[2006alum]

I was under the impression that cloth-type face masks are only really useful against casual spread in brief encounters, and that it would do close to nothing in a setting like an hour-long lecture or restaurant dinner, to say nothing of an airplane. This may be incorrect, though.

Flying is very nerve wracking these days.  I left DC for the SFBA on March 13, when DC had just 30 cases.  I wore an N95 mask in an abundance of caution, and a passenger in 1st class jumped out to block my path, demanding to know whether I was sick.

The DC Metroplex has almost as many cases as California with 1/7th the people.  So I don't really want to get on a plane to head back there.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...us/611335/

Enlightening article - thanks for sharing. And it really reinforced my skepticism about the assumption that as soon as governments allow for "reopening" of the economy things will go back to normal:

Flying has always been unpleasant, and rife with small indignities. It’s likely that I was more alert than usual to the agitation of those around me. But as America lurches awkwardly toward an economic “reopening” in the weeks ahead, my fraught travel experience highlighted an unwelcome truth: The glittering allure of “normalcy” that waits on the other end of these stay-at-home orders is a mirage.


The things we miss most about our pre-pandemic lives—dine-in restaurants and recreational travel, karaoke nights and baseball games—require more than government permission to be enjoyed. These activities are predicated not only on close human contact but mutual affection and good-natured patience, on our ability to put up with one another. Governors can lift restrictions and companies can implement public-health protocols. But until we stop reflexively seeing people as viral threats, those old small pleasures we crave are likely to remain elusive.

  

As long as we're detecting tens of thousands of new cases around the country every day, I don't see how we can really go back to "normal."

[2006alum]

I was under the impression that cloth-type face masks are only really useful against casual spread in brief encounters, and that it would do close to nothing in a setting like an hour-long lecture or restaurant dinner, to say nothing of an airplane. This may be incorrect, though.

Flying is very nerve wracking these days.  I left DC for the SFBA on March 13, when DC had just 30 cases.  I wore an N95 mask in an abundance of caution, and a passenger in 1st class jumped out to block my path, demanding to know whether I was sick.

The DC Metroplex has almost as many cases as California with 1/7th the people.  So I don't really want to get on a plane to head back there.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...us/611335/

Enlightening article - thanks for sharing. And it really reinforced my skepticism about the assumption that as soon as governments allow for "reopening" of the economy things will go back to normal:

Flying has always been unpleasant, and rife with small indignities. It’s likely that I was more alert than usual to the agitation of those around me. But as America lurches awkwardly toward an economic “reopening” in the weeks ahead, my fraught travel experience highlighted an unwelcome truth: The glittering allure of “normalcy” that waits on the other end of these stay-at-home orders is a mirage.


The things we miss most about our pre-pandemic lives—dine-in restaurants and recreational travel, karaoke nights and baseball games—require more than government permission to be enjoyed. These activities are predicated not only on close human contact but mutual affection and good-natured patience, on our ability to put up with one another. Governors can lift restrictions and companies can implement public-health protocols. But until we stop reflexively seeing people as viral threats, those old small pleasures we crave are likely to remain elusive.

  

As long as we're detecting tens of thousands of new cases around the country every day, I don't see how we can really go back to "normal."