I remain completely puzzled by how much resistance exists to using the face cover or mask in any setting. I also am amazed by how many people seem to think they have the right to use it improperly, like a chin guard, hanging off the nose or perhaps completely off the nose and mouth.  It’s really a mystery to me how this has been so polarizing. There are some people who follow the rules inside stores but seem to feel that if they circulate outside in a public area, they can still not worry about the mask.

I guess it is easy to blame Trump or to blame the Republicans about this civic idiocy.  But it must somehow go beyond that, judging on the people involved and their behavior.  When we hear from respected experts how much of a benefit to curb transmission proper mask usage, social distance and handwashing can mean, how is that something that so many people seem to have a license to ignore? I don’t like the mask but it  quickly became second nature.  Now it is a matter of remembering to take it off when I go back in my car.  Surely we are somehow missing some fundamentals in terms of how to re-educate the socially corrosive behavior of mask impunity.

It makes me think of cigarette smoking. While it took a long time to reach the tipping point, when the weight of public education was placed on the question it became such a social ill and nuisance for people to smoke in a setting where they would inflict it on others.  Some smokers yelled about their rights to smoke, but social pressure became too overwhelming to be ignored. How do we mobilize that now and so much sooner?