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At the moment I'm in Austin, Texas, here to support a trade show tomorrow. As I've traveled from home in Silicon Valley I've noticed a huge dropoff in voluntary mask wearing.
— Back home in Silicon Valley, when I go to a local supermarket, voluntary masking is well over 50%, closer to 2/3 at some stores. It varies by the demographic the store attracts.
— At SJC airport yesterday mask wearing was at 25-30%.
— When I was at SNA airport (John Wayne/Orange County) for a connection, masking had already dropped to about 10%.
— And here in Austin, masking is essentially zero. I went out for dinner and drinks last night with a friend, and of literal hundreds we saw passing by (it was a busy night in the club district with college graduation recently) not a single person I recall was wearing a mask.
You might think from these behaviors that the Coronavirus risks are past. Sadly they are not. As I note in my periodic Tier Tuesday blogs, the infection rate has nearly tripled in a month. The only thing that's in the rearview mirror is the general public's willingness to care.
— Back home in Silicon Valley, when I go to a local supermarket, voluntary masking is well over 50%, closer to 2/3 at some stores. It varies by the demographic the store attracts.
— At SJC airport yesterday mask wearing was at 25-30%.
— When I was at SNA airport (John Wayne/Orange County) for a connection, masking had already dropped to about 10%.
— And here in Austin, masking is essentially zero. I went out for dinner and drinks last night with a friend, and of literal hundreds we saw passing by (it was a busy night in the club district with college graduation recently) not a single person I recall was wearing a mask.
You might think from these behaviors that the Coronavirus risks are past. Sadly they are not. As I note in my periodic Tier Tuesday blogs, the infection rate has nearly tripled in a month. The only thing that's in the rearview mirror is the general public's willingness to care.
