We have very strong evidence by now that a major driver of covid spread is superspreading events indoors, at some distance from the spreader, but proximity at the arbitrary 2 meter distance is still being treated like a talisman against infection six months into this disaster.
This fixation on six-foot social distancing as magic makes people both too risk-averse (you don't have to panic that someboody walked by you outside) and too accepting of risk (senators not masking up because they're more than 6 feet apart in a crowded, unventilated indoor space)
Knowing nothing at all about the disease or how it spreads at first, you would expect practical advice about it to change over time as we learned more. But that hasn't happened. The advice is stuck in the same place as in March, with only the welcome addition of mask wearing
I see a lot of scolding people for being more lax in their behavior, but how do you expect everyohe to stay vigilant when there is no public communication, the CDC is silent, the president is a liar, and there is no articulated plan or strategy for a pandemic that may last years?
Given the leadership and information vacuum, Americans have been acting rationally by their lights. When case counts and deaths go up, they become more risk-averse. When no one around them is dying, they relax their vigilance. There is endless moralizing about this to no good end
If you want people to act differently, like wear masks universally even when most people are healthy, you have to EXPLAIN this in a repetitive, clear, persuasive way, model the behavior, and do it outside the confines of the political carnival. Too few in the US have done that
You also need to give people some sense of what to expect. "Stay indoors with your kids until further notice" is not an acceptable public policy. The reason reopening took hold too early is in part the fact that it sounded like a plan. What is the plan right now? Do we have one?
Other than that, how's everyone's summer?
