There& #39;s something jarring about how regional coronavirus feels: NYTimes running a front page with the 100,000 names of Americans who& #39;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& #39;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& #39;s risk calculations, I suppose. I imagine that if you don& #39;t have family members/friends in the more severely affected areas, or who have had it/know people who& #39;ve died, it takes on a different significance to you and there& #39;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& #39;s reopening than I am because there& #39;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& #39;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& #39;s always the tweets with mistakes or typos that take off)
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