Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

[Unagi]

And unless there is a massive death toll across rural areas (which I’m guessing we see in hot spots, but not widespread), this strategy will most likely work.

Coronavirus cases are way up over the past few weeks in rural / red areas. I think by definition the absolute numbers in those areas will be lower than in the urban centers, but I think there will be a significant death toll in rural areas on a per capita basis at least.

What I'm less sure of is how this will all be perceived in rural / red areas, which is a bit more complicated.

Right.
I’m trying not to be too surprised when the deplorable display that they indeed don’t care.

[Scraper]

And unless there is a massive death toll across rural areas (which I’m guessing we see in hot spots, but not widespread), this strategy will most likely work.

Coronavirus cases are way up over the past few weeks in rural / red areas. I think by definition the absolute numbers in those areas will be lower than in the urban centers, but I think there will be a significant death toll in rural areas on a per capita basis at least.

What I'm less sure of is how this will all be perceived in rural / red areas, which is a bit more complicated.

Right.
I’m trying not to be too surprised when the deplorable display that they indeed don’t care.

The virus will hit rural areas. It will just take longer and the infection rate may be a bit lower simply because they have more space and come in contact with less people. But I think that the death rate may be higher in rural areas than the suburbs because hospitals aren't as good and many rural area people will wait until the last minute to seek treatment.

[LawBeefaroni]

Gonna be hard to run an economy on all cylinders when workers called back to the floor are the ones dying.

Trump's new goal is an all-time low unemployment rate. Kill enough workers and we'll be scrambling for people to fill vacancies.

No one will take those jobs because unemployment pays more. And is less likely to kill you.

[malchior]

Gonna be hard to run an economy on all cylinders when workers called back to the floor are the ones dying.

Trump's new goal is an all-time low unemployment rate. Kill enough workers and we'll be scrambling for people to fill vacancies.

No one will take those jobs because unemployment pays more. And is less likely to kill you.

True - if you can file and/or get them to actually send you money which has been an issue for several of my friends similar to this guy in Kentucky.

[LordMortis]

Gonna be hard to run an economy on all cylinders when workers called back to the floor are the ones dying.

Trump's new goal is an all-time low unemployment rate. Kill enough workers and we'll be scrambling for people to fill vacancies.

In the first half his leadership is likely increase the need for jobs by 50,000 while also reducing entitlement claims straining things like Social Security and Medicare by 50,000 claims a month. That's results. That's statistical economic improvement. More than any other presidency. And he had to it in spite of the governors who spoke to every single day.

[Skinypupy]

And unless there is a massive death toll across rural areas (which I’m guessing we see in hot spots, but not widespread), this strategy will most likely work.

Coronavirus cases are way up over the past few weeks in rural / red areas. I think by definition the absolute numbers in those areas will be lower than in the urban centers, but I think there will be a significant death toll in rural areas on a per capita basis at least.

What I'm less sure of is how this will all be perceived in rural / red areas, which is a bit more complicated.

Right.
I’m trying not to be too surprised when the deplorable display that they indeed don’t care.

Living in an extremely red area that has yet to see a significant outbreak, my anecdotal experience is that the deplorables absolutely do not care. Most of my neighbors are of the "economy must open, people dying is an unfortunate side-effect" mindset. My 73-year-old mom was told yesterday by her ultra-conservative niece that since she's older, she's just going to have accept the sacrifice of not going out in public any more because stores can't afford to stay closed. Mrs Skinypupy has come home fuming from work last weekend at the verbal abuse the store staff is getting from customers because they were all wearing masks. Most of them don't know anyone who has it, and even the few that have been affected are already focusing their anger towards China.

I have little doubt that any future deaths will be considered by these folks as completely acceptable casualties for the economy. I mean, they are "warriors", according to Dear Leader, so why shouldn't they be considered expendable?

