Businesses can say “masks required at all times” — it isn’t enough to only declare and not enforce. If a significant # (like the 100+ non-maskers yesterday at Airborne trampoline park in Draper) won’t follow and a business won’t enforce, @SaltLakeHealth should close them. #utpol https://twitter.com/sdupton/status/1319842411871232002

Earlier today, @DrAngelaCDunn linked to a CDC case study re: Arizona, suggesting pausing businesses that simply cannot reasonably have patrons distance. Lack of mask enforcement by a business in that situation certainly doesn’t create goodwill to persuade against closure. https://twitter.com/drangelacdunn/status/1319671200025513987

Airborne was:
- Very interested in enforcing its liability waiver policy.

- Not observed doing anything beyond requiring masks at entry, primarily by signage alone.

- Missing opportunities to use their PA system, staff observers, or wall space to promote the requirement.

I observed about 150 patrons in the building, and counted fewer that 20 patrons even trying to wear masks over mouth and nose.

My whole family is now staying home in precaution for 7+ days because this business wouldn’t take enough precautions themselves.

Normally, we’re not going to this kind of crowded indoor space out of abundance of caution since the pandemic started. We’re doing online school. My 9 year old has had only two opportunities to see his best friend since March, and this party was one of them.

This party group itself had much better mask compliance than other attendees — but “social proof” is hard to combat for kids wearing masks, seeing majority of people in a space not wearing them. I had to set boundaries for my kid that the establishment should have set for all.

I guess it’s odd and uncanny to see hordes of people going about crowded space exhaling vociferously like there isn’t actually a pandemic killing people.

Based on my rough counts and understanding of transmission, it seems highly probable that one or more people transmitted COVID to others yesterday at Airborne. Multiply this by many days — how many deaths are attributable to transmission via lax mask enforcement at one business?

What motivates a business enough to care about enforcing rules? Before the pandemic, every conservative you know would suggest “liability is a better deterrent than statute or regulation”. Those same folks in #utleg ironically passed Kirk Cullimore’s liability shield. #utpol

We’ve got to have different “teeth” than we have been using to break up transmission. Maybe that’s County health, maybe it’s UDOH. But we’re going to have to close some business temporarily and we’re going to need better enforcement of mask mandates somehow.

If only this state had the moral courage to “pull off the bandaid” and handle this acute spike with a short aggressive action for weeks instead of spreading uncertainty and pain for months on end (or no end).