LAS VEGAS – The pandemic is here, but you wouldn't know it.

Elmo rides the escalator. Elvis circles vacationers with his scooter. Yard glasses overflow with bright, frozen drinks. Perched on a restaurant balcony, the hair-of-the-dog crowd watches it all unfold, hiding behind designer shades.

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas?

Not among the tourists partying through the apocalypse.

But the powers that be here are taking no chances.

Buffets are closing, nightclubs and day clubs are shuttering, conventions are cancelling and putting people out of jobs and resorts are using thermal cameras to screen guests for fevers – a symptom of the coronavirus causing grocery store calamity and self-imposed isolation across the globe.

The Nevada governor Thursday declared the spread of COVID-19 a state emergency. President Donald Trump Friday declared it a national one.

Yet thousands of people are walking up and down the Las Vegas Strip.

They pick through Sin City t-shirts at Planet Hollywood. They pack the buffet at Bally's, one of the few left open. They stand elbow-to-elbow at crosswalks.

They lean over the edge at the Fountains of Bellagio and wait for the music to begin.

Who are the people partying through the pandemic?

Sitting near the food court in Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile Shops is 41-year-old Burt Harshman, a hulking construction worker from Kansas.

He's been in town since Tuesday for CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020 – one of the conventions that went on as planned despite coronavirus concerns.

"I think it's stupid," Harshman said of coronavirus fallout. "All of it."

To his left is another construction guy named Mitch Evans, a 31-year-old worker also in town for the convention.

"You know how much money Las Vegas is losing because people are freaking out?" Evans asked.

"The whole country's losing money," Harshman said. "If we're not tough enough to deal with a bug, society has gotten to be a bunch of pansies."

'I don't understand the toilet paper thing'

Tina Flores and Paul Trombley have been dating about a year.

Over the holidays, the Michigan couple booked a hotel room at Bally's for their first big trip together. They had no clue it would be love in the time of COVID-19.

Trombley works for General Motors. Flores is a registered nurse. She eased the worry of traveling through the spread.

Flores has treated patients with multiple infections at the same time. While COVID-19 is a serious condition, washing hands is one of the best ways to protect against it, she said.

"We've see a handful of people with masks," Flores said. "We carry bleach wipes."

Walking through a nearby shopping mall, a vendor selling eye shadow touched Flores' face as she passed.

It was a lesson learned: In Las Vegas, don't get too close to people selling things.

The couple stopped at the Bally's buffet to eat. The resort had culinary staff serve guests to put distance between tourists and the food.

"It's a lot of media hype," Trombley said.

"I don't understand the toilet paper thing," Flores said.

"Yeah," Trombley said, "it's not a diarrhea thing."