Masks are back in Alameda County

[Mr. Illini]

Nobody wears masks anymore.

Yeah, at Kroger yesterday mask wearing was under 10%, and this was in a 90% Biden neighborhood in an 83% Biden county. COVID is endemic plus it's too damn hot.

I saw between 50 and 80% of people wearing masks in every place I've been the past few weeks. Clearly the area you're living isn't 90% Biden because of liberals.

Less than 20% of people in super liberal Portland wear masks now days

White liberal north side Chicago is around there too. A little higher on public transit.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Cool, another pointless mandate for people to ignore. BART has been requiring them since they passed their own mandate after the general transport mandate was struck down and people just ignore it casually.

[Santander]

Nobody wears masks anymore.

Yeah, at Kroger yesterday mask wearing was under 10%, and this was in a 90% Biden neighborhood in an 83% Biden county. COVID is endemic plus it's too damn hot.

I saw between 50 and 80% of people wearing masks in every place I've been the past few weeks. Clearly the area you're living isn't 90% Biden because of liberals.

Less than 20% of people in super liberal Portland wear masks now days

White liberal north side Chicago is around there too. A little higher on public transit.

Evanston/Wilmette are much higher than 20%, I can tell you.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

The south side of Chicago is more working-class, so I bet it's lower there.

[Schiff for Senate]

RIP to Barbara Lee, Eric Swalwell and Ro Khanna in November.

I know you're being sarcastic but a.) I don't see how the mask mandate is because of them and b.) they come from 90% and 70% Democratic seats, so if they lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat anyway.

If the Republican wave gets big enough, there is a chance that all three will lose re-election, particularly Eric Swalwell.

Barbara Jordan is from the second-bluest district in the nation. Unless you think the House will end up 434-1 Republican, Jordan is safe. Her seat is 90% Democratic. No wave and no scandal will take Jordan down (if she does lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat).

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I find it kind of hilarious that they're doing this when cases have begun to decline again (nationally).  In two weeks, they are going to say "because of our heroic policy, cases are low again, so the mandate is over", when cases will actually be down too in all their surrounding non-mask counties.

[MATTROSE94]

RIP to Barbara Lee, Eric Swalwell and Ro Khanna in November.

I know you're being sarcastic but a.) I don't see how the mask mandate is because of them and b.) they come from 90% and 70% Democratic seats, so if they lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat anyway.

If the Republican wave gets big enough, there is a chance that all three will lose re-election, particularly Eric Swalwell.

Barbara Jordan is from the second-bluest district in the nation. Unless you think the House will end up 434-1 Republican, Jordan is safe. Her seat is 90% Democratic. No wave and no scandal will take Jordan down (if she does lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat).

She probably survives even the worst Republican wave then. Eric Swalwell I think could be vulnerable considering that he is always one of the biggest targets of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Also, Eric Swalwell iirc has some ethics issues that could be easy ammunition for his Republican opponent.

[Schiff for Senate]

RIP to Barbara Lee, Eric Swalwell and Ro Khanna in November.

I know you're being sarcastic but a.) I don't see how the mask mandate is because of them and b.) they come from 90% and 70% Democratic seats, so if they lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat anyway.

If the Republican wave gets big enough, there is a chance that all three will lose re-election, particularly Eric Swalwell.

Barbara Jordan is from the second-bluest district in the nation. Unless you think the House will end up 434-1 Republican, Jordan is safe. Her seat is 90% Democratic. No wave and no scandal will take Jordan down (if she does lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat).

She probably survives even the worst Republican wave then. Eric Swalwell I think could be vulnerable considering that he is always one of the biggest targets of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Also, Eric Swalwell iirc has some ethics issues that could be easy ammunition for his Republican opponent.

If he loses (which would make Dule's day), it will also be to another Democrat. Extremely unlikely though.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

California politicians are a waste of time.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

[Joe Republic]

RIP to Barbara Lee, Eric Swalwell and Ro Khanna in November.

I know you're being sarcastic but a.) I don't see how the mask mandate is because of them and b.) they come from 90% and 70% Democratic seats, so if they lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat anyway.

If the Republican wave gets big enough, there is a chance that all three will lose re-election, particularly Eric Swalwell.

Barbara Jordan is from the second-bluest district in the nation. Unless you think the House will end up 434-1 Republican, Jordan is safe. Her seat is 90% Democratic. No wave and no scandal will take Jordan down (if she does lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat).

She probably survives even the worst Republican wave then. Eric Swalwell I think could be vulnerable considering that he is always one of the biggest targets of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Also, Eric Swalwell iirc has some ethics issues that could be easy ammunition for his Republican opponent.