[wonderpug]

I know New Mexico is more rural in general, but our rural northwestern counties are currently getting hit crazy hard while our urban/suburban counties around Albuquerque and Sante Fe are apparently past the peak:



It’s gotten so bad in the northwestern counties that they’ve put the city of Gallup (population 22k) on a full lockdown, with an evening business curfew and roads into the city roadblocked.

[LordMortis]

I have little doubt that any future deaths will be considered by these folks as completely acceptable casualties for the economy. I mean, they are "warriors", according to Dear Leader, so why shouldn't they be considered expendable?

As long as it's not them. And as long as it's not them, they understand they might be a casualty and are willing to take on that risk. Once they need care that isn't available, it's Obama's fault. I have no idea what their thinking on their deathbed or if they've become debilitated.

At the same time, 6+ weeks in isolation, I'm feeling the anxiety and I've always sympathized with those desperate to make ends meet. I've always had a not so latent fear of what it means to not know how you are going to pay your bills or what it will take to get your next meal. That fear and seeing so many struggle has seen me living my entire life as the ant in envy of the grasshoppers all around me.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Obviously, not all rural areas are the same. I wouldn't expect huge increases in cases in areas with lots of farmland or where people are generally spread out. But rural areas that depend heavily on factories or processing are going to get hit extremely hard, I think. One of my friends is from Marshall, MO and he's been telling me about the ridiculous number of cases in his small town, mainly because much of the population works in food processing plants. Unfortunately, many of the smaller hospitals in that area have gone out of business in the last few years, so access to healthcare is also limited. I imagine similar scenarios will be playing out across the US soon enough.

[LordMortis]

Obviously, not all rural areas are the same. I wouldn't expect huge increases in cases in areas with lots of farmland or where people are generally spread out. But rural areas that depend heavily on factories or processing are going to get hit extremely hard, I think. One of my friends is from Marshall, MO and he's been telling me about the ridiculous number of cases in his small town, mainly because much of the population works in food processing plants. Unfortunately, many of the smaller hospitals in that area have gone out of business in the last few years, so access to healthcare is also limited. I imagine similar scenarios will be playing out across the US soon enough.

I imagine towns where everyone is supported by the ultimate creation of one thing, where one location is the heartbeat for the area are going be FUBAR. nothing... nothing... nothing... nothing... One carrier works at central location... 20 days pass... Entire town laid to waste...

[malchior]

Mrs Skinypupy has come home fuming from work last weekend at the verbal abuse the store staff is getting from customers because they were all wearing masks. Most of them don't know anyone who has it, and even the few that have been affected are already focusing their anger towards China.

Right because they've been focused in that direction by their bubble. Wearing a mask is only a precaution. If you step back you have to ask why should they care if people wear masks as long as the stores are open? They care because they've been told that the controls are overblown and pushed on them out of 'New York' by the libs*.

In reality, opening the economy and taking simple precautions are not incompatible. It is instead a symbol that some people are now using to attack continued 'liberal oppression'. Which is ridiculous as the controls come from their local leaders. And the red states have vastly more power than their votes should grant them. It is another symptoms of the disease at the heart our civic body. The fact that many people won't return to shop or eat out when controls are lifted is irrelevant. That the death toll will rise is acceptable as you said. Those are just the table stakes to take on the libs. Let's be frank here, this is a cold civil war with increasingly violent flare ups. We've seen heavily armed groups occupying public spaces - as long as they have the right skin color and politics. We're slipping out of control here.

Our society has been infected by the self-interest of sociopaths and to put not a fine point on it our nation is sick and twisted. I'm not sure what the breaking point will be but we are approaching it at light speed. What happens if 250K people die this summer so people can go to the beach? What level of death will this fucked up society justify next? It leaves me to wonder when we'll realize it isn't worth saving and needs a massive overhaul.

*Reference to Bret "bedbug" Stephens commentary in the NY Times recently.

[Holman]

Is any other advanced country seeing the backlash against masks and precautions that we're seeing here?

