Petition calling on Disneyland to pump the brakes on its reopening gains momentum

Not everyone is ready to hop on Space Mountain or indulge in a Dole Whip.

A Change.org petition calling on Disneyland to reschedule its reopening has more than 33,100 signatures as of Sunday night. Disney announced last week that Disneyland and California Adventure will reopen on July 17, after being closed since March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The petition, launched Thursday night by "We Are Anonymous," points out that COVID-19 cases in California are "rising and have not dropped. Many people have lost loved ones due to this pandemic and by reopening the parks they are endangering cast members and guests to be exposed to COVID-19." Reopening now is "irresponsible and greedy," the petition says, and the parks should stay closed until cases of COVID-19 "drop and health officials state it is safer for everyone, but to still practice social distancing."

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Disney has said it will have strict safety measures in place, including more cleaning and disinfection across the parks, giving employees personal protective equipment, and having guests undergo temperature checks before entering.

"I don't think Disneyland reopening is an absolute catastrophe, but it's all in the execution," Andrew Noymer, a professor of public health at UC Irvine, told the Daily Pilot. Regardless of how many precautions are in place, though, there will still be risks. "Even assuming everyone masks, how do you eat cotton candy or a snow cone through a mask?" Noymer said. "There will be some unmasking, at least partly."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.