The libertarian/right's hate-boner for… Eric Swalwell of all people is one of the weirder side notes of our current political landscape.  It's not just Dule here either; Ben Garrison has about a dozen or so cartoons hating on this random congressman.

[Aurelius]

RIP to Barbara Lee, Eric Swalwell and Ro Khanna in November.

I know you're being sarcastic but a.) I don't see how the mask mandate is because of them and b.) they come from 90% and 70% Democratic seats, so if they lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat anyway.

If the Republican wave gets big enough, there is a chance that all three will lose re-election, particularly Eric Swalwell.

Barbara Jordan is from the second-bluest district in the nation. Unless you think the House will end up 434-1 Republican, Jordan is safe. Her seat is 90% Democratic. No wave and no scandal will take Jordan down (if she does lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat).

She probably survives even the worst Republican wave then. Eric Swalwell I think could be vulnerable considering that he is always one of the biggest targets of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Also, Eric Swalwell iirc has some ethics issues that could be easy ammunition for his Republican opponent.

The libertarian/right's hate-boner for… Eric Swalwell of all people is one of the weirder side notes of our current political landscape.  It's not just Dule here either; Ben Garrison has about a dozen or so cartoons hating on this random congressman.

He ran a pointless vanity campaign, talked about nukes as a response to people not wanting to give up their guns, farted on national TV, screamed at Biden on the debate stage about passing the torch, and associated with a confirmed Chinese spy, and named his daughter Cricket. Easy guy to make fun of.

[emailking]

The show confirmed that was a mug scraping across a desk. And it's just a nickname so she can easily switch to Kathryn or similar if she wants.

[MATTROSE94]

RIP to Barbara Lee, Eric Swalwell and Ro Khanna in November.

I know you're being sarcastic but a.) I don't see how the mask mandate is because of them and b.) they come from 90% and 70% Democratic seats, so if they lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat anyway.

If the Republican wave gets big enough, there is a chance that all three will lose re-election, particularly Eric Swalwell.

Barbara Jordan is from the second-bluest district in the nation. Unless you think the House will end up 434-1 Republican, Jordan is safe. Her seat is 90% Democratic. No wave and no scandal will take Jordan down (if she does lose to anybody, it'll be another Democrat).

She probably survives even the worst Republican wave then. Eric Swalwell I think could be vulnerable considering that he is always one of the biggest targets of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Also, Eric Swalwell iirc has some ethics issues that could be easy ammunition for his Republican opponent.

The libertarian/right's hate-boner for… Eric Swalwell of all people is one of the weirder side notes of our current political landscape.  It's not just Dule here either; Ben Garrison has about a dozen or so cartoons hating on this random congressman.

He ran a pointless vanity campaign, talked about nukes as a response to people not wanting to give up their guns, farted on national TV, screamed at Biden on the debate stage about passing the torch, and associated with a confirmed Chinese spy, and named his daughter Cricket. Easy guy to make fun of.

I agree that Eric Swalwell is one of the most useless members of Congress currently in office. The only decent idea he proposed was the concept of a mobile Congress, though I don’t know how well that idea would work in practice. He is also an advocate of using atomic weapons against Russia. While I support taking a hardline against Russia over Ukraine, advocating for atomic warfare against another atomic armed country is a bad idea.

[YE]

Stop feeding the longtime troll.

[Joe Republic]

Stop feeding the longtime troll.

Who?

[YE]

MATTROSE has been flooding the forum with outlandish statements off and on for quite some time both electorally and with the coronavirus in order to draw attention to himself..

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

Why are people so weird about masks? Wearing a mask isn't that hard, definitely not inconvenient enough to justify active outrage.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Why are people so weird about masks?

Because masks are weird around people.

[scutosaurus]

Why are people so weird about masks? Wearing a mask isn't that hard, definitely not inconvenient enough to justify active outrage.

Some of the outrage is a little much. But it's hard enough to convince people to inconvenience themselves, even mildly, for reasons that they do think are justified, let alone to inconvenience themselves for reasons they don't. And it's a really hard sell to most people that COVID is still worth it with such a low mortality rate, especially since the same people pushing masks have often been the ones pushing more extreme measures like school closures or banning unvaccinated people from restaurants.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Why are people so weird about masks?

Because masks are weird around people.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why are people so weird about masks? Wearing a mask isn't that hard, definitely not inconvenient enough to justify active outrage.

Because they're no longer effective against current strains and are completely unnecessary in light of the vaccine.

[Morning in Atlas]

Why are people so weird about masks? Wearing a mask isn't that hard, definitely not inconvenient enough to justify active outrage.

