We Must Wear Masks

Face To Face by Nancy Ohanian

Over a dozen states have mandated that anyone in a public indoor space must wear a mask. CNN: "With many states starting to lift coronavirus restrictions, more people are venturing out in public, but the number of cases is still rising in nearly half of them. That's where masks come in. A recent study found that the use of masks and face coverings has been the most effective way to reduce person-to-person spread of coronavirus."

In California, Gavin Newsom's order says that masks must also be worn when social distancing is not possible. But Newsom is a coward and us afraid to have his bullshit orders enforced. So they aren't and California is now consistently reporting the most new coronavirus cases everyday-- except on days when Texas spokes enough to beat the Golden State. California has had the third most cases nationally, after New York and New Jersey and will surpass New Jersey over the weekend. On Friday, California reported +3,392 new cases and now has 4,313 cases per million, a number that is growing very rapidly.

Trump brought a special guest star to Tulsa this evening

Connecticut's guidelines are strong but-- but like California-- there is weak governor and virtually no enforcement of any kind. Delaware-- no enforcement. DC, no enforcement. Hawaii's rules have some teeth-- a $5,000 or up to a year in jail. Illinois has the strongest rules-- anyone who goes outside their home must wear a mask... but no enforcement. Kentucky same thing but not only is there no enforcement, the "mandate" explicitly says there are no fines or coercion of any kind. Maine has a mask rule for indoors with no enforcement. Maryland-- no enforcement. Massachusetts indoor and outdoor, but no enforcement. Michigan same. New Jersey and Pennsylvania both mandate that businesses must provide masks to anyone who doesn't have one and New Jersey's mandate prohibits anyone from getting on public transportation without a mask. New Mexico, no enforcement. New York has fines but no one seems to get them. Rhode Island-- indoor and outdoor masks but no enforcement. No other state has statewide restrictions.

Unenforced mandates are not much better than no rules at all. And that means spikes everywhere (but Hawaii). Friday's---> Saturday's worst spikes:

• Texas +4,497---> 4,250
• Florida +3,822---> 4,049
• California +3,608---> 4,363
• Arizona +3,246---> 3,109
• Tennessee +1,188---> 429
• New York +1,167---> 841
• North Carolina +1,150--->1,773
• Georgia +1,097---> 1,800
• South Carolina +1,083---> 1,155

There were also dangerous spikes Friday in Alabama (+796), Missouri (+713), Arkansas (+703), Utah (+586), Nevada (+410) and Oklahoma (+352). The country had new 33,539 cases, yesterday, the most in a very long time. Usually it's just around 20,000 a day, although that's been ticking up since all the re-openings.

And for the those who say, "So what; it's still a low number"... let's a take a peak at the real economic consequences of this as outlined by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (the Real-Time Population Survey-- RPS) yesterday: Now that re-openings are going forward, the employment rate has risen from 51.6% in mid-May to 59.6% for the week ending June 13.

That indicates that the unemployment rate declined. In mid-May the rate was 16.0%, then rose to 21.6 for the week ending May 30 and for the week ending June 13 is 19.4%.

That's good news... a 19.4% unemployment rate! Compliments of the pandemic. Want to make sure it doesn't start going up again? Wear a mask.