I know the American fringe generates more media coverage than the same lunacy would in Canada or France, but is it even happening to a significant degree elsewhere?

[Smoove_B]

Is any other advanced country seeing the backlash against masks and precautions that we're seeing here?

I know the American fringe generates more media coverage than the same lunacy would in Canada or France, but is it even happening to a significant degree elsewhere?

Not that I'm aware of. It might be a coverage issue (reporting), but resistance is off the charts. If feels like if this same group was around during WW2, they would have been buying as many beer cans as possible and hoarding aluminum to stick it to the libs complaining over fake German threat.

When you have pizzerias in OHIO posting banner signs saying they won't force customers to wear a mask because it's not in the Constitution, it's time to take a serious look at WTF is happening. I'm guessing there are going to be sociologists/historians/anthropologists that are going to create the narrative on how we arrived at this point as a functioning society, but the complete and utter disregard for science (at a higher level) and consideration for others (at a basic level) is mind-boggling.

I've been following the venom that's been aimed at epidemiologists over the last month - people (and a group) that was largely invisible to probably just about everyone prior to March. Now they're being demonized and told they know nothing and want to destroy America. It's absolutely bonkers.

[Kraken]

In a spot of rare good news, MA is turning the corner.

Here are some of the brightening numbers:

- The percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus has been trending down. The seven-day rolling average was 15 percent Tuesday, down from 29 percent as recently as April 17.

- The total number of people with a positive test result has also been trending down, even as testing has increased. The seven-day rolling average on Tuesday was 1,709, down from a peak of 2,249 on April 24.

- The number of patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus is generally shrinking, though along a jagged line, with slight ups and downs, day to day. After reaching a high point of 3,965 on April 21, the figure had ticked down to 3,539 by Sunday, and stood at 3,542 on Monday. That’s a fall of 10.6 percent.
...
- The number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs statewide was 914 on Monday, down 16 percent from a high of 1089 on April 26.

“Generally, across the state, we’re seeing downward trends in the numbers,” said Dr. Kevin Tabb, president and CEO of Beth Israel Lahey Health. “That’s true when we look at the day-over-day trends as well as the three- and seven-day rolling averages.”

The declines are not uniform and some geographic areas and hospitals are still experiencing numbers “at or near the high water mark,” he said.

The slogging progress against the disease so far supports predictions that the way out of the pandemic will be a lot slower than the way in.

“We saw a quick rise, we saw a lengthy plateau, and we're starting to see a slow decrease,” Tabb said.

Now may we have the patience and good sense to stick with it for a few more weeks. I think we will.

[Paingod]

Years back when this came out, I felt that this video perfectly summed up how I felt about the GOP and their policies. What it needs is another two minutes on the end where the guy is feeding his family into a grinder and doing a "Cute Oops" gesture. That seems to be where Trump is taking things.

[ImLawBoy]

Is any other advanced country seeing the backlash against masks and precautions that we're seeing here?

I know the American fringe generates more media coverage than the same lunacy would in Canada or France, but is it even happening to a significant degree elsewhere?

Not that I'm aware of. It might be a coverage issue (reporting), but resistance is off the charts. If feels like if this same group was around during WW2, they would have been buying as many beer cans as possible and hoarding aluminum to stick it to the libs complaining over fake German threat.

There absolutely have been protests against lockdowns outside the US. (Note that the link contains references to COVID-related protests that are not specifically against lockdowns as well - it's a broad view.) There were also pockets of resistance in the US to our involvement in WWII, particularly from German-Americans. (The recent book by Philip Roth and HBO series The Plot Against America shows what might have happened if noted Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh had run on an anti-US involvement in the war and beat FDR.)

