Let’s get right down to what’s important. Yesterday was Canada Day; what did I have for dinner. If you don’t know the answer you don’t know me well. I had poutine! I didn’t have any gravy in the house, so I had to make an expedition to Stop & Shop. As long as I was heading that way I went all the way over to Riverdale to get bagels. Instead of walking I braved the bus. It left me one block from one of the two bagel stores in the neighborhood and I didn’t have to climb the 101-step stairway. I walked by the first bagel store. Why? It was closed and I missed it. I used Google Maps to guide me to the other store and found that it was closed. Oy. I meant to go today but once again the day got away from me.
I walked from there to Stop & Shop. That was 17 minutes away walking and 16 by bus so I walked. To get there I had to walk down the 101-step stairway. I started doing a mask survey when I got off the bus as I had not done one in Riverdale. The results were starkly different than in my immediate neighborhood where hardly anyone wears a mask. In Riverdale 41 people wore a mask and only 17 didn’t, that’s a 71%. The stairway is a clear neighborhood border, so I started the count over starting over. It was markedly different, 4 with masks 16 without, that’s 20%. This surprised me as in previous trips to Stop & Shop and Aldi on Broadway most people wore masks. So, I started the count again when I reached Broadway; 21 masked and 9 unmasked, that’s 70%. Broadway is a shopping street bringing people together from many neighborhoods. Perhaps that’s more indicative of the general population than the area between the stairs and Broadway. This shows how much depends on where people live. Each neighborhood establishes its own norms. The more people that wear masks the more people see it as the normal thing to do. Each time you wear a mask you aren’t just protecting others from catching COVID-19 from you, you are encouraging others to do the same. Even if you tested positive for anti-bodies and it’s confirmed that it confers immunity, continue to wear a mask when you are out.
In Stop & Shop, I didn’t count but almost everyone was wearing a mask properly. There were a few nose peepers and while waiting to go in I saw one woman without a shopping card enter without a mask. Someone at the door let her in. I do not know what that was about, and I didn’t encounter her once inside.
I’ve been thinking hard about how we get everyone to wear masks. It’s going to be difficult until we get a new president. The states are strapped for money and can’t afford new initiatives. The federal government is allowed to run a deficit and should finance the effort. During wars nobody worries about running a deficit. You borrow the money and figure out how to pay it afterward. Why should a pandemic be any different? We are in an emergency situation. We should be selling Pandemic Bonds the same way we sold War Bonds during WWII. It not only finances the fight, but it gets people feeling involved. It let’s them own the response. With a new president we could do this. We’d have a president who would wear a mask himself and making mandatory mask wearing a national policy. Biden has promised to do that. We can do more. There should be a massive Public Health Education program. We should be seeing ads encouraging mask wearing everywhere. There should be TV spots with celebrities wearing masks asking us to wear masks. They should be a cross-section of America and include leaders from minority communities. We need to understand who is and who isn’t wearing masks and target the communities that aren’t. During the rise of AIDS, it was discovered that message to wear condoms was not making headway with New York’s Spanish speakers, so they started a series of ads on public transit targeting Latinos. It was a soap opera comic strip following the adventures of Marisol and her friends. It started with her boyfriend refusing to wear a condom. They were not explicit, but they didn’t dance around the sensitive parts. They were in English and Spanish and I faithfully read the English ones to find out what happens next. One of the best health campaigns I’ve seen. We need that now.
We should be hiring people to encourage mask wearing everywhere and enforce the mask wearing mandate indoors. I was thinking of people from the local community standing in the street handing people masks. We could even save money by having sponsors’ names on the mask. I proudly wear my WFUV mask. Why not have people wearing a Starbucks, Verizon, and Apple masks, the i-mask. Businesses can be mandated to enforce mask-wearing laws. Inspectors could come in and find businesses where people aren’t wearing masks. Perhaps a warning at first and then progressive fines, the same way we enforce minimum ages to sell alcohol and cigarettes
The trick is to make wearing a mask expected of people. Then social pressure can take over. One thing not to do is shame people who wear masks. That is ineffective. I have stopped giving people a glare when I see them maskless. The thing I’m trying now is just pointing to my nose if I see someone’s nose exposed or if they are wearing the mask over their chin. I was encouraged when one young woman thanked me for pointing it out to her. Yesterday’s reactions were not as good. On the bus one guy gave me a hostile “What” when I did it. He was standing next to where I was sitting. I was glad when he got off the bus the next stop. He was the only one on the bus maskless. The other person I did it to just seemed oblivious to what I was getting at. I will continue to try it. You should too and let me know if you have any success.
Another day has gotten away from me. Now I’ll go and make not breakfast but dinner. Until the next time My Gentle Readers.
Wise Madness 