Oregon's plan to keep us masked
The Oregon Health Authority will use social pressure to normalize masking
Don’t be fooled, Oregon. The masking of Oregon isn’t over.
Last month, blue states across America bowed to public pressure and dropped mask mandates and vaccine passports to avoid a bloodbath in the November elections. Public opinion polling showed Americans were more worried about the economy than they were about catching Covid. The politicians did a 180, declared victory and announced it was time to move on.
Oregon and Washington were the last to cave, and Oregon has done so grudgingly. Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the State Health Officer1 made his goal clear:
OHA wants to normalize widespread masking, and they have a new game plan to get there. Rather than use the unpopular blunt hammer of government mandates (which can always be rescinded), they plan to change the culture and make masking self-enforcing. The desire to fit in, to conform, is a powerful weapon.
As the mask mandate was lifted, OHA quietly sent out a survey link in a newsletter that was primarily delivered to government employees and health care officials asking for people to share their stories of why they choose to continue to voluntarily mask. I expect to see these published soon under OHA’s new hashtag #MyMaskMyHealth, which was introduced with this insidiously divisive meme.
The implicit message is clear: people who don’t mask are dangerous and don’t care about their community. They’re bad citizens.
Oregon hasn’t dropped mask rