This isn't "rocket surgery". What needs doing is obvious to even the dullest among us.

[Atticus]

If proof of vaccination and properly worn masks were MANDATED in order to gather with others for any reason, enter any building open to the public, attend any school or use any form of transportation available to the public, the covid crisis would be so diminished by Valentine's Day we could go out for dinner without fear.

[leftstreet]

1. In my state all retailers have mandatory mask signs

Half the people in those settings aren't wearing them, and no one is enforcing it

I can't see the US reaching much higher vax percentages and/or mask use in public - with or without mandates

[CrispyQ]

2. Same here.

County mandate, signs at the entrance to stores, but no enforcement.

DUer maryborrg has consistently posted Covid breakouts in the Arizona forum. If you go there & read down the post titles, it's alarming. This is one state. I wish someone had thought to do that in each state.

https://democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1038

on edit: Go back to June when the entire country was on track to have fewer than 10,000 cases, & the AZ numbers are in the hundreds, not the thousands. We were on track to beat this thing, then the mask mandate was lifted & the anti-vaxxers would do their civic duty & here were are in the thousands again.

[leftstreet]

5. The CDC lifting the mandate still pisses me off

Everyone's managed to forget it at this point, but historically it will be significant

[Mr.Bill]

13. In my county the day the Health Dept. anounced mandates

the Sheriff said he would not enforce any of them. We only have two small incorporated cities with Police Departments, and they won't enforce anything either. The most they will do is help throw someone out if the manger or owner of the building wants them gone. And no one is doing that, either. Luckily for a year or so we did have near 100% compliance with masks.

I have been boycotting businesses who don't require their employees to wear masks.

[Blues Heron]

3. Michigan is exploding right now - their curve has gone nearly vertical

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/michigan/

[MiHale]

8. Unvaccinated in metro areas...

Kids in western Michigan. My son and his wife both teach in the Kalamazoo district. Attendance is awful kids out all over some is just quarantine, my son said “Swiss cheese has less holes than my classroom”.

But of course Gretchen Whitmer is an “idiot” as all the lawn signs proclaim. Nobody wears a mask around us, well my wife and I do.

I do have to say I think vaccinated people are a big problem too. They think they are super ok so all precautions are thrown out the window.

Can’t say it’s breakout causing some of the uptick, IDK, but a vaccinated can have the same viral load as an unvaccinated …wear a mask, wash your hands, maintain your distance…don’t be the cause of the spread.

[Blues Heron]

9. thanks for the update- be safe.

[beaglelover]

4. Los Angeles city is currently doing all this and our

Cases are only going up. IMO we just need to learn to live with COVID. It’s not going anywhere. I’m hopeful the new treatment pill will be a game changer and will allow us to go back to normal life including no mask wearing or social distancing.

[traitorsgalore]

6. D.C. is dropping their mask mandates on Monday

They'll probably reinstate them on Tuesday, LOL. What a country of corrupted bureaucrats.

[Hekate]

14. Bureaucrats are mostly just hired to do a job in civil service. Politicians, on the other hand...

… are elected by like-minded voters and if the mob turns out are elected by the mob. So the corruption I worry about is in that realm — politicians who lean on the career civil servants.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. A student in a class I subbed for said he couldn't mask up because, "I can't breathe."

Me: "Do you have a note from your doctor?"

Student (surprised): "Uh, no..."

Me: "But you say you can't breathe with a mask on."

Student (more confidently): "Yeah! I can't breathe."

I went to the desk and filled out a yellow hall pass. "Here's a note to the school nurse. Have her write down you don't have to wear a mask and bring it back to me."

He never left the classroom.

[Poiuyt]

21. I hope he's not planning on becoming a surgeon.

[Orrex]

10. The cult of fuckheads will never submit to mask or vaccine mandates

Because their owners have told them not to.

[OMGWTF]

18. The trash is taking itself out.

[Orrex]

24. I confess that this does give me hope

I wish for no one's suffering (aside, perhaps, from a certain orange balloon full of liquid pig shit in vaguely human form), but I shed few tears for those who go out of their way to die from an easily avoided illness.

[OrangeJoe]

11. How they do it in Mexico City

We just got back from 2 weeks in beautiful Mexico City. There you are greeted at EVERY store/restaurant/museum by someone checking your temperature, mask and giving you a spritz of sanitizer. 95% of the people wear masks while outdoors, 100% on buses, the subway and in buildings. The only people you see not wearing masks fall into a few distinct categories:

1) Blonde gringas.
2) Buff gringos who also don't seem to notice that they are the only ones wearing shorts, wife beaters and ball caps in churches.
3) Middle aged gringo men who dress like 10 year olds wearing cargo shorts and t shirts. Seriously do they not notice that no other grown men dress that way in the city?
4) And lest you think it's just white people, we also saw African Americans parading around with out masks and not respecting the blocked off seats in public areas. Not knocking these folks for being Black, but pointing out that American assholes come in all colors.

After that visit it becomes exceedingly clear why we haven't whipped Covid and how Donald Trump got elected. We are not a serious people but rather a collection of entitled children who have a lot of money and don't feel the rules apply to us.

[BlueJac]

15. You are correct...

[Stuart G]

16. I disagree......Some of us are what you say, and some of us are not what you say...

.........To say we are "not serious: .., puts us all in the negative category..
......... Further, not all of us have a lot of money...& most of us follow the rules.!!!...

........Where I go to shop, almost everyone wears a mask...especially the children..

........Remember this........IT AIN'T A GAME, IT'S LIFE OR DEATH......& MOST OF US KNOW IT!!!

[OrangeJoe]

20. My point

Clearly I was writing with exaggeration for effect. Most of the identifiable N Americans and Europeans we saw in Mexico City were indeed wearing masks. However, when we came across someone NOT wearing a mask 9 times out of 10 it was a fellow American. About the only Mexicans we saw with lowered masks were eating something (Mexicans do love their street snacks and who can blame them!) or snogging teenagers and who wants to condemn young love.

[paleotn]

19. I cannot agree more with your last sentence.

[Poiuyt]

22. The Ugly American

[Joinfortmill]

12. 👍

[paleotn]

17. No, it's not difficult to understand.

Humans have known the basics of fighting infectious disease for centuries now. Certainly in the last 150 years. How many harbor towns in America and elsewhere had quarantine islands? Lots. How many ships had to swing at anchor for awhile because infectious disease broke out on board. Countless. It's not hard to understand, it's just hard to implement due to willful stupidity. The absolute worst kind of stupidity. Ignorance I can handle. Willful stupidity gets no quarter from me. Let the willfully stupid shrivel and die.

[Skittles]

23. but there are too many selfish fucking assholes around

you know, the "pro-liferes' who think bounties on women is A-OK but wearing a mask is not