Can you quantify how much more Republicans are valuing dollars than Democrats, who are also managing reopenings, etc.? > > When a political actor reopens anything these days, are they valuing dollars over human lives? > > Specify! Quantify! That’s my point. Oh… “both sides so it!” 🙄 Okay. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114/24 "2020-07-07T20:40:35Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > One might argue it’s because of that shutdown that we are not doing even worse, but I do wonder if we had had a crystal ball if we would have shut down as hard as we did. “Expert engineers have told us if you don’t make urgent repairs to the dam, it will fail, and thousands of people downstream will die!” \ “Look what you’ve done! You told us that thousands would die and it was only 10! You have wasted our money!” ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114/25 "2020-07-07T21:37:53Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Oh… “both sides so it!” > > 🙄 > > Okay. When it comes to providing cost-benefit arguments, both sides _fail_ to do it. Trump has been a multidimensional disaster in this crisis, but I think one must assess state and local leadership, whether Republican or Democrat, on a case by case basis. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114/26 "2020-07-07T22:42:58Z")
> [@RealityCheck71](#): > > Banning flights and requiring 2 week quarantines for travelers effectively shut most of them down. That’s a couple bad examples to use. > > Otoh, my mechanic stayed open - busiest time he ever had. One of my clients does HVAC for homes - 50% over the same quarter last year. That’s international flights, which are a minority of flights. The airlines saying they will respect social distancing in booking unless too many people want to get on aren’t helping. Yes, mechanics stayed open. Good example of something that could be done with social distancing. So what? ---
**Author:** ![RealityCheck71](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitycheck71/32/3493_2.png) [@RealityCheck71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityCheck71)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114/27 "2020-07-08T04:09:38Z")
Well, shutting down all large attendance venues and international flights seems like a killer blow to the hotel and airline business to me but I guess we can disagree. My only thinking is that we can’t be sure exactly how much people would have gone out in a “let 'er rip” or mid ground scenario. What’s Trump rock bottom core support numbers? A decent number of chain restaurant patrons? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114/28 "2020-07-08T07:35:30Z")
Tourism within America is not banned - it just isn’t happening out of fear and because a lot of destinations are shut down. It’s true that many large events are shut down, but I’m involved in running a conference and even if we could hold it (it’s in November, so it is kind of likely) we wouldn’t expect many people to show up. So it is going online, and the hotel isn’t getting our money this year. Right now people are going let it rip - thus the spike. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-many-people-is-too-many/914114.md?page=1)