Nationwide kerfuffle developing over mask-wearing; US government system showing its chaotic structure.

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.

Source: COVID Tracking Project

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 governor suspends all local mask mandates, encourages but doesn't require masks for residents - July 15

Georgia's Kemp: Trying to please both the chamber of commerce and his libertarian-leaning population.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday suspended all local government mask mandates despite the rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in his state.

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

[premium_newsticker id="213661"]