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  2023-04-15

  Las Vegas Wedding April 2023

  The weekend of April 15, 2023, I flew to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend the wedding of one of my best friends from college, Anthony Dramisino and his soon to be wife, Amy Menegay. I realized I was attending my first post-Covid wedding after the government lifted CDC recommendations and restrictions. I flew United Airlines in economy that Friday afternoon and touched down around eight in the evening due to the time zone difference from Washington DC. The airline did not force us to wear masks but recommended we do so due to confinement in a small space with a lot of people. Other than the presence of a lot more hand sanitizer stations around the airport, Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas bustled with the activity of people enjoying Las Vegas to its fullest. The first thing I saw when I deplaned was a group of slot machines. I ubered to the hotel, the Flamingo Resort, a Las Vegas icon since the mob sponsored its initial construction in the 1940s. Renovated in the 1990s, it stood as one of the oldest still running hotels in the city and this is where the wedding party reserved a venue for the ceremony. Overall, one could not tell there was ever a pandemic by how the hotels and casinos functioned. People strolled in and out of the building at all hours and the Strip pulsed with noise, lights, and activity. I met up with the wedding party and we stayed up till 3 in the morning on the casino floor socializing unimpeded. The next day, I got lunch with Anthony and some of the wedding party. We went to a Yard House restaurant on the Strip. Like many restaurants, it converted to a QR code menu or optional touch pad ordering system. The server still took our drink order and brought out the food. I had a steak frite bowl over quinoa to steel myself for the wedding day. The ceremony took place in a private outdoor garden grotto that somehow blocked out the noise from the surrounding resort. The moment stood out as strange but beautiful as an Elvis impersonator married my two good friends to each other. Afterwards, the reception dinner lasted well into the night. The balcony at the Caesar's Palace stood isolated from everyone, but overlooked the Vegas Strip glowering in its nightly desert beauty. The venue let us stick around well past the end of the reservation. I went back to my hotel room at midnight to pack for my six am flight back to Washington DC. I took a picture of the new massive globe telescreen built during the pandemic. It danced in a complex light show at night, but apparently it can play full videos as well. I would say my first major post COVID trip was a rousing success and an excellent first time experience in Las Vegas. I would definitely go back again.
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  2022-06-11

  US will end Covid-19 testing requirement for air travelers entering the country

  This is a news story from CNN by Kaitlan Collins. The CDC is expected to lift the requirement for air travelers to test negative for COVID before entering the US. The travel industry has been lobbying the CDC for months regarding this issue after it was no longer determined that the restrictions are no longer "based on the science and data." However, just because it is getting lifted now, the CDC does have the power to reinstate this restriction if a new variant develops and causes concern.
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  2022-04-19

  TSA will not enforce Covid mask mandate on planes, public transit after court ruling, White House says

  This is a news story from CNBC by Spencer Kimball. It says that the TSA will not enforce the COVID mask mandate on planes after a court ruling by a federal judge in Florida. The CDC, however, still recommends people wear masks while using public transit. The US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle said that the CDC failed to provide adequate reasons for the mandate. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says that the White House will appeal this ruling, with the Justice Department determining if ti will appeal. Airlines themselves are fairly divided on the issue. The Association of Flight Attendants, the nation's largest union of cabin crew, has offered a neutral stance on the mask mandate since it is a divisive issue within the union. Meanwhile, other airlines have asked the Biden administration to drop the mask mandate and other restrictions on citizens. Currently, the CDC says that hospitalizations have plummeted by 90% since the peak of Omnicron in January, and agencies are using this type of data to argue for why mandates should be lifted.
• 2020-10-29

  Airlines Conduct Tests to Prove that COVID-19 Spread is not High in Airplanes

  United Airlines, Boeing and the Defense Department conducted tests to gauge the risk of getting infected with the coronavirus on a plane. They used a mannequin that would use a spray to stimulate a cough. They concluded that the spread of infection is not high. However, the test failed to test many other factors, such as the patient turning their head to the side to cough, coughing while walking around the cabin, and other common locomotions of airplane passengers. Thus, the test was inconclusive, and seems like a desperate effort for the airline companies to get their customers back.