Yesterday I went in to Redway and Garberville CA for the first time in a week or so. The change was dramatic. The cafes were finally closed, the big garden/farm supply store was limiting customers to 5 at a time, virtually everyone was practicing #WearAMask

This was in contrast to how lax and indifferent it has been here till now. I had been encountering regular opinions that #COVID19 was "media hype" and that "we're too isolated here" for it to be a problem. It finally hit a tipping point where *not* taking precautions seems weird.

I like to think I can take at least a little credit for pushing for sanitation and distance precautions loudly and early (February, but I'll have to go back and look), and being a relentless advocate for masks before most had even thought about it.

Most of the "masks" I saw were homemade. Some were surgical masks. Many people wore bandanas or scarves loosely wrapped around their faces. These latter, especially, won't do a whole lot to protect the wearer, but will at least contain a good percentage of cough spray.

But OMG! "Masks [or scarves!] aren't perfect"! Avoiding #COVID19 requires multiple personal-level measures: sheltering, distancing, masks, sanitation. None are perfect, but each adds incremental protection that, cumulatively, at population scale, becomes effective.

These personal measures can have a big impact but only will be effective when combined with large scale institutional response: widespread testing, contact tracing where feasible, economic safety net support for sheltering, etc.

While none of the masks I saw people wear would provide safety in a room full of coughing people, the combination of no coughing people, good ventilation and physical distance (e.g. 5 people limit in store) means that even loose masks will provide *some* incremental protection.

Universal mask use does something less intuitive by sending an unmistakeable visual signal: #COVID19 is serious and we have to act accordingly. Yesterday mask wearers were in the majority by far. I'd wager that a survey would correlate mask wearing with other protective behavior.

Mask wearing becomes a form of solidarity: we are all in this together. It provides "social proof" that this is the correct response and provides the necessary permission to engage in a novel behavior. "But a cheap mask gives a false sense of security!" #WearAMask because:

The real challenge of fighting #COVID19 is not technical, but social and psychological. We need to change behavior and ideas at the personal level and the global level. Achieving the right narrative framework is key to changing behavior. You can refine behavioral details later.

Once people to accept #WearAMask as a key part of a comprehensive #COVID19 strategy, getting them to wear the correct mask is the easy part. We were initially inundated with "sing dumb songs and wash your hands" messages. The same mass messaging should now be done with masks.

No (civilian grade) mask is 100% effective at stopping germs. Neither is sheltering in place. Absolute sheltering means that people will starve to death in their homes. So again: multiple imperfect measures, combined at population scale, to produce an effective #COVID19 response.

We educate people about when and how to shelter in place. We educate people about how to keep physical distance. We explain the need to restrict travel.

We can educate people about how to maximize the benefit of masks and provide better ones to those who need them. #WearAMask

The hardest part of #WearAMask is achieving the widespread adoption of a novel and very visible and awkward behavior. The incessant mixed messaging coming from government, pundits and medical experts delayed the inevitable. It's time for them all to quit sowing confusion.

Repeating: a potent benefit of #WearAMask for #COVID19 is strong visible signaling that we're in a crisis and all need to be on board. Masks do help, especially once people learn how to wear them and have the right ones. *And when used as part of a grand strategy.*

An anecdotal observation from Garberville and Oakland/Berkeley: mask wearers I observed tended to stay apart; those w/o masks more often grouped closely. If this held at population scale, it would suggests #WearAMask correlates w/other protective anti- #COVID19 measures.

(Someone should study this.)

Clear and consistent mass communications about #WearAMask needs to be implemented just as it has for sheltering, distancing and hand washing. (You notice no one's harping on hand washing much anymore now that the evidence is showing the obvious: that #COVID19 is droplet spread)

Now that people are finally wearing masks is when the risk of "false sense of security" needs to be addressed. Achieving widespread practice of this novel behavior was the hard part. Educating on the details will be comparatively easy. #WearAMask but do it right.

Oh, ugh, this thread is disjointed.
Somethings need to be repeated, so

Off to start me day. The phone is ringing already.