[Smoove_B]

Our society has been infected by the self-interest of sociopaths and to put not a fine point on it our nation is sick and twisted. I'm not sure what the breaking point will be but we are approaching it at light speed. What happens if 250K people die this summer so people can go to the beach? What level of death will this fucked up society justify next? It leaves me to wonder when we'll realize it isn't worth saving and needs a massive overhaul.

Ok, yeah, you're getting to the core. What's amazing to me is that starting in March, public health en large was saying we needed to shelter in place to buy time and get ready. "Getting ready" included the logistics of medical preparedness as well as setting up systems as to how we were going to proactively test and trace infections.

Instead, we collectively put everything on pause and the general public (seemingly) believes now the threat is over - hooray we've beaten the virus! Just enacting social distancing plans was not a solution; it was a stopgap measure to buy time to come up with an actual solution that would allow us to do something other than social distancing. And instead, the complete failure (arguably an actual position of actively working against states) of the federal government to support aggressive testing and contact tracing, we're effectively hurling towards a repeat of what we just dodged in the NE starting 8 weeks ago.

So now there are large groups of people saying this was all pointless - nothing happened (which was the goal) and now that it has passed, we need to open up and get back to doing everything we were doing before the "power drunk" public health officials took away our freedoms.

Can't wait to see how the narrative changes as the rural parts of America start to move into a slow boil with cases and deaths increasing.

Every day is worse. Every. Day.

[Smoove_B]

There absolutely have been protests against lockdowns outside the US. (Note that the link contains references to COVID-related protests that are not specifically against lockdowns as well - it's a broad view.) There were also pockets of resistance in the US to our involvement in WWII, particularly from German-Americans. (The recent book by Philip Roth and HBO series The Plot Against America shows what might have happened if noted Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh had run on an anti-US involvement in the war and beat FDR.)

Protests against lockdowns, yes. I guess I was focused only on the use of masks as a common social occurrence now. There seems to be a genuine hatred in some parts of the U.S. over people wearing one. The reporters in AZ yesterday covering Trump's visit were repeatedly harassed over wearing them.

[ImLawBoy]

Yeah, that I don't know. I suspect I'd have to dig into local reporting to find that out. Given the political makeup of Europe I wouldn't be surprised to find that some right-wing politicians and groups are latching onto masks as an issue, but I don't know for sure. I really don't see it in my area, though. As I noted in the Stocking thread, I witnessed 100% compliance (toddler excepted) with mask wearing (even if it wasn't always done well) on my weekly grocery run.

[El Guapo]

There absolutely have been protests against lockdowns outside the US. (Note that the link contains references to COVID-related protests that are not specifically against lockdowns as well - it's a broad view.) There were also pockets of resistance in the US to our involvement in WWII, particularly from German-Americans. (The recent book by Philip Roth and HBO series The Plot Against America shows what might have happened if noted Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh had run on an anti-US involvement in the war and beat FDR.)

Protests against lockdowns, yes. I guess I was focused only on the use of masks as a common social occurrence now. There seems to be a genuine hatred in some parts of the U.S. over people wearing one. The reporters in AZ yesterday covering Trump's visit were repeatedly harassed over wearing them.

I'd be a little wary of making too much of "someone got angry at people wearing masks at a Wal-Mart in Tucson", or stuff like that. It's a big country, and you're always going to have idiots latching onto the rage du jour. And coronavirus rage is going to attract disproportionate media attention at the moment.

I'm not sure how to assess aggregate anti-lockdown anger, though.

[LawBeefaroni]

There should be two mandates.

1. You are required to wear masks.
2. You are prohibited from wearing face covering with camouflage, American flags, Trump slogans or Latin phrases about war.

Everyone wins. Compliant individuals would wear masks. Protestors would wear face coverings with camouflage, American flags, Trump slogans or Latin phrases about war.

[Smoove_B]

I'd be a little wary of making too much of "someone got angry at people wearing masks at a Wal-Mart in Tucson", or stuff like that. It's a big country, and you're always going to have idiots latching onto the rage du jour. And coronavirus rage is going to attract disproportionate media attention at the moment. I'm not sure how to assess aggregate anti-lockdown anger, though.

