Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: minimum wage, catch, affect)

[ben young]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The problem is that the Republican party has been co-opted by them. The subliterate yawper in the White House leads the charge latching onto every lunatic conspiracy theory and quackery. It's kind of pointless to enumerate all the examples since they're endless. My take is that a small group of extremely wealthy people led by Rupert Murdoch have co-opted the Republican party using fringe issues to get people to vote for the party that cuts taxes for those extremely rich people and abandons government regulations that are good for society to the benefit of those rich people. Flag burning. School prayer. They're gonna take your guns. Baby killers. Now masks are added to the list. They turned politics into tribal warfare. It's just like pro sports. Your guy is a juicer but my guy is great despite cheating with steroids or beating his wife or killing someone. Manny's just being Manny but ARoid is an evil steroid guy. That's now how politics works. Social media and very biased news sources. Any moderate gets shouted down.

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GeoffD, I bet you think,,You are the Moderate

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

I disagree that those questioning the effectiveness of masks only care about what's in it for them. It's that the information has been confusing.

Most shrug this off by saying that in the beginning, the concern was around front-line workers had access to PPE. But it's not that, either. It's that top scientists have told us that the masks aren't effective. And now we are supposed to accept that they are without questioning it.

"The masks sold at drugstores aren't even good enough to truly protect anyone, Fauci said." -- this is a quote from February where Fauci was specifically talking about how the gaps in masks make them so inefficient that it isn't worth it to bother with them.

Then, from more recently:

"Face masks in public spaces do not provide any greater protection to the population," Johan Carlson from the Swedish Public Health Agency Folkhälsomyndigheten said at a press conference on May 13th.

Swedish health authorities argue that keeping a distance, washing your hands, not touching your face, and staying at home if you experience any symptoms are still the best ways to halt the spread of the coronavirus. There is a concern that wearing face masks would make people follow these guidelines less strictly.

I wear a mask when I go out and am not against it...if it helps. But I don't think those questioning it are just selfish people who don't care about others. I understand there has been confusion about the effectiveness.

What question are you asking? If the question is "Do masks lower the transmission rate significantly?", the answer is unquestionably YES. Brigham & Women's says it lowered the transmission rate in their facility by 50%. It's why everyone in Asia is wearing a mask. The name of the game in a pandemic is lowering the transmission rate.



Does a surgical mask or cloth mask protect me? Not very much. That's not why I wear a mask.

[Bridge781]

Im kind of confused on the reopening plans. It says office space can reopen on June 1 but on Friday there was all this talk of people staying home remote with a long list of companies participating.

Any word on when restaurants will open?

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

What question are you asking? If the question is "Do masks lower the transmission rate significantly?", the answer is unquestionably YES. Brigham & Women's says it lowered the transmission rate in their facility by 50%. It's why everyone in Asia is wearing a mask. The name of the game in a pandemic is lowering the transmission rate.

With an N95 perhaps, but not the face coverings most people wear. I'm telling ya, go to a store, you'll see what I mean.

I am disappointed that all retail wasn't a part of Phase 1.

[justyouraveragetenant]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

Im kind of confused on the reopening plans. It says office space can reopen on June 1 but on Friday there was all this talk of people staying home remote with a long list of companies participating.

Any word on when restaurants will open?

restuarants are not until phase 2 so at least a month from now!!

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

Im kind of confused on the reopening plans. It says office space can reopen on June 1 but on Friday there was all this talk of people staying home remote with a long list of companies participating.

Any word on when restaurants will open?

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/re...usiness-reopen

Phase 2 I believe is no earlier than 3 weeks from the 25th.

[Bridge781]

I see.

I’m supposed to go to a wedding on July 26. No idea if that will be happening.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Phase 2 I believe is no earlier than 3 weeks from the 25th.

Yup, and only if out health numbers show positive trend. If the numbers start to point to a 2nd wave, we can actually go backwards in phases.

Sounds like MA's plan is close to what the CDC initially wanted to roll out for the country.

Originally Posted by Bridge781

I see.

I’m supposed to go to a wedding on July 26. No idea if that will be happening.

My July wedding got postponed. Bride and groom are doing a private ceremony with close family and we'll do the reception next summer. It was the venue that ultimately cancelled.

We weren't going to go anyway. Would have declined and sent a gift to cover our plate and extra.

[cb2008]

Any guideline on letting your housecleaning person come into your home to clean?

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Yup, and only if out health numbers show positive trend. If the numbers start to point to a 2nd wave, we can actually go backwards in phases.

Sounds like MA's plan is close to what the CDC initially wanted to roll out for the country.

Now that the nursing homes are in lockdown I would expect hospitalizations to continue to fall... even if it starts spreading again once things reopen.