FACE MASK, SOCIAL DISTANCING ISSUES
CONTINUE IN COUNTY
"Social distancing and the wearing of face coverings by the general public continues to be a challenge for public health. Unicast's [sic] Social Distancing Scoreboard gives Columbia County a D rating. Google's Community Mobility Report shows that out of five categories, three are operating above baseline, with two operating only 5-8% below baseline. This indicates that in many areas the general public are having more social interaction now during the pandemic than they were under normal circumstances," said Columbia County Department of Health Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Chuck Kaiser on Friday.
"It has also been observed that a number of folks wearing face coverings are using masks that contain an exhalation valve," he added. "The use of such masks defeats the purpose of a face covering, since the person's unfiltered water vapors are going directly into the air when they exhale, rather than being filtered by the mask. Keeping the virus out of the air will go a long way in helping to mitigate this pandemic. We need to remain diligent with social distancing and the use of appropriate face coverings. Otherwise, we will just prolong the inconveniences we are all experiencing."
And Hudson's Chief of Police tells me that his parking enforcement officers are "required to wear masks when they can't social distance (6 feet) per the governor's edict." One, possibly 2, of the officers strolling up and down Warren Street's 6 feet wide sidewalks does not bother wearing a mask at all. All of the people he passes on the sidewalk are much closer than 6 feet to him and most are wearing masks. Why are most people in public spaces, even outdoors, wearing masks, you asks? Because it is the right and smart and respectable thing to do. Anything else right now and for the foreseeable future is just dumb and unhelpful, uniformed person or not. B HUSTON
ReplyDeleteIn the event anyone else is doubtful that the "general public [is] having more social interaction now during the pandemic than they were under normal circumstances," the so-called "baseline" parameter was derived from data collected in the first four weeks of 2020 (winter!) from an unknown number of subscribers who opted into Google's "popular times," which relies on a deliberate choice they made in the settings of Location History for Google Maps.
ReplyDeleteThese "depend on user settings, connectivity, and whether it meets our privacy threshold ..."
Uh huh ...