It is and I'm soaking in the collective anecdotal evidence of what is being portrayed in the media along with my own experiences locally in a rural, (R)-fortress area of NJ (in person and on social media). Unscientifically, it seems that people living in more densely populated areas (i.e. major cities) seem to be into the idea of wearing masks. I would be willing to bet that as you move into lower density areas, there's an opposite trend for not only wearing masks but the attitudes surrounding mask use. And that's not even addressing how certain populations (Latino, African American, etc...) might feel about wearing masks as it relates to how they're perceived.

For whatever reason, this mask idea seems to have really struck a never with the armchair Constitutional scholars, likely because it's a physical manifestation of your overall attitudes over what's happening. In short, wearing a mask means you hate America and freedom. Not wearing a mask is Patriotic. That's my take on it, anyway.

[Isgrimnur]

Why you gotta hate on camouflage?

[ImLawBoy]

Why you gotta hate on camouflage?

Unless you're active military, hunting, or under the age of 12, don't wear camo.

[El Guapo]

Why you gotta hate on camouflage?

Unless you're active military, hunting, or under the age of 12, don't wear camo.

What if you're being chased by The Predator?

[Isgrimnur]

Why you gotta hate on camouflage?

Unless you're active military, hunting, or under the age of 12, don't wear camo.

Bite me.

[ImLawBoy]

Why are you showing me a picture of a disembodied head?

[Skinypupy]

Why you gotta hate on camouflage?

Unless you're active military, hunting, or under the age of 12, don't wear camo.

What if you're being chased by The Predator?

I dunno, smearing myself with mud to go to Home Depot feels a little extreme.

[Holman]

For whatever reason, this mask idea seems to have really struck a never with the armchair Constitutional scholars, likely because it's a physical manifestation of your overall attitudes over what's happening. In short, wearing a mask means you hate America and freedom. Not wearing a mask is Patriotic. That's my take on it, anyway.

Flouting precautions is very practical way of hating Big Government and Educated Elites at the same time. These people were already well-primed for this.

The overlap between mask-haters and climate-deniers is probably >90%, and I'd imagine that Biblical literalists are well-represented too. Suddenly they have a very visible way to wave that flag, and they can dress it up as fighting for freedom.

[LawBeefaroni]

Why you gotta hate on camouflage?

I don't hate on it, I even have some realtree. It's just one of the patterns of choice that was common for facemasks before facemasks were suddenly a symbol of weakness and subservience.

Oh yeah, skullz too. Skullz and skulls.


And maybe Calvin peeing? Into wearers mouth? I dunno.

[malchior]

There absolutely have been protests against lockdowns outside the US. (Note that the link contains references to COVID-related protests that are not specifically against lockdowns as well - it's a broad view.) There were also pockets of resistance in the US to our involvement in WWII, particularly from German-Americans. (The recent book by Philip Roth and HBO series The Plot Against America shows what might have happened if noted Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh had run on an anti-US involvement in the war and beat FDR.)

Protests against lockdowns, yes. I guess I was focused only on the use of masks as a common social occurrence now. There seems to be a genuine hatred in some parts of the U.S. over people wearing one. The reporters in AZ yesterday covering Trump's visit were repeatedly harassed over wearing them.

I'd be a little wary of making too much of "someone got angry at people wearing masks at a Wal-Mart in Tucson", or stuff like that. It's a big country, and you're always going to have idiots latching onto the rage du jour. And coronavirus rage is going to attract disproportionate media attention at the moment.

We'll see but there has been a lot of anti-mask discussions around the lockdown protests. Many of the protestors intentionally didn't wear masks and went as far as to make a point that they were in no real danger. There has been some talk about this in the press as well. The BBC article is interesting because they give some context on some of the anti-authority lawsuits that happened in 1918. The ;tldr is that shutting down businesses faced lawsuits. Still the result of the backlash then was that ordering masks and other public health measure orders were found to be legal. Yet here we are circling the same issue. America has always had that rebellious streak but it really seems that much of this is very amped up and along irrational political fault lines rather than rationale resistance.

