Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: skiing, aerobic, bathrooms)

[yesmaybe]

re: the WHO, it was definitely dumb of them to suggest that China was being truthful about anything. China is definitely getting a pass on this because of how addicted Big Biz is to China's cheap labor.

Err.... false. A cotton dish towel is more than adequate to drop the transmission rate down below 1.0 if everybody wears a mask.

If you saw how people are actually wearing the masks, you wouldn't agree. Most of the time they don't even cover their nose and they are all flimsy and not properly covering their face.

[justyouraveragetenant]

Originally Posted by lrfox

If they make it a civil infraction, they certainly can. Especially if most people are wearing masks which is already the case in many places. People without masks will really stand out. It's like speeding - you may not catch everyone, and there will be a number of people who will continue to flout the order, but you can absolutely enforce it.

I welcome it. Give me a fine . a lawyer will salivate to take that case because its a violation of civil liberties. The bill of rights and constitution comes before any unconstitutional laws.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by justyouraveragetenant

I welcome it. Give me a fine . a lawyer will salivate to take that case because its a violation of civil liberties. The bill of rights and constitution comes before any unconstitutional laws.

Mandating you wear a mask seems about as constitutional as mandating you wear pants. Good luck with your future hypothetical lawsuit.

[Arya Stark]

Originally Posted by justyouraveragetenant

I welcome it. Give me a fine . a lawyer will salivate to take that case because its a violation of civil liberties. The bill of rights and constitution comes before any unconstitutional laws.

There are always "public health exceptions" to every civil liberty. How do you think zoning passes muster? You got it... public health.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by justyouraveragetenant

I am not talking about buisness interactions you are right but I am talking about walking around the neighborhood. They can not enforce it in public places like parks .

A town can have a municipal ordinance for anything. No mask could be fined just like anything else. It's not like the 65 year old judge is going to have any sympathy if you try to appeal the fine.


A walking stick would be pretty effective. It works on bicycle spokes, too.

[GeoffD]

In my news feed from Reuters: "Sweeping testing of the entire crew of the coronavirus-stricken US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt may have revealed a clue about the pandemic: The majority of positive cases so far are among sailors who are asymptomatic".


It makes the total failure in testing and antibody testing an even bigger deal. We could already have a big slice of the population in the NYC tri-state and Boston with immunity.

[justyouraveragetenant]

Originally Posted by Arya Stark

There are always "public health exceptions" to every civil liberty. How do you think zoning passes muster? You got it... public health.

What if someone has a health problem like asthma that makes it difficult for them to breath through a mask.

[mdovell]

With respect to the virus itself there's a little bit of a video that kind of tells probably the most realistic way that it was accidentally released. This was not man-made. There are viruses that are still in existence that have certain experiments performed on them around the world. That way you can see if they Janet mutation and if it changes further. I can pm the video. Basically it sounds like they were studying mutation with bats but they put the blame on the wet Market. There were a couple of job openings for research on this back around November and one staff member is gone.

Remember the union carbine incident in the early 80s in India? How about Chernobyl? A lack of communication and a release. The Soviet Union try to not tell people but when Europe saw radiation flowing in they had to come forward. Just like testing for a strain means it's a new strain.

As for the schools that schools are not opening for the rest of this year. It has already been called for Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. As what was mentioned here before is that if a teacher or staff member in some capacity has a compromised immune system and they're instructed to go back to work and show up there physically that is a significant liability. Let's say you got a teacher that is 70 years old and has compromised immunity. Three months later she dies. Then her relatives sue the school district for anywhere from 6 to 9 million dollars. now multiply that by dozens if not hundreds and you could easily see a district liable for tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars.

well the school districts have the capability to have the teacher be remote and have a student's actually show up to class? That might be what's key to this. If a teacher does not have good immunity and refuses to do online education they're going to have to be let go.

The other aspect within this is that Right now the private sector is job layoffs but going to eventually trickle into the public sector. May is when budgets are supposed to be finalized for local governments and approved at Town meetings. a vast majority of towns in Massachusetts including affluent ones still receive a significant portion of their budget from the state. Especially with education. There are many programs like chapter 90, Chapter 70, circuit breaker, COA matching Grant, Community preservation act, green communities etc. if the state recalculate these formulas to adjust for the budget it means that these towns are going to have to either raise taxes or have layoffs.

Springfield and Lenox have announced hiring freezes. Pittsfield Public Schools is going to have school layoffs. even an affluent Community likes Longmeadow still receives about 5% of its budget from the state. some people might say that small Cuts should be simple but it's not that easy. Unit prices are the way they are. A firetruck for example could easily be $1000000 you can't buy half a fire truck.

I can't see schools going back this year because the overhead costs are going to be too much to justify in light of potential budget cuts. School buildings have Federal and state Regulation with respect to management like in Asbestos and Pest Management. so do you skip out on Pest Management for a couple of months to save money and get Chromebooks for the kids or have them come in and risk getting sick again?

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by justyouraveragetenant

What if someone has a health problem like asthma that makes it difficult for them to breath through a mask.

At the moment, it's a Darwin Award if you have asthma and are somewhere you'd need to wear a mask. To minimize the transmission rate, you don't need an N95 mask. I've never had problems breathing while skiing moguls with a balaclava or a neck gaitor and that's pretty aerobic.


Pardon the hyperbole... But you'd rather use any possible excuse to be asymptomatic and transmit the disease to hundreds of people rather than wear a mask. It's all about you, not society. I get it.

[mdovell]

with respect to masks Anything is better than nothing. Although I will say one thing that is a little bit hypocritical mostly in cities is that unfortunately there's still a significant part of the population that smokes. I'm going to call somebody out if I see them wearing an n95 and having a smoke break.