DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
OpEds—
Mask Mandates? Businesses Say Yes. Some Governors Still Say No.
This sad joke is making the rounds:
Q: What borders on stupidity?
A: Canada and Mexico.
Unfortunately there is some truth to it.
Gov. Greg Abbott says Harris County can't impose fine over face mask order - April 27 2020
Abbott
Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that local officials cannot impose penalties on residents who violate rules about wearing masks in public — including those in Harris County, where county Judge Lina Hidalgo’s mask order went into effect that morning.
“We strongly recommend that everyone wear a mask,” Abbott said at a press conference where he announced his plans for reopening Texas. “However, it's not a mandate. And we make clear that no jurisdiction can impose any type of penalty or fine.
“My executive order, it supersedes local orders, with regard to any type of fine or penalty for anyone not wearing a mask,” he added.
Some three months later sanity had set in:
‘It’s the least people can do’ — Abbott’s mask order meets mixed response in S.A. - July 3 2020
On Thursday, Abbott signed an executive order requiring nearly all Texans to wear masks in public.
...
First-time offenders will receive warnings. Subsequent violations are punishable by fines up to $250 — but not by jail time.
The number of new cases in Texas started to rise at the beginning of June. Hospitalization started to rise a week later and deaths numbers started to rise two weeks later than the hospitalization numbers. That pattern is by now well established. To prevent new waves of Covid-19 deaths one must introduce countermeasures as soon as the new case numbers trend up.
Abbott's turn about on mask mandates should have been a warning for other governors. Unfortunately some still do not get it.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday suspended all local government mask mandates despite the rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in his state.Georgia's Kemp: Trying to please both the chamber of commerce and his libertarian-leaning population.
Under the executive order the Republican governor extended the state's public emergency and said face coverings are "strongly encouraged," but not required.
Kemp's executive order voids masks mandates imposed by some local governments as Covid-19 cases tick up in cities across the state, already claiming over 3,000 lives.
Source: COVID Tracking Project
In terms of the epidemic Georgia is two weeks behind Texas. New cases started to rise in mid June. Hospitalizations started to rise a week later. Two weeks on the deaths numbers also start to rises. It is obvious where this is going.
That's why I do not get it. What did Abbott think would happen in Texas? What does Kemp think will happen in Georgia? Does he wish for more deaths in his state? Is it malice that is driving him? If not malice what is it?
The Republican governors claim to care about businesses. But businesses will suffer as long as the epidemic is ravaging their states. The people have fear. That fear is reasonable. This isn't the flu:
Although COVID-19 is most well known for causing substantial respiratory pathology, it can also result in several extrapulmonary manifestations. These conditions include thrombotic complications, myocardial dysfunction and arrhythmia, acute coronary syndromes, acute kidney injury, gastrointestinal symptoms, hepatocellular injury, hyperglycemia and ketosis, neurologic illnesses, ocular symptoms, and dermatologic complications.
As long as people have fear they will not go shopping or eat out while they know that their hospitals are already filled up to capacity with Covid-19 casualties. They feel a bit safer when everyone wears a mask because they know that masks work well.
To get business back up one needs to push the epidemic down to a sustainable level and then manage it by testing and tracing. The cheapest and most effective step on that way is to mandate the wearing of masks. To enforce that one must at least threaten those who ignore the mandate with punishment. There are further steps that need to be taken but mandating masks is the very first and easiest one.
Walmart, Target, CVS and others have recognized that under the current circumstances mandating masks is good for their businesses. They now require nationwide a mask for anyone who wants to enter their shops.
Texas has currently some 320 new cases per day per million people. Georgia has reached its current 322 per day per million in a much shorter time frame. Georgia's case and deaths numbers per inhabitant will therefore likely rise higher than in Texas.
Georgians can thank their governor for causing that.
Posted by b on July 16, 2020 at 16:53 UTC | Permalink
This is how hard it is even when the virus is no longer being spread:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/one-new-covid-19-case-today
We in the US are a long way from this situation, but as b points out, not mandating mask wear in no uncertain terms is akin to deliberate mayhem.
Australia learned about opening too soon and are trying to cope. Thanks to b. Somebody who reads these threads will have understood what you are saying. Each time, the message resonates a bit further. Those who don't appreciate these threads don't need to read them; we who are in the midst of chaos obviously do
Posted by: juliania | Jul 16 2020 17:14 utc | 2
I live in what is reputed to be "progressive" Oregon but mask wearing has gone down again around where I live. Even going into the Post Office people are not wearing masks to check the mail in their boxes even if they have to wear a mask to see a worker. The same in grocery stores where help wears masks but now less and less of the clients.
The brainwashing is thick in America. It is not stupidity, nor ignorance but outright brainwashing via ongoing propaganda.
The war crimes being committed by the global financial elite against Americans need to be prosecuted.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 16 2020 17:28 utc | 3
Related, and an article by Whitney:
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/covid-19-phase-1-of-the-permanent-crisis/
"We’re not saying that Covid doesn’t kill people, and we’re not suggesting that Covid is a bioweapon released on the public for nefarious purposes. (although that’s certainly a possibility.) What we’re saying is that scheming elites and their allies in the media and politics see every crisis as an opportunity to advance their own authoritarian agenda. In fact, the restructuring of basic democratic institutions can only take place within the confines of a major crisis. That’s why the CIA, the giant corporations, the WHO and the Gates Posse gathered for meetings that anticipated an event just like the Covid outbreak. They needed a crisis of that magnitude to achieve their ultimate objective; total control. That’s what they mean when they say there will be “no return to normal”, they mean they’re replacing representative government with a new totalitarian model in which the levers of state power will be controlled by them. So while the virus outbreak might be coincidental, the management of the crisis certainly is not."
So basically my take is that Covid 19 has been coopted as a part of the class war along with the patriot act, the quantative easing, the promotion of racism and social sectarianism, all funded by the oligarchy for the oligarchy, with tax payer money of course.
The 21st century is the "century of fear" - be afraid.
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Jul 16 2020 17:33 utc | 4
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com. 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The urine test is a good analogy. and guaranteed, some people, if it were politicised, would be talking about how piss is natural and good for you, and anyway gandhi did it, or whatever the talking points might be; "if you don't want to get pissed on, just stay home and let the rest of us get on with life!"
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jul 16 2020 17:13 utc | 1