We say we do. Governor Walz made a proclamation that everyone is required to wear masks indoor in public places. Everyone ignores it. It’s a lie.
I just got back from Alexandria, and I’m pissed off. We drive 40 minutes away to get our groceries because our local grocery store, Willie’s, is a plague pit that does not enforce the rule, but we walked into that Aldi after our drive and just turned around and left again. A young woman was ahead of us, no mask, with two young kids running around maskless. There was also an older couple, too: the woman was wearing a mask, but her asshole husband had his mask pulled down around his neck. There were two young dudes exiting…no masks. Hell no, I’m worried enough about a flood of students coming in next week without this anxiety, so we were gone.
This is madness. Our county has been quiet for a long time — I’ve been watching the stats for a while, and it was boring because Stevens County just hovered around 2, 3, 4 cases for the longest time. It’s at 22 now, suddenly. We need to take this stuff seriously.
We have plenty maskless covidiots in Florida but at least when I go to Publix which requires masks the majority of people (90+%) wear them.
Our governor Duhsantis is a homicidal Trump worshipping prick. Every death is his personal responsibility, especially now with the schools set to reopen.
That’s a nightmare. For us, getting to the nearest grocery store is difficult because we don’t drive, so turning around and going somewhere else would be unfeasible. I’m glad California has a mask mandate, and that the local store workers actually enforce it.
A few months ago, one of the workers on break told me an angry customer threw a bottle of seltzer at her and that it destroyed her glasses. It makes me so sad that people are so resistant to basic safety measures.
My favorites are the signs that say something like “Masks are mandated, unless you have a medical condition. Due to HIPAA and ADA, we cannot ask you about your medical condition, therefore, if you don’t have a mask we will assume you have a condition.” They’re such an egregious fuck you to people with real illnesses and disabilities, and a sad attempt at conservative humor.
I’m also in California. While most people wear masks, and I’d guess about 10% or so wear them wrong (usually below the nose…and that 10% applies to store staff also), I’ve never seen anyone say anything to those that don’t.
Given reports in the news, I can understand the reluctance to challenge people on wearing masks.
Here in Massachusetts, all stores require masks and compliance seems quite good from my limited shopping experience. This and other stories suggest that some parts of the country still don’t take it seriously enough.
We have a state mask mandate in Oregon, but there’s no mandate to actually wear it correctly so tons of people wear it pulled down below the nose or so loose that it’s flopping around.
Here in NE IL where masks are mandated, most stores of any size has someone checking before you enter that you are wearing a mask. I had to certified for respirator use prior to my retirement, so, I, like PZ, get a bit upset about those who don’t keep their masks on/over their nose. and that includes some of the employees. However, I know that my mask will protect me; I wear the same type of mask used during certification where the test was a bitter aerosol being sprayed around my mask during the testing period. I could only taste the bitterness after the mask was removed after being passed.
It’s so sad that you feel that even though you and your family DO wear masks, you feel you can’t shop at a store where many people don’t. Wearing a mask does provide you SOME protection, and if you do your best to steer clear of those who aren’t wearing one, you should be okay. The choice appears to be starvation, and I’d hate for that to happen.
s/ Masked In California
Can you have stuff delivered from your local grocery? We live in a smallish city in SE Ohio and we’re able to have that done.
My county is at 22 as well! 22,000 that is.
Just be glad you didn’t live in NYC at the height of the spread. I knew 6 people who died of it. My youngest caught it, I’m just glad he’s ok now ! So far none of my family or close friends have caught it badly, so I consider my self lucky . I know people who lost several family members. Thank God my gov had some sense and decided to listen to doctors and scientists unlike how the Trumpasaurus wrecks followed his own stupid ideas
New Yorkers take this seriously. You can’t shop or ride public transportation without a mask . Subway booth operators will give you a mask if you don’t have one. Restaurants are allowed to block part of the street or sidewalk to have seating outside . Seeing those red state idiots who refuse is mind boggling for me .
I live in Portland where we are strictly enforcing the mask rules. The rest of my family lives in Umatilla County which over the last few weeks became the hottest hot zone in the state. I am very concerned about their safety and powerless to do anything for them. A nation wide mask mandate is what we need immediately. Trump’s response has been as impotent as his pathetic mushroom shaped penis.
There has been no federal level coordination with states and counties. It’s like they want people to die.
thomasjbarrett
If I saw a sign like that I might threaten to file a complaint as a diabetics under the ADA. I’m a prick.
Hard to believe Texas is doing better than Minnesota on this. Mask wearing is mandated if a county has 20 or more cases.
The mask issues really explain the difficulty handling the aisle directional arrows.
Re: gradoldeity @ #16…
You’ve noticed that, too?
Get an N95 mask with a face shield and keep a container of wipes in the car. When you get back in the car don’t close the car door until you wipe your hands thoroughly, Then use the wipe to close your door. Throw the wipe on the floor a leave it there for at least a week.
Sadly, due to horrendous national leadership, N95 masks are still hard to find but are getting less impossible. Surgical masks/cloth masks, are more to protect others. N95 with no valve will help both you and others.
So when you expose yourself to the stupid, use an N95.
