I personally think that when people are wearing masks it's pretty darn safe.
The CDC just said that masks don't just protect bystanders from the wearer, but do offer some protection to the wearer from bystanders.
But masks don't do squat if you take them off around your friends and [non-household] family because hey, they must be safe, right?
Instead, we're talking about locking down restaurants again instead of telling people to go to restaurants only with members of their own household.
I get what you're saying, and mostly agree, but you and I are coming at it from the perspective of married folks with kids. Our only social life is to be around our spouses, and our kids. So going to a restaurant with only our own household is natural and easy and the norm.
When unmarried folks without kids go to restaurants, they are-- nearly inevitably and almost by definition-- going there with people that are NOT members of their own household. So to them, what you're suggesting, is absolutely zero social life. And, that actually sort of worked for 6-8 months depending on where you live. But at this point, you'd be telling them they're just not allowed to live a non-solitary life. And after a half a year of doing largely that, it's just not something they're willing to continue doing. And I can't blame them one bit.
What we're doing isn't working. Blaming people for being selfish a-holes or whatever, isn't going to solve the problem.
It's time to actually start thinking about real solutions. Living largely isolated lives isn't sustainable and therefore it's not a viable solution.
Time to think harder about what the actual threats are, and how to minimize them.
I've already suggested mandating improved filtration and ventilation in inside locations. It would be expensive for sure, but is it better than going out of business? For a lot of companies, yes, definitely. That's just one thing, but we need to stop thinking about this as a social issue because we can't possibly fix it that way. We need to start applying our vast resources in equipment technology, and process flow knowledge, and other unexplored areas, to develop realistic solutions.
Because we can't fix the social ones. It's not working.
