4 ms·

Disclaimer: I probably share a lot of those political leanings. With that said... My understanding was that there were a lot of “mask-skeptic” folks at the Stu

Disclaimer: I probably share a lot of those political leanings. With that said... My understanding was that there were a lot of “mask-skeptic” folks at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally openly flaunting safety protocols and doing stuff like hanging out in packed bars with no mask on. Sure, you can get away with some amount of line-stepping and even straight up rule-breaking and still not catch Covid, but when you have a gathering of people for whom flaunting Covid restrictions is actually a form of virtue-signalling... well it’s probably not going to end great. Having attended the BLM protests myself (in Baltimore), I don’t think I saw a single person not wearing a mask. I’m sure they existed somewhere in America, but I’m pretty sure if you showed up without a mask someone would give you a disposable one. Why do I think that? Because there were also folks with hand sanitizer pumps giving away hand sanitizer for free. The walking marches were not perfectly socially distanced, but with everyone wearing masks and walking about 3ft apart in the open air, it makes sense that there would’ve been less spread. There were also marches that were done as parades of cars so that folks who were more at-risk for Covid had a safer way to participate. Again, good intent alone won’t stop the spread of a disease (it doesn’t care if you’re “trying real hard” to be safe). But when the culture of a group is focused around taking the virus seriously and trying to balance the goals of the movement with keeping people safe, it makes sense that you’ll have better outcomes.

ghaff 6y ago
To the bar point, I'd say it's a pretty common belief at this point that some combination of masks and distancing are important inside while, outside, it makes much less of a difference especially if you're at least somewhat distanced. Around where I live, people are being pretty good about protocols inside. Outside? I don't live in a city but on trails and so forth, the common pattern is people will pull up a gaiter if they're going to pass a group wearing masks. These days, almost no one is. When I do pull up a gaiter it feels like theater.

ghaff 6y ago

To the bar point, I'd say it's a pretty common belief at this point that some combination of masks and distancing are important inside while, outside, it makes much less of a difference especially if you're at least somewhat distanced. Around where I live, people are being pretty good about protocols inside. Outside? I don't live in a city but on trails and so forth, the common pattern is people will pull up a gaiter if they're going to pass a group wearing masks. These days, almost no one is. When I do pull up a gaiter it feels like theater.