There's something jarring about how regional coronavirus feels: NYTimes running a front page with the 100,000 names of Americans who've died (and watching friends in NYC, DC, generally adopt mask-wearing pretty intensely) while reopened Austin bars last night were PACKED.

Also, throwback to two weeks ago when I had to explain to some fellow Austinites what asymptomatic transmission is and basics about how COVID spreads. I understand that Austin has had a much lower death toll than other places, and I am grateful we've had less loss...

But also: what the fuck

Bars on W. 6th and Dirty 6th were reportedly packed last night (and night before). I live in E. Austin and walked by the few bars that were opened and...super packed! Corner store near my house keeps dealing with people refusing to wear masks inside.

I am surprised by people's risk calculations, I suppose. I imagine that if you don't have family members/friends in the more severely affected areas, or who have had it/know people who've died, it takes on a different significance to you and there's this sense of imperviousness.

Wonder if people in areas where COVID-19 *has* been taken more seriously––with more mask-wearing/hygiene buy-in from individuals––are more optimistic about TX's reopening than I am because there's more of a belief that people can/will self-monitor.

Basically I wish we could adopt more widespread mask-wearing in order to potentially reopen more sectors and hold off on unmasked, indoor, super crowded gatherings until more is known about transmission in those settings since tentative evidence doesn't look great.

Correction: headline of "100,000 deaths" but obviously unable to list all 100,000 names; just a chunk of those. (The challenges of tweeting quickly, and it's always the tweets with mistakes or typos that take off)