Here in New Jersey everybody wears a mask indoors in a public setting, grocery store. liquor stores, hardware stores and so on. Our problem has been private gatherings, there have been at least three instances where house parties attracting hundreds of maskless young people. Makes no sense, go to the liquor store wear a mask, then go the party and no mask.
Here in France, both Paris and Marseille have been declared “red zone” hotspots, and wearing masks outdoors is essentially mandatory (the rules in Paris are apparently still a bit of a confusing mess, not sure about Marseille). Wearing masks in enclosed public spaces has been mandatory for around two months throughout all of France. Some places (e.g., Nice) have made outdoors mask-wearing mandatory for some time. The Mediterranean seaside village I live in has sufficient connections with Marseille the village council / mayor has finally — yesterday — ordered mandatory outdoors mask-wearing.
The “enclosed public spaces” rule seems to be widely followed, albeit some people — including some staff — don’t wear them properly (loose, below the nose, below the chin, or on their elbow (yes, really!)). Some shops enforce the rule, but others don’t seem to bother. It’s probably helped that since before the rule was implemented, shop-owners have been allowed to require masks; and that the French government has tried-to-ensure masks are available everywhere (at, I believe, capped prices).
I just returned from the morning outdoors market. The new local outdoors-mandatory rule seemed to be very well followed, with mask wearing jumping from (estimated) c.10% last week to almost-universal this week. And what surprised me, very few improperly-worn masks (< 5%?). Social distancing, unfortunately, still seems weak; it was quite good during and for awhile after lockdown, but is now really poor (locally, at least).
The other thing you don’t see too much of now is hand sanitiser outside (or at least at the door) of the shops. Some are still very good about that, but many others seem to not bother now, or only have some somewhere “deep” inside the shop. One complaint I’ve always had is the village has not set up hand sanitising stations, especially at the outdoor markets, bus station, etc.
The one metre between tables rule for cafes, restaurants, etc., at least locally, is being followed quite haphazardly. The tables aren’t crammed together in the pre-pandemic French fashion, but some are clearly much less than a metre apart. Locally (and elsewhere, I believe), the authorities have allowed the tables to expand out to or even into some (closed-off) streets. (Locally, this was quite easy-to-do, as the village has a habit of closing-off some streets during the summer anyways, so about all they had to do was close-off a bit early and relax the rules.)
I live about 100 miles north of Tokyo in a town/county with a population of around 115,000. We had four cases in April and then two cases earlier this month, but that’s been it. There are no mandates to wear masks, but almost everyone does. There’s a kind of telepathy among Japanese that allows all citizens to get these messages and they usually go along with them. When I go shopping I’ll see one or two people not wearing masks. They are inevitably “tough” guys in their 30s who don’t give a shit about others or old farts in their 70s who don’t give a shit about anything. I just steer clear as much as possible. It’s not nearly as crowded up here as it is in Tokyo, so it’s much safer. I’m teaching online at my university (in Tokyo) until the term ends in January, which is great.
Let’s pretend we don’t believe masks provide any protection against the coronavirus.
There is no doubt that many customers will stay away from businesses that allow maskless people close to them.
Don’t the people who mad about authorities telling them what to do care about our economy?
[waves to microraptor and RayCeeya] Hi neighbors!
I work for the 211 phone service in Oregon, and we get both sides of the mask hate. I’ve had a caller scream at me “You’re not my fucking mother!” when the governor first imposed the rule. Dude, if I were your mother you’d be grounded for language. Yesterday I had a caller tell me “We’re all gonna die and you don’t care” because Oregon allows clear face shields and the CDC guidance does not. We’ve had state troopers caught on camera refusing to wear masks in a convenience store, and we had complaints when those guys were fired. Our heavily populated areas have people furious with the mask-avoiders, and the thinly-populated areas have people furious that local police don’t take the policy seriously. The Crook County sheriff has declared he won’t enforce it, right next door to Umatilla County where the biggest outbreak was. Several callers, including two attorneys and one Youtuber who I think recorded me, have wanted the details on the legal basis for the governor’s orders and what penalties are possible.
In Oregon, OSHA is the state agency that takes complaints about workplace hazards. They have had 9500 complaints about masks so far this year. A usual year is 2000 complaints for all areas. I haven’t seen the numbers from BOLI, which would get the complaints from people who believe a store has violated their civil rights by requiring a mask.
Even though Oregon is a blue state on the whole, our red-blue divisions within the state are serious. And right now they are causing wrenching division in the 2/3 of the state that thought they would be safe from covid-19.
Ray Ceeya “ Trump’s response has been as impotent as his pathetic mushroom shaped penis.”
Since Stormy Daniels said that about Trump’s penis I’ve noticed that all penises look like mushrooms.
@24
I’ll take your word on that as I have not seen all penises.
;-)
uncle frogy
Correction: Crook County is not next to Umatilla County. Both ARE part of the thinly populated east side of the state.
For your edification: There’s a strain of psychedelic mushrooms known as “penis envy”, known for long, thick stems and small, tight caps. Google, if you dare.
take a look at the family Phallaceae, many are very near perfect replica’s of the male member others are difficult or near impossible to describe
the ones I have come across do in fact stink and attract flies
uncle frogy
PZ: You need one of these mask guns!
https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/ib5rps/guy_creates_gun_that_shoot_masks_onto_peoples/