Because they're effectively a form of collective "punishment" at best. For the vaccinated, we've been told for years that once we get our vaccine, we can return to normal. We got our vaccines, got boosted, and were told we can live our lives like it's 2019. We tried to help the anti-vaxxers. They said it wasn't worth the risk. They made the choice to roll the dice. We shouldn't have to bear the punishment for other people not wanting to take the vax.

Moreover, it all just comes off as anti-science security theater. As BRTD said, mask mandates had a negligible (if any) effect in preventing cases as the virus evolved. Omicron and BA2 are much less severe than Delta. In NH, we made it through the Delta era without a statewide mandate. Portsmouth, the most liberal town in my county, repealed their mandate in July of 2021. Exeter repealed theirs in May of that year.  We went through the height of the pandemic without a mandate, and now, after the rise of a less dangerous variant, they brought masks back?

'This wasn't even localized to a bunch of upper-crust brunchlib college towns either. The state Democratic Party was openly calling for a statewide mask mandate! The mask cultists zeroed in on "muh case numbers" and made us jump through hoops to make it look like they were doing something against a virus that we knew was inevitably endemic.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

Why are people so weird about masks? Wearing a mask isn't that hard, definitely not inconvenient enough to justify active outrage.

Because they're no longer effective against current strains

Correlation =/= causation. There are so many potentially confounding variables influencing this. Maybe mask mandates tended to happen in areas with higher COVID rates to begin with, maybe mask mandates are mostly ignored except by the people who already were going to mask up anyway, most of the areas that still have mandates are some of the densest areas of the country, etc. Do you have any actual good evidence that masks are ineffective? Because this single graph isn't it.

and are completely unnecessary in light of the vaccine.

The virus is just good enough at piercing through vaccines that they don't prevent spread. Add to that the fact that a significant chunk of the country refused to take any COVID vaccine, and another large chunk hasn't gotten boosters, and you get a situation where disabled people who can't get vaccinated and have a high chance of dying if they get COVID are screwed. The virus killed 190 people yesterday. That translates to almost 70,000 deaths a year. And this is coming down off the latest spike.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why are people so weird about masks? Wearing a mask isn't that hard, definitely not inconvenient enough to justify active outrage.

Because they're no longer effective against current strains

Correlation =/= causation. There are so many potentially confounding variables influencing this. Maybe mask mandates tended to happen in areas with higher COVID rates to begin with, maybe mask mandates are mostly ignored except by the people who already were going to mask up anyway, most of the areas that still have mandates are some of the densest areas of the country, etc. Do you have any actual good evidence that masks are ineffective? Because this single graph isn't it.

I was watching the Minnesota numbers closely at that time. There were no mask mandates anywhere in Minnesota in 2022 aside from in the Twin Cities, Rochester, Duluth and a few immediate suburbs. Hennepin and Ramsey counties weren't the most infectious counties and the numbers started falling in the same pattern as everywhere else.

Plus even the CDC said cloth masks aren't very effective: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/are-cloth-masks-enough-against-omicron

And it's pretty obvious how many people are going to always an N95 or KN95 to go to the grocery store. On the other hand people who do actually want to wear those can...and in that case are pretty much entirely protected anyway unless they have close contact for at least an hour with an infectious person.

Also do you seriously believe that a cloth mask is really going to matter in a mosh pit? And if it doesn't and since it does make breathing in a mosh pit more difficult for me, why even bother? Plus I don't associate with anyone unvaxxed anyway.

and are completely unnecessary in light of the vaccine.

The virus is just good enough at piercing through vaccines that they don't prevent spread. Add to that the fact that a significant chunk of the country refused to take any COVID vaccine, and another large chunk hasn't gotten boosters, and you get a situation where disabled people who can't get vaccinated and have a high chance of dying if they get COVID are screwed. The virus killed 190 people yesterday. That translates to almost 70,000 deaths a year. And this is coming down off the latest spike.

Again people with serious medical concerns can wear an N95 and avoid close contact with likely carriers. That will go much further than everyone wearing a cloth mask. I got my last booster over six months ago but I don't meet FDA criteria for getting another one, so I did my part. I also don't associate with anyone unvaxxed. So where's the risk for me? Putting a piece of cloth over my face while packed like sardines in a music venue and jumping into a bunch of other sweaty people and carrying sweaty people over my head clearly isn't going to do anything, so I'll just do what's most comfortable.

(It's also virtually impossible to keep a cloth mask from slipping down while in a mosh pit or doing any type of hardcore dancing for that matter as well.)