Years ago Ohio had Environmental Exhaust checks for like 6 counties.The ones that Cleveland,Cinci,Columbus,Toledo,Akron and Dayton were in.Which was BS.Pollution is pollution fight it everywhere or not at all.Same here IMO if it's really contagious then strangle it on all fronts(in crowded conditions)
I disagree. Pollution is pollution, yes. But air quality controls != "pollution". Air quality is also impacted by density.
A bunch of rural folks with polluting trucks, where population density is extremely low, is not going to cause an air quality problem.
Those same folks rolling those trucks in Cleveland, when aggregate and added to all the other cars there adding particulates [even if not high-polluting] causes an air quality problem.
Now, with COVID-19 it is a little different because one infected person going from a rural town to downtown Cleveland for one day could end up a superspreader and start a hot spot, whereas one polluting truck from a rural town spending a day in Cleveland won't make any measurable difference to air quality.
However I do believe that given population density, usage of mass transit, etc, there might be reasons to treat this differently in different areas. While downtown Manhattan it might be reasonable to mandate mask usage any time you're outside, even here in my town of Mission Viejo (where population density is high by national standards) it wouldn't make sense. I can take my dog for a walk never coming within 20' of another person. But mandating mask usage when out at the grocery store or truly in "public" makes sense.
I.e. what's necessary to "strangle it" may be different in different conditions.