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Heard Immunity or Vaccine
The virus becoming a political issue was the worst thing to happen from a public health perspective. Half the country has stopped trying to contain it at all. People either think it isn't serious or see the negatives of trying to control the spread to be worse than the possible outcomes from getting it.
There isn't much Baker or other public officials can do at this point if people won't follow even the basic guidance. Those with the luxury of avoiding others will be safe. Everyone else, good luck.
Is this right?
There are those that think people ignoring "the rules" are the reason numbers are rising.
That doesn't make sense.
In the past two weeks, suddenly thousands of people ripped off their masks and started breathing on each other?
That's impossible.
Math
exponents bro
Could someone explain the
Could someone explain the change to the color coding? It seems like the change was slipped in while we were all following the election. I'm concerned that suddenly most towns are not red but if we were using the same measures as last week that many more towns would be red. But I don't really understand. Could someone point me to articles and discussion on the pros and cons of these changes?
Announced beforehand
It was announced days before that they were changing the color code, and widely explained.
Didn't tell local health departments?
Walter Bird, a spokesman for the City of Worcester, said Friday night the city was not aware of the changes to the state COVID-19 map before the announcement was made.
the pro is improving Bakers image, the con is decreased safety
The pro is that it makes Baker looks better. The con is that it gives an extremely false sense of things getting better instead of the reality that the virus is spreading rapidly in Mass, which leads people to let their guard down and keep things like indoor dining going when its clearly a bad idea.
Its a very Trumpian move, change the PR not the facts. The Globe mentioned it Friday when he announced it (the classic Friday news dump) but didnt call him out on it like they would have had it been Trump.
Some good news
The number of people needing hospital treatment for the flu is down.
When will Baker wake up?
Infections in the state have gone up over 10x not that long ago when we were seeing 150-200 a day, but bumbling Bakers response has been a voluntary curfew and to change the parameters for a city being coded red so the number dropped from 120+ to 16 overnight?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/11/nation/heres-look-new-state-map-h...?
Indoor dining is still ok, even though we have seen a huge rise since that and schools opened? Its still ok for groups of 10 to eat indoors together? Bar seating is still ok? Casino is still open (though they shut the hotel). Baker seems to think if people are spending money, then they wont get coronavirus, its just when they are socializing without spending money that it infects, even though his contact tracers cant trace half the origins of infection, so who knows where people are getting infected? We know the easy ones they are able to trace.
If people really think there is nothing else Baker can do, like Trump supporters felt about his impotence with the virus response, we should get rid of Baker and replace him with someone who is going to take this seriously.
This weekend not great
Not exactly a renewed focus on COVID control with hundreds packed together all over the city. Yeah a lot of masks, but masks not a license to gather like that in celebration.
we'll see
There was no significant rise in cases over the summer with the outdoor protests involving large numbers of mostly masked people.
The rise in cases really seems to be driven by people not wearing masks while indoors around others. Masks are amazing effective and moving outdoor air is pretty good too.
Of course, if these people go back to their friend's homes and have a celebration party without masks, all bets are off.
Hope you are right
That said these pictures don’t make me feel great about it.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/11/07/boston-photos-biden-tr...
Summer protests also 1) had the benefit of being in the summer, which likely helps lower transmission (good break with the weather this weekend at least) and 2) were at a time when the level of virus in the community was multiple times smaller 3) looks like distancing at the protests as lot better than at these celebrations. Sure, better than the maskless indoor suicide rallies, completely agree, but still not something we should be doing during the second wave.
Masks aren’t magic vaccine equivalents. Helpful in reducing risk from things like going to the grocery store, yes, if everyone wears them In these situations does it reduce community Ro, seems very likely. Everyone should mask up. For protection from prolonged exposure in non distanced gatherings, ehhhhh, better than zero but not very good.
It also just bad for what the governor is trying to do, as inadequate as it may be. The universal mask mandate is an attempt to send a message that this shit is still serious and vigilance is required. Pictures in the link above: harmful to that message and not going to help with the inevitable gathering restrictions to come.
So I understand and share the sentiment behind these celebrations, but am disappointed that revelers put our community at increased risk.