But here are some incidents over the last few days just to collect them - A guy was murdered for enforcing mask policy in Michigan. Also in Michigan - they cover the murder but also other incidents around masks being an issue. The town of Stillwater, OK had a mask policy for exactly one day before threats of violence had them rolling it back. GOP state lawmaker refuses to wear mask.

For whatever reason, this mask idea seems to have really struck a never with the armchair Constitutional scholars, likely because it's a physical manifestation of your overall attitudes over what's happening. In short, wearing a mask means you hate America and freedom. Not wearing a mask is Patriotic. That's my take on it, anyway.

This is where my comment comes from. There is a lot of noise out there about this and it really seems like 'masks' like I said are a symbol to many of these people. It signifies when you wear it that you believe the overblown coronavirus threat, etc. There is almost certainly something going on here. My canaries are all talking about masks and you see it on twitter as well. I've had trouble pulling analytics on twitter around...but at one point #nomasks was trending as well.

https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status ... 0270221316

[LordMortis]

But here are some incidents over the last few days just to collect them - A guy was murdered for enforcing mask policy in Michigan. Also in Michigan - they cover the murder but also other incidents around masks being an issue. The town of Stillwater, OK had a mask policy for exactly one day before threats of violence had them rolling it back. GOP state lawmaker refuses to wear mask.

I was going to say, too much rage du jure is happening in my backyard. To my knowledge, the only murderous act of terrorism, using a firearm by a very good people to demonstrate their freedom to be a consumer without a mask was in Flint. But I am reading daily about misdemeanors the governor and police don't even care about turning into felonies where people are weaponizing their bodies. This is happening where someone is dying literally every day within my small city of 1950s tickytack suburban spaced house. (60 deaths now of 691 cases confirmed in my municipality, population 80,000)

[malchior]

Completely off the wall account of one company's Don Quixote quest to procure masks after being awarded a VA contract. The company had no experience in medical procurement and had been working on blockchain technology. There is no way to explain how dysfunctional this administration is. It is bottomless.

The title of the piece? How Profit and Incompetence Delayed N95 Masks While People Died at the VA

Before embarking on a 36-hour tour through an underground of contractors and middlemen trying to make a buck on the nation’s desperate need for masks, entrepreneur Robert Stewart Jr. offered an unusual caveat.

“I’m talking with you against the advice of my attorney,” the man in the shiny gray suit, an American Flag button with the word “VETERAN” pinned to his blazer, said as we boarded a private jet Saturday from the executive wing at Dulles International Airport.

It remains a mystery why the CEO of Federal Government Experts LLC let me observe his frantic effort to find 6 million N95 respirators and the ultimate unraveling of his $34.5 million deal to supply them to the Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, where 20 VA staff have died of COVID-19 while the agency waits for masks.

It’s also unclear why the VA gave Stewart’s fledgling business — which had no experience selling medical equipment, no supply chain expertise and very little credit — an important contract. Or why the VA agreed to pay nearly $5.75 per mask, a 350% markup from the manufacturer’s list price. In the end, after ProPublica asked questions about the deal this week, the VA quickly terminated it and referred the case to its inspector general for investigation.

Stewart maintained he was trying to do a public service and plans to tell investigators how he was taken for a ride by “buccaneers and pirates,” the multiple layers of intermediaries, fixers and lawyers standing between respirator mask producers and front-line workers who are dying without them.

[Skinypupy]

Yesterday: Utah's governor signs a bill shielding businesses from litigation brought by people (including employees) who contract coronavirus on their property.

Today: 68 people infected by two businesses who knowingly didn't follow COVID-19 safety protocols.

