DC Masks Up Again!

 

Mayor Bowser issued an order that as of this Saturday, masks must be worn indoors in every public, retail, or office building in the District of Columbia regardless of vaccination status.

One gets used to breathtakingly stupid actions by the DC Govt. but this is pretty stunning. Why now?

  • DC has roughly 5 to 30 persons out of 700,000 who are likely currently infectious
  • The average daily COVID-related death total has been between 0 and 1 for three months.
  • There is no uptick in hospitalizations. Currently zero COVID ICU use.
  • CDC now thinks that 1 in 4,300 vaccinated persons could get reinfected –with mild symptoms.
  • Masking nor any other interventions accomplished any spread reduction in the past

The DC “hotspot” state list (always mostly red states) was updated several times. That this was incredibly stupid was widely noticed–for example, travel to help Democratic candidates was exempt from the order.

I did not add the many other orders on the graph but suffice it to say none of this worked.  DC experienced the same case curve as the larger region no matter what. If you want to see the dominant seasonality pattern that is characteristic of COVID, here are DC, MD, DE, and PA graphed below. (It is left as an exercise for the student to identify the states).  Again. COVID’s gonna COVID on its own terms in its own time cycle.  And yet we must keep pretending that our betters are Doing Something About It and that we have a handle on all the mechanisms of transmission.

These orders and interventions are no longer honest mistakes or best guesses with limited info. This is insanity.  The same people who are fond of tossing around the term “denialism” and claiming to be the “Party of Science” are completely detached from scientific method and common sense.  Keep doing what does not work–or else!

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  1. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    There must be a secret virtue signalling contest! Of course, you and I wouldn’t know about–only the foolish Dems. Will you comply if you’re in town there? I guess I would [grumble, grumble. . . ]

    • #1
  2. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Fox coverage:

    • #2
  3. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Fox coverage:

    Good grief!!! Why??

    • #3
  4. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Fox coverage:

    Good grief!!! Why??

    Bowser is a tenured mayor.  This is what you get with one-party rule.

    Imagine you are a bar/restaurant owner who has struggled to survive for over a year, and you’re just starting to get your feet on the ground.  Now this.

    • #4
  5. Kephalithos Member
    Kephalithos
    @Kephalithos

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Fox coverage:

    Forget masks. Everyone should wear kevlar!

    • #5
  6. Dave of Barsham Member
    Dave of Barsham
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Kephalithos (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Fox coverage:

    Forget masks. Everyone should wear kevlar!

    That’s just good advice all around these days.

    • #6
  7. DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) Coolidge
    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!)
    @DonG

    Old Bathos: Why now?

    Symbolism.   It is all part of the next big push. 

    • #7
  8. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    It’s looking more and more that the extreme cynics were right all along – all this Covid stuff is just a vehicle to impose totalitarian control over the people. If the politicians don’t like us making that conclusion, stop doing doing things that support the conclusion. 

    • #8
  9. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Here’s my take.   Washington, DC, is filled with liberals…just like Chicago, Cook County and a lot of other areas.  This is preaching to the choir.  Illinois Governor Rotundous and Chicago Mayor Groot and Cook County are sabre/mask rattling as well.  I’ve seen more people masking up in the past week or so.  Beat the Covid drum, then mandate something…because you “Care.”  And the vast majority agrees, so they mask up.  Then the governor/mayor/whatever can campaign on the tag line “I kept you safe.”  Prickster is already campaigning on his China virus record, with billboards popping up in Waukegan pointing out that JB cares and Republicans voted against things.  Win win!

    • #9
  10. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Here’s my take. Washington, DC, is filled with liberals…just like Chicago, Cook County and a lot of other areas. This is preaching to the choir. Illinois Governor Rotundous and Chicago Mayor Groot and Cook County are sabre/mask rattling as well. I’ve seen more people masking up in the past week or so. Beat the Covid drum, then mandate something…because you “Care.” And the vast majority agrees, so they mask up. Then the governor/mayor/whatever can campaign on the tag line “I kept you safe.” Prickster is already campaigning on his China virus record, with billboards popping up in Waukegan pointing out that JB cares and Republicans voted against things. Win win!

    White liberals believe that the NPIs have actually made a difference. They are self-programmed to obey people with credentials and titles. Press the fear button and they obey. They like masks because in addition to Do Something About It masks are external symbols, almost like an Obama bumper sticker on a Prius. They want MAGA trogs to eschew masks to get sick and vindicate the righteous or at least to be scapegoats if the policy fails.

    Everybody else increasingly suspects that this has been BS and kabuki and resents the disruption.

    Unfortunately, the media groupthink will not permit reasonable doubt to be aired.

