Residents of the greater San Franciso area are in total dread risk fear of COVID-19 that is of serious danger only to the very elderly with comorbidities. The politicians are using the fear to go as totalitarian as they can get away with. It is a power trip for them as they party on and ignore the rules they institute for their subjects.
Five Bay Area counties announced on Friday that they would band together in enacting a regional stay-at-home order that will go into effect on Sunday.
I am one of the very few who wanders outside without a mask on. I know of only two other people who do it. When you walk the streets everyone else is wearing a mask.
Friday evening I headed to the Target store in downtown San Francisco to pick up supplies such as toilet paper and paper towels. The shelves were already half empty. But never mind that, here is what the fear looks like.
The cashier that handled my purchases was wearing two masks, goggles and gloves (It appears that the store only requires employees to wear one mask):
The customer in front of me was wearing a cloth mask, goggles and a face shield while buying all types of unhealthy food from Twinkies to potato chips:
It is now not that uncommon to see the mask, goggles, face shield combination on the streets of San Francisco. I would say about 1 in 25 wear the triple combo in the Foggy City.
-RW
Man that’s pathetic and I’m sorry they are destroying your city Robert.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud about buying unhealthy junk food.
I was walking into a convenience store and an employee was sucking down a cigarette as fast as he could go, I assume on a smoke break, threw his mask back on and went back in. I about died laughing at the stupidity. I watched a customer at a feed store stop right before the door and desperately suck down the last 3 or 4 puffs before he threw his mask on and went inside. I don’t wear a mask and Costco is the only place I have been accosted by an employee. It was a good preaching moment as I got to have a good heart to heart with the poor old guy enforcing the rules. And he was almost in tears when we were done. Seriously. He said “I am just doing my job” and I was able to tell him of the last major time that excuse was used and I saw in his scared eyes that he knew to what I was referring. So I hung a mask on one ear for him and he said fine fine. BTW Only the national stores require masks here.
Resolve to Serve No More
What's sadder is this is sacrificing liberty for imaginary safety. The cloth face coverings (and certainly the face shield) do very little against COVID aerosols. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is around 100 nanometers. Cloth fabrics don't have a tight enough weave to effectively stop that. 20% filtration efficiency at best. Then add in the fact cloth face covers have terrible seals...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2020/06/face-coverings-made-layered-cotton-fabric-likely-slow-spread-covid-19
"Of the fabrics tested in the NIST study, the best-performing single fabric layer blocked 20% of particles in the size range of the virus."
It is not even certain that blocking the virus would even produce better net community health. It might increase viral load at the source, making people more sick and for longer, increasing bad transmission outcomes.
DeleteRemember that the purpose of expelling particles is so your immune system can win.
David B.
I believe that masks help spread the virus faster, given that we know they do not block aerosols or isolated viruses. First, they encourage people to get closer to each other as a substitute for distance (though it is disputed whether distance is any help). Second, the mask of an infected person collects the virus as that person breathes. Then that person turns to another and speaks, and as the mask is not designed to contain that velocity of air, some of the collected virus is sent towards the other person along with the virus in that exhalation, enhancing the likelihood of transmission.
DeleteI've read a couple papers now, showing that masks can force droplets to split up into aerosols as the pressure forces them through the openings.
DeleteIn theory, those wearing multiple masks and/or face shields should be most friendly to those of us who don't wear any masks. They're essentially providing the double protection for themselves that others who only wear one mask ask that we provide by wearing the other mask.
ReplyDeleteSince time began, when the rain dance fails to bring rain, we have tried rain dancing harder.
DeleteDavid B.
Yeah, evidently nobody's mask really works, unless everybody else is wearing a mask. Kind of like, my seat belt doesn't work, because you aren't wearing one.
DeleteSo yeah, wear two or more to cover for all the rest of the selfish morons out there.
Maybe it makes sense if you are oxygen deprived. Don't know, until you try it, right?
It used to be Americans were innocent until proven guilty.
And they still are of course, but somehow now we're all infected until proven healthy.
Gotta love the joojoo juice. If you're gonna lie, GO BIG.
I don't know, I'm sure deep down they are 'natural libertarians'.
ReplyDeleteI live in Oakland 9n the south side of Lake Merritt and this is pretty much the scene around here too
ReplyDeleteBut...
There is a bar down on the corner that's been doing streetside drinks and BBQ and it is poppin. Mostly older black people, it's a sorta blues lounge in normal times. It cool to see people living their lives, but the best part was always the oldachool blues bands playing, and now there's none of that since no one is inside.
Around the corner there's a beat-up but beautiful old theater. About a year ago someone bought it and started fixing it up, then Covid hit and all the work stopped. They started back up a month ago so I stuck my head inside to see what they're doing. One of the workers told me they're turning it into a strip club.
So, I'm pretty curious to see how THAT works in the middle of a lockdown. I wonder if the cops will show up.
"I wonder if the cops will show up."
DeleteThey will. For the freebies.
A strip club where the stripper can get buck naked but must leave her mask on.
DeleteThe common cold is a coronavirus. No cure or vaccine for this. "Covid" has a 99.7% survival rate. The establishment and the sheep has lost their minds!!
ReplyDeleteIf you assume that the NPI's are all voodoo, and that covid circled the globe for all of 2020, then you can easily calculate the population survival rate.
DeleteAnd it comes out to ~99.95%
So yea, this is all very dumb.
David B.