Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[Dancefortwo]

A friend of ours was standing in line as a store and the lady in front of her had a bunch of party paraphernalia so she casually asked the lady if she was having a party.  "No", said the lady.   "We're having a big wedding"  Our friend kinda mentioned, you know, something like - "Ya know, only 10 people are allowed at a gathering."  The lady smiled and said in a light hearted way, "Meh, who ever dies, dies."      

I think a lot of people have the attitude that nothing bad is going to happen to them.  I don't think it's science denying, or hoax thinking going on here.  I think it's the common,  "Oh well, whatever"....."nothing bad is going to happen to me" syndrome.  It's like car accidents or cancer or other awful events, "it happens to other people, not me". I really think this is what is going on.

There's that, but I feel that something else, something weird, is going on here in Massachusetts the past week or so.  I have seen more people out without masks than I have in months.  

Took a walk one town away...bunch of houses with those thin-blue-line, we-support-the-police flags (not a single black lives matter sign--definitely not the way things are in my town) and encountered maybe eight people (in clumps of one and twos) also out walking, none with a mask, and not a single one of them even tried to go towards the other side of the sidewalk when passing me.  In fact, a couple  said "hi" loudly and rather forcefully to me.  Went into a store in that town: cashier was masked, customers were masked, store owner was not.  

Then today I went to a standalone ATM, one of the enclosed ones, a different next town over, and a guy comes out of it, no mask.  He holds the door open for me and practically screams "Hi, how are you today?" basically into my face, right after he's been inside breathing all over the fucking place for a couple of minutes.  

It almost feels like an orchestrated campaign.  And these particular people were all white, from a lady I took to be in her 30s up to people maybe in their 50s-60s.  

I live in Massachusetts; COVID has killed more than 8,000 people in our state, so there is pretty much no one who doesn't know someone affected by the disease, especially in suburbs just a few miles from Boston.      

It has been hot and humid here, but these folks seem to be deliberately and quite aggressively violating the social distancing norms that had been established.

I've noticed the same thing in CA and we're number one in documented Covid cases.  Yet despite this, my neighbors are out walking about in close proximity to others, stopping to chat, and working in their front yards for hours--all without masks.  My neighbor saw me in my front yard wearing a mask and came over to talk to me without a mask on.  Luckily, she social distanced but still--no mask.  I've seen delivery drivers delivering packages with no masks on.  How many houses do they deliver to, how many people do they come in contact with day in and day out--all while not wearing a mask? I just don't understand it.  Even if someone thinks they are "invincible," surely they have relatives or friends who are elderly or have medical conditions that are not as "invincible?" Additionally, there are people who think the virus is site specific.  A lady at our work is against our physical office ever reopening 'cause Covid--yet she was going to the beach with numerous others--all without a mask--and surfing every day.

Our mail carrier delivers the mail with not gloves or mask.   I work in the front yard with no mask but my neighbors are at least two hundred feet away on either side.  I keep my mask hanging around my neck with an eyeglass chain similer to  this, except it's attached to my mask elastic with two little safety pins on each side. That way I can quickly cover up my face.  I don't have to pull it out of my pocket or purse.  Works great and it's stylish too! Ohh la la.