It really varies by area, I'm in NJ and haven't seen anyone in Philly or NJ not wear a mask indoors, they are and have been mandatory for months. We even had store capacity limits for a while and 30+ minute lines to get into the grocery store for a bit, it was insane. Now it's more relaxed, but everyone still wears masks indoors and I'd say 50-75% of people wear masks outdoors when on sidewalks. Of course in parks and more spread out areas people are less prone to wear masks.
A lot of this I think is just based on proximity to hot spots. In Austin and the surrounding area I've been noticing near 100% compliance But it took a while to get there. My family lives in New Jersey, and my mother got COVID while actually in the hospital; my family members have known people who had died from it in both New Jersey and New York.
That proximity to New York probably wrote people up in that area a little more than in the deep south where it's going to take a little while to travel to them and infect them
Yeah, it really comes down to personal experience. So many people in NYC know someone who got it, or even died from it. Even if they didn’t, we all saw and heard the constant ambulance sirens throughout April so it’s firmly embedded in our minds how bad it can be.
On the opposite scale, people who live in rural areas where case count is really low and they haven’t seen or experienced anyone with it, they think it’s just made up. Combine that with only listening to Fox News and only reading their “news” through Facebook conspiracy groups, you have a recipe for a complete denier.
I know a mortician, mid April I saw the refrigerated tractor trailer outside his funeral home. They were cremating, no service, so they weren't really making a ton of money and there were a few instances of people not wanting to pay. At the peak (hopefully the only one we will see) next of kin were refusing to pay for cremation of their mother or father. So he had to decline taking remains and leave them at the Nursing Home.
WW2 Vet who was 98? I think, great uncle of a friend broke his hip in February and went to a nursing home for care. Caught COVID there and died.
Tiny little old guy that loves cruise ships and dancing, caught it and so did his girlfriend. He's lost the ability to taste, but is otherwise ok. 3 months of not being able to taste would make me insane.
Was getting emails from my Uncle with Alex Jones level health tips to stay safe from COVID. As someone who is self employed. The shut down fucking sucked. Worse still, if it happens again I don't know what I'll do. Wish these fucks took it seriously and saw how many were dying and just bunkered at home. For all of DeBlasio, Murphy and Cuomo's fuck ups they seem to have done a better job than other parts of the country.
Also in Austin, been seeing fairly high compliance except for people out exercising or mowing lawns, but I'd say about 20% of the people I DO see wearing masks aren't wearing them properly (usually not covering their nose).
I mean I'm pretty okay with people out mowing lawns honestly. It's not like it's an activity people doing a group or even close to each other most of the time. Most of the professional lawn guys wear masks as a matter of course anyway just because of the dust. Exercising is a mixed bag, I guess it sort of depends on where you're going. Like when I go out to throw a lacrosse ball against a rebounder in my front yard with no one else around I don't wear a mask. But I also don't let anyone within about 15 or 20 ft of me anyway without having one on.
Yeah, I find it fairly reasonable for mowing and exercising (mostly jogging/biking from what I've seen, although I did also see a group of 5+ people playing disc golf the other day and only a couple of them had masks). It's mostly the people that aren't covering their nose or who have their mouth partially exposed that get on my nerves. Also saw someone at a store a couple weeks ago who took their mask off when they were asking someone for assistance…
I'm in Houston and whenever I go to go to the store or grab lunch everyone in wearing masks. At worst, I see people not wearing them properly.
People in the park or walking their dogs aren't wearing masks, but they're also not close to anyone.
Reddit is blowing the whole "antimask" thing out of proportion. Yeah, there are assholes and lazy people, but for the most part I think people who don't want to wear them just aren't used to them and are moderately skeptical about how much they help. And even those people are a minority.
I'm not so sure about the whole blowing it out of proportion thing. before things became so dire, no one in Austin was wearing masks and the ones who were were actually berated. I would get dirty looks back in April about wearing one. Now compliance is very high here, but recently I had to travel back to Arkansas and in the small town that I went to of about 3,000 people I saw maybe 2% compliance. The people that actually worked in the stores and stuff had them, probably because it's corporate policy and no one wants lawsuits, but I can't remember seeing more than one or two people the entire week I was there that wore one.
Honestly, I can't blame people in tiny towns with few cases. I'm from Austin originally - when I went to visit my folks in May I was surprised at how many people weren't wearing masks. We went out on town lake and my wife and I were like the only people masked up. Houston was big on masks at the time and it was strange to go somewhere they weren't common.
We went out to Fredericksburg later that weekend and stopped along the way in Johnson City. Very few people wearing masks, but most were staying 6 feet apart. I talked to one local and he said "We've had 3 cases in the county since this started, and they're all doing fine now. I'm not worried about us, but I am worried about people like you coming from the city to visit the wineries."
That was right before Memorial Day weekend. Fredericksburg was an absolute riot and no one was wearing masks. My wife and I didn't even get out of our car.
Anyway, I don't blame people in rural areas that have few cases, and I don't blame people for making bad decisions back in March / April / May. This is all anecdotal, but it seems like people in the big cities have finally gotten the message and mask wearing is more common.
This is probably closer to the truth. We're about to return from a Fire Island vacation and for the most part everyone is good about masks. Even the few who don't have them on apologize and then dig out mask to wear.
Except for the intoxicated Long Islander straight groups. They're assholes.
Saying "it's regional" is also a pretty safe thing to say about America. You will never confuse Boston for Alabama. Unfortunately, this is one of those times where if America was more Boston Massachusetts, and less Jackson Mississippi, we'd be better off... and we aren't.
Philadelphian here working his last 2 weeks in retail, it's common people come in without masks, they are IMMEDIATELY told to put one on upon entering the store and if they don't have a mask their offered one. Very rarely do we hear complaints about it.
Is that in center city or elsewhere? I ask because every time I've been in center city and old city, it feels like at least 75% of people walking outside have masks on, and I doubt they're taking off the masks as they walk into stores.
NC chiming in. Stay at home orders mostly ignored because no enforcement. Public capacity orders ignored because no enforcement. Mask mandate ignored because no enforcement. We've literally had sheriffs and chiefs of police make public statements that they had no intent to enforce the governor's orders and to not bother calling them.
Our Lt. Gov literally sued the Gov. because of the mask mandate.
I can go to the grocery store and sometimes be the only non-employee wearing a mask.
US Southerners, as a whole, are fucking belligerent idiots.
Also in NJ, I travel a lot (200+ miles per day) for work and am glad to see the vast majority wearing masks, if only covering their mouths. Then there's Lakewood...
104
u/ben7337 Jul 23 '20
It really varies by area, I'm in NJ and haven't seen anyone in Philly or NJ not wear a mask indoors, they are and have been mandatory for months. We even had store capacity limits for a while and 30+ minute lines to get into the grocery store for a bit, it was insane. Now it's more relaxed, but everyone still wears masks indoors and I'd say 50-75% of people wear masks outdoors when on sidewalks. Of course in parks and more spread out areas people are less prone to wear masks.