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I've been all around the Cumberland/Dauphin/Lancaster Counties area as my wife and I explore our new home, and I rarely see anyone without a mask. And by rarely, I do mean it. Much different than what I read here. I'm visiting Wal-Marts, Costcos, Sam's Clubs, B and N Bookstores, several coffee shops, 3 morning Masses, furniture stores, grocery stores, and gas stations.
I have seen almost everyone wearing masks. Most places have signs posted denying entry without one.
I've been all around the Cumberland/Dauphin/Lancaster Counties area as my wife and I explore our new home, and I rarely see anyone without a mask. And by rarely, I do mean it. Much different than what I read here. I'm visiting Wal-Marts, Costcos, Sam's Clubs, B and N Bookstores, several coffee shops, 3 morning Masses, furniture stores, grocery stores, and gas stations.
I have seen almost everyone wearing masks. Most places have signs posted denying entry without one.
Walmarts in Western PA are the worst. I recently talked to a Walmart manager and was told they can't enforce the mask mandate due to HIPAA. They make no effort to tell people that a mask is required. My wife talked to someone at a different Walmart and go the same HIPAA excuse. We were told they would not enforce the mask mandate until Walmart corporate told them to start enforcing the regulation. We are now shopping at Giant Eagle and Aldi's.
Even in areas where Covid 19 cases have dropped significantly, people are still wearing masks where they are mandatory. Shopping, in businesses. But social distancing seems to have been relaxed and people aren't as concerned about that anymore. And if you go outside, in parks or in parking lots, the masks come off. I don't think that can be enforced and people don't want to wear them.
People just want the restrictions to end. We're in an eastern county that was hard hit but now has seen a dramatic reduction in new cases and people are either no longer afraid or just tired of the arbitrary and mostly pointless rules. The virus has to work its course. Herd immunity can be achieved. Lockdowns and the safety restrictions can be marginally( at best) effective in slowing down the spread, but nothing more. Actually, closing businesses did nothing to slow the spread and just did economic damage that was pointless. You went to a big box retailer and that was more dangerous than a small business. I can't believe the Governor and health Secretary are still in office over their dumb****ery over the handling of this event.
tired of the arbitrary and mostly pointless rules.
I don't know if it was government directive or the stores themselves, but the grocery stores where I live reduced their hours. So the number of people waiting in line to get into the stores when they were open was much higher. That seems counterproductive to me...
Even in areas where Covid 19 cases have dropped significantly, people are still wearing masks where they are mandatory. Shopping, in businesses. But social distancing seems to have been relaxed and people aren't as concerned about that anymore. And if you go outside, in parks or in parking lots, the masks come off. I don't think that can be enforced and people don't want to wear them.
People just want the restrictions to end. We're in an eastern county that was hard hit but now has seen a dramatic reduction in new cases and people are either no longer afraid or just tired of the arbitrary and mostly pointless rules. The virus has to work its course. Herd immunity can be achieved. Lockdowns and the safety restrictions can be marginally( at best) effective in slowing down the spread, but nothing more. Actually, closing businesses did nothing to slow the spread and just did economic damage that was pointless. You went to a big box retailer and that was more dangerous than a small business. I can't believe the Governor and health Secretary are still in office over their dumb****ery over the handling of this event.
NOTHING?
The curves in Pennsylvania (and New Jersey, which enacted similar restrictions around the same time Pennsylvania did) rose nowhere near as high as they did in New York State.
The whole point of the restrictions was to avoid breaking the healthcare system by filling the hospitals, which most likely would have happened in the state's more urbanized portions absent any restrictions.
Everyone saw what happened in Italy. And the strain of the virus that landed here was the more virulent Italian mutation. (Apparently, this mutation is now making its way across the Sunbelt. Here's a story from Houston about it. Houston's ICUs and hospital beds are nearly full. You didn't read stories about overwhelmed hospitals in Pennsylvania.)
While it may have struck you as stupid or odd to keep big-box stores open and small shops closed — and it did strike me as stupid to include real estate agencies in the "non-life-sustaining" category, since the virus did not put moving plans on hold; it would have been (and was) easy for the industry to adopt safe practices like virtual showings and remote closings, because everyone did exactly that when real estate sales went underground for the duration — there was a certain logic to the retail decision: the small corner grocers you find in neighborhoods all over Philadelphia did remain open, because they sold "life-sustaining" merchandise. So did the small drugstores. And all the big-box discount department stores have food sections; Walmart Supercenters combine a department store with a full-sized supermarket, and the design of the buildings would have made it impossible to keep the supermarket open while closing the rest of the store.
(The closing of the state-run liquor stores — they remained open for curbside delivery and time-limited in-person shopping in New Jersey — I attribute to the state's lingering Prohibitionist sentiment, the reason we got a state monopoly on the retail sale of package liquor in the first place.)
The top brass at Phillymag told us we would all be working from home about a week and a half before Gov. Wolf and Mayor Kenney issued their shutdown orders. They took the move, they said, out of "an abundance of caution." I'd say that phrase was the operational one that motivated Gov. Wolf and Secretary Levine. Given both what happened here and what I see happening now where leaders decided not to exercise "an abundance of caution," I'll take what Pennsylvania did over what those states did and are now doing. With something like this, public health does take precedence over economic health, at least for a while.
