In SF, people are still not permitted to gather in groups of >12. Even outdoors. Even with full mask & distancing compliance. Even for weddings. Even for funerals.
Whatever you think of the protests, they have *got* to be wearing down the sense of solidarity required for this.
Many of us knew or suspected from the beginning that a lot of what has been dictated by COVID health orders couldn't effectively be enforced on individuals in the US. We have been relying on enforcement on businesses/orgs + a shared social responsibility. The latter is shattered
Basically, the sum of the available toolkit in the US amounts only to half-measures, and those measures are the same ones that are leaving [probably lifelong] scars on the earning potential of new entrants to the labor market + upwardly-mobile blue collar biz owners + their staff
Meanwhile, people who follow the rules can protect *themselves* from the virus, but at the cost of nearly every protective factor we've identified against the ever-rising "deaths of despair": suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse. And without broader compliance, COVID still spikes.
At this point, urban centers need to figure out what policy is sustainable on a timescale of *years* and start moving toward that. The days of "if we just do this for 6-8 weeks..." are over. Cities like SF got their 2 months of solid compliance and they largely squandered it.
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