America, let’s face mask. Come on. We’re a smart country, aren’t we? We make mistakes, but we learn from them, right? Let’s beat this thing together.
By David Stone
Update: September 8th, 2020
In the the months since I posted Come on, America, Let’s Face Mask, the evidence grew stronger that compliance helps.
Here in New York City, after Governor Cuomo pushed hard for face coverings, explaining how and why they helped, we saw a lot more while infections and deaths fell.
Other states took the hint after they became hot zones, started recommending face masks and got healthier.
Oh, as the New York Times found in an informal survey, compliance was far from perfect. Looking at all five boroughs, their reporters found on average that 2 out of 3 men wore face masks, leaving only 1/3 as selfish bastards.
With women, only 1 in 6 were selfish bastards, which resonates with a general assumption that men are twice as likely to be selfish bastards.
But now, we’ve got an emerging problem…
Over the Labor Day weekend, a walk through Central Park showed that, in spite of warnings slowly increasing infections, New Yorkers are letting down their guards.
That is, face masks are becoming less evident.
I hadn’t seen so many maskless faces since the early pandemic days in March.
And the horrors we’ve seen on college campuses, suggesting that “young sometimes rhymes with dumb,” indicate a careless trend nationwide.
With schools opening here in New York and hopes for indoor dining rising, the time’s ripe for a second wave.
Don’t let that happen, America. Wear your face masks. And especially, don’t let that happen, New York.
We’ve come too far to backslide now.
END OF UPDATE
Some interesting facts popped up Wednesday in the New York Times. In an opinion article, the authors casually shocked us. Why weren’t we told this before…?
While New York City’s recorded around 20,000 coronavirus deaths, similarly sized Hong Kong has… just four.
But differing results were easily explained.
“Close to 99 percent of Hong Kong residents have been wearing masks, to prevent the wearer from spreading the virus, since early February,” the authors wrote.
They continued, “According to a mid-April Gallup poll, only a third of Americans say they always wear a mask or cloth face covering outside the home. Another third of us sometimes wear a mask in public, and a third never do.”
So, America, do you want to wear the mask and be like Hong Kong? Or would you prefer a New York-like death toll weaving across the nation?
And that’s not to mention forcing parts of America closed indefinitely.
Come on, America. Let’s face mask!
SPONSORED: Lucky To Have Her, a novel by David Stone
Come on, America, let’s face mask together!
By David Stone
This includes joggers, bicyclist, and RI public safety (sitting at kiosk near Coler east channel parking lot) I hope.
Yes. PSD is inexplicable. Joggers have a hard time breathing with masks on, but they could use scarfs or thinner material or walk instead. Bicyclist? In this as well most things, they do whatever the hell they want, not all but way too many, no masks, no concern for pedestrians, no stop signs, etc.
Thanks, Brian.