[ExI] mit covid study

[Henry Rivera]

Re. % compliance...

I’m in admittedly the most liberal city, Northampton, in probably the most liberal state. My community is in a bubble that masks the rest of reality pretty well. This is called the ‘Five College Area’, with high concentrations of students and liberal arts college professors. We have to remind ourselves of this bubble before we send our children into the real world lest they be shocked at the intolerance and bigotry out there. I’m only half-joking. Our superintendent of schools 4 years ago sent a letter home to parents when our former President won the election announcing there would be extra counselors available to students at school after learning students were expressing feelings “that they were in need of support or concerned about friends” as a result of the outcome of the election. 

But even outside Northampton, in the greater Springfield metropolitan area, public wearing of masks is easily 99-100%. The businesses, public areas like parks, and public transportation all have signs, “Masks required” or “No mask, no service.” And they mean it. The masking mandate is by the governor’s Executive Order which functions much the same as federal Executive Orders within the Commonwealth. There is a fine for non-compliance but I haven’t heard of anyone being fined. I know someone local who is antimask, and he keeps me appraised of the ongoing “discrimination” against him by grocery stores, the barber, buses, and everywhere else you can imagine. They call the cops on him, and the cops shoo him away under threat of arrest for trespassing and maybe disorderly conduct if he doesn’t calm down. Many business have masks at their entrances next to hand sanitizer in case anyone forgot a mask. I’ve really only seen homeless people not in masks outside. People remove them if no one is around but then put them back on if someone is approaching. People exercise in them etc. 

So that’s how we’re living in Western Mass. I’d venture to guess it’s the same in Boston and Central Mass. 

> On Apr 26, 2021, at 5:01 PM, spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Henry Rivera <hrivera at alumni.virginia.edu> 
> Subject: Re: [ExI] mit covid study
> 
> 
>>> On Apr 26, 2021, at 1:45 PM, spike jones via extropy-chat
>> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>> ... spend as much time outdoors as possible,
> 
>> ...I do think there is value in this. And I have seen public health
> officials advocate for this lately. For example, it was just announced today
> here in MA, one of the states still mandating face coverings outdoors, that
> high school graduations will happen this year in the traditional form but
> all outdoors. The CDC is expected to announce new mask guidance tomorrow
> btw...
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for that Henry.
> 
> That outdoor mask mandate business slays me.  Estimate pls what percentage
> of proles complied with that?  I wasn't aware until a few days ago that
> California had an outdoor mask mandate.  I never wore one, never had anyone
> comment at the time.
> 
> Anyone with any common sense realized from the start that outdoor masks are
> pointless.  I saw plenty of people driving alone in a car with a mask.  That
> is just silly and possibly dangerous, if the mask traps too much exhaled
> CO2.  I saw plenty of people exercising alone outdoors with a mask.  After a
> while I began to suspect it was a symbol of alliance rather than an actual
> device for stopping contagion.
> 
> spike 
> 
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