So, employers have no obligation to provide any sort of protection for employees AND employees will have no legal recourse if they get sick at work AND they can be fired (which means they can't collect unemployment) if they decide returning to work isn't safe.

This re-opening plan is awesome!

[Smoove_B]

All of America is now the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, apparently.

[El Guapo]

There absolutely have been protests against lockdowns outside the US. (Note that the link contains references to COVID-related protests that are not specifically against lockdowns as well - it's a broad view.) There were also pockets of resistance in the US to our involvement in WWII, particularly from German-Americans. (The recent book by Philip Roth and HBO series The Plot Against America shows what might have happened if noted Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh had run on an anti-US involvement in the war and beat FDR.)

Protests against lockdowns, yes. I guess I was focused only on the use of masks as a common social occurrence now. There seems to be a genuine hatred in some parts of the U.S. over people wearing one. The reporters in AZ yesterday covering Trump's visit were repeatedly harassed over wearing them.

I'd be a little wary of making too much of "someone got angry at people wearing masks at a Wal-Mart in Tucson", or stuff like that. It's a big country, and you're always going to have idiots latching onto the rage du jour. And coronavirus rage is going to attract disproportionate media attention at the moment.

We'll see but there has been a lot of anti-mask discussions around the lockdown protests. Many of the protestors intentionally didn't wear masks and went as far as to make a point that they were in no real danger. There has been some talk about this in the press as well. The BBC article is interesting because they give some context on some of the anti-authority lawsuits that happened in 1918. The ;tldr is that shutting down businesses faced lawsuits. Still the result of the backlash then was that ordering masks and other public health measure orders were found to be legal. Yet here we are circling the same issue. America has always had that rebellious streak but it really seems that much of this is very amped up and along irrational political fault lines rather than rationale resistance.

But here are some incidents over the last few days just to collect them - A guy was murdered for enforcing mask policy in Michigan. Also in Michigan - they cover the murder but also other incidents around masks being an issue. The town of Stillwater, OK had a mask policy for exactly one day before threats of violence had them rolling it back. GOP state lawmaker refuses to wear mask.

For whatever reason, this mask idea seems to have really struck a never with the armchair Constitutional scholars, likely because it's a physical manifestation of your overall attitudes over what's happening. In short, wearing a mask means you hate America and freedom. Not wearing a mask is Patriotic. That's my take on it, anyway.

This is where my comment comes from. There is a lot of noise out there about this and it really seems like 'masks' like I said are a symbol to many of these people. It signifies when you wear it that you believe the overblown coronavirus threat, etc. There is almost certainly something going on here. My canaries are all talking about masks and you see it on twitter as well. I've had trouble pulling analytics on twitter around...but at one point #nomasks was trending as well.

https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status ... 0270221316

It's clearly a thing. The challenge is assessing how much of a thing it is (how widespread it really is), especially when both the Angry People and the media (and Trump / the GOP to some degree) have a joint interest in making anti-mask rage a big deal. Like is it 30% of people pissed off about masks? 3%? 13%?

[Isgrimnur]

Ought to be fun when these lawsuits get to the supreme court in 2025.

[El Guapo]

Yesterday: Utah's governor signs a bill shielding businesses from litigation brought by people (including employees) who contract coronavirus on their property.

Today: 68 people infected by two businesses who knowingly didn't follow COVID-19 safety protocols.

So, employers have no obligation to provide any sort of protection for employees AND employees will have no legal recourse if they get sick at work AND they can be fired (which means they can't collect unemployment) if they decide returning to work isn't safe.

This re-opening plan is awesome!

The "tomorrow" phase will no doubt be voting restrictions to make it harder for the employees to vote in November.

[Skinypupy]

https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status ... 0270221316

The amount of complete ignorance about why people are even wearing masks in that thread is staggering.

[YellowKing]

Basically the country's recovery is being held hostage by a bunch of Karens.