    • #10
  11. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    And yet not only are the borders open, the people streaming across it are not tested for COVID, nor are they  vaxxed. Instead they are put on buses and even planes so they can be sent off to other places of the country, not just the border states.

    • #11
  12. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    • #12
  13. Sam Thatcher
    Sam
    @Sam

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    There must be a secret virtue signalling contest! Of course, you and I wouldn’t know about–only the foolish Dems. Will you comply if you’re in town there? I guess I would [grumble, grumble. . . ]

    I have plans to have lunch this Tuesday with someone I haven’t seen since March 2020 and was looking forward to Covid-free fun. I will mask up for that only, otherwise I will stay out of DC

    • #13
  14. Basil Fawlty Member
    Basil Fawlty
    @BasilFawlty

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    And yet not only are the borders open, the people streaming across it are not tested for COVID, nor are they vaxxed. Instead they are put on buses and even planes so they can be sent off to other places of the country, not just the border states.

    Watch the skies!

    • #14
  15. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Sam (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    There must be a secret virtue signalling contest! Of course, you and I wouldn’t know about–only the foolish Dems. Will you comply if you’re in town there? I guess I would [grumble, grumble. . . ]

    I have plans to have lunch this Tuesday with someone I haven’t seen since March 2020 and was looking forward to Covid-free fun. I will mask up for that only, otherwise I will stay out of DC

    I just returned from grocery shopping across the Potomac.  No mandate yet, but well over half the shoppers were masked (again).  Depressing.

    • #15
  16. Cow Girl Thatcher
    Cow Girl
    @CowGirl

    The masks are being forced on Nevada again…specifically counties where the “numbers” are up. I live in Clark County (Las Vegas) so we’re back with the stupid masks as of midnight Friday July 30. I will put one on, otherwise I cannot go shopping. But, it doesn’t go on until I’m walking through the doors of the store, and it comes off as I walk toward the exit.  

    Do you notice how the numbers are always phrased in terms of percentages? Well, that means that if four people were diagnosed with Covid and then two more got it, we are experiencing a 50% increase!!! OH NO!!

    We have a Democratic governor, so he tends to follow the California ways. On the other hand, half of the people who come to Las Vegas are coming from California, so maybe our statistics are the same as theirs by the time the people come for the weekend, and then leave again. 

    Whatever the source of this stupid new masking policy—I HATE it!! 

    • #16
  17. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Cow Girl (View Comment):

    Do you notice how the numbers are always phrased in terms of percentages? Well, that means that if four people were diagnosed with Covid and then two more got it, we are experiencing a 50% increase!!! OH NO!!

     

    I rather like percentages as long as the baseline is included. But you are correct that since the baseline is often left out or buried, too much media and government misuses the percentages. (In my last job I had to conduct an extensive education of my boss on how he was misusing percentage information.)

    I get quite frosted about the emphasis on “cases” rather than hospitalizations or deaths. As recited at the beginning of the post, whether or not Covid-19 in DC is common, it is not serious. Upending society to try to keep people from feeling bad for a bit is a bad public policy tradeoff. Since it is unlikely the virus will ever completely disappear, emphasizing “cases” starts to look like a program to control people in the name of an unachievable goal. 

    • #17
  18. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Cow Girl (View Comment):

    Do you notice how the numbers are always phrased in terms of percentages? Well, that means that if four people were diagnosed with Covid and then two more got it, we are experiencing a 50% increase!!! OH NO!!

    I rather like percentages as long as the baseline is included. But you are correct that since the baseline is often left out or buried, too much media and government misuses the percentages. (In my last job I had to conduct an extensive education of my boss on how he was misusing percentage information.)

    I get quite frosted about the emphasis on “cases” rather than hospitalizations or deaths. As recited at the beginning of the post, whether or not Covid-19 in DC is common, it is not serious. Upending society to try to keep people from feeling bad for a bit is a bad public policy tradeoff. Since it is unlikely the virus will ever completely disappear, emphasizing “cases” starts to look like a program to control people in the name of an unachievable goal.

    Remember when we were told that these interventions were not a cure and that the best we could do was to “flatten the curve” to protect the health care system during the worse part of the pandemic?  Once it became clear that NYC did not need the Javits Center and a Navy hospital ship, there was not a shift to a realistic, much more limited intervention focused on the most vulnerable. We discovered instead that these new powers were in effect as long as “cases” were occurring anywhere.

    • #18
  19. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    Legal Insurrection collects a lot of facts and observations about the current Delta “outbreak” and concludes: CDC Mask Guidance … Found Devoid of Science and Reason

    Let’s face it: The CDC and its public-health peers have been disaster shows all pandemic long (recall the test it insisted was the only acceptable one, until it turned out to not work?), but the failing has reached the level that the only rational thing to do is to not take its hopeless advice as gospel.

     

    • #19
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