And given what's happening in the Sunbelt, there's a danger that it may have to once again.
I don't know if it was government directive or the stores themselves, but the grocery stores where I live reduced their hours. So the number of people waiting in line to get into the stores when they were open was much higher. That seems counterproductive to me...
Good point about the reduced hours. Most Walmarts were open 24/7 before the pandemic. My local Walmart is now open 7AM - 8:30 PM. This is forcing more people into the store at the same time. This is definitely counterproductive. I have not seen any stores where people had to wait in line to get into the store.
It's amazing how every average Joe has turned into an epidemiologist with all of the knowledge and medical training to tell actual experts how to handle a public health crisis.
Sorry, but just because you personally don't like restrictions, that doesn't mean they're not necessary or effective. It's blatantly obvious at this point that the states that took the laid back, careless approach are and will continue to pay the price both in terms of dramatically rising illness and economic disruption compared to states like Pennsylvania that took a firm and early stance.
This pandemic is a true test of courage and leadership. I'll take politicians who actually acknowledge that there's a problem and take a proactive approach rather than the tinfoil hat-wearing "Plandemic!" shouters any day.
I don't know if it was government directive or the stores themselves, but the grocery stores where I live reduced their hours. So the number of people waiting in line to get into the stores when they were open was much higher. That seems counterproductive to me...
Quote:
Originally Posted by villageidiot1
Good point about the reduced hours. Most Walmarts were open 24/7 before the pandemic. My local Walmart is now open 7AM - 8:30 PM. This is forcing more people into the store at the same time. This is definitely counterproductive. I have not seen any stores where people had to wait in line to get into the store.
One big reason just about every retailer that was open throughout the shutdown cut back on their hours was to give employees time to perform extra cleaning and sanitation of the premises. In addition, in urban areas, cutbacks in transit service made it more difficult for some workers to get to their jobs late at night. I'm not sure that factored into the stores' decisions to reduce shopping hours, but I'll bet that the general restrictions on non-essential travel might have.
And given that the cutback hours compressed more shoppers (including panic shoppers) into less time, I'm sure the management wanted to give the staff some time to rest and recuperate.
One big reason just about every retailer that was open throughout the shutdown cut back on their hours was to give employees time to perform extra cleaning and sanitation of the premises. In addition, in urban areas, cutbacks in transit service made it more difficult for some workers to get to their jobs late at night. I'm not sure that factored into the stores' decisions to reduce shopping hours, but I'll bet that the general restrictions on non-essential travel might have.
And given that the cutback hours compressed more shoppers (including panic shoppers) into less time, I'm sure the management wanted to give the staff some time to rest and recuperate.
There are also a Giant Eagle and a Martin's Food in my town. While Walmart went from 24/7 to 7AM-8:30PM, Giant Eagle is open 7AM-9PM, and Martin's is open 6AM–11PM. Even the Fien Wine and Good Spirits store is open until 9PM.
I don't buy the extra cleaning and sanitation of the premises argument. I thought long and hard about going back to the gym after the shutdown. After talking to my son who is a doctor, I came to the conclusion that cleaning and disinfecting provides minimal protection. I still do my own disinfecting at the gym, but I realize the disinfectant is usually not on the equipment long enough to kill the virus. This is an airborne virus that needs to get deep in your lungs to infect you. Everyone wearing masks is the best protection, but too many people are whining about wearing masks.
The situation at grocery stores is different. During my last trip to Walmart, they had run out of disinfectant wipes to at least wipe off the handle to my grocery cart. Other than the products I purchased, the only other surface I touched was the handle to the milk cooler. What good does it do if that cooler handle or the grocery carts are disinfected after they close for the evening?
What else are they going to extra clean and sanitize that is going to take that extra time? Disinfecting the floor does not help. Meanwhile, they now have more people walking around the stores without masks. It is virtually impossible to socially distance in a grocery store. Did you ever stop to pick something up and someone reaches around you?
Regarding restrictions on non-essential travel, I live in a rural county and very few people paid attention to that restriction. And that restriction has been lifted, but the store hours are still reduced.
It's amazing how every average Joe has turned into an epidemiologist with all of the knowledge and medical training to tell actual experts how to handle a public health crisis.
Sorry, but just because you personally don't like restrictions, that doesn't mean they're not necessary or effective. It's blatantly obvious at this point that the states that took the laid back, careless approach are and will continue to pay the price both in terms of dramatically rising illness and economic disruption compared to states like Pennsylvania that took a firm and early stance.
This pandemic is a true test of courage and leadership. I'll take politicians who actually acknowledge that there's a problem and take a proactive approach rather than the tinfoil hat-wearing "Plandemic!" shouters any day.
+1 again, Duderino.
I cannot believe my fellow compatriots are spewing some of this careless, baseless propaganda as if they are season public health experts. In the other COVID-related thread, people are again touting their limited definition of the term "freedom" because they do not want to wear a mask. I honestly think the only cure for such thinking is to lay off the Fox News and consider the significance of 134K+ deaths at a time when COVID has not even peaked in many states. You can wear a mask, keep six feet apart, and sanitize while in public. It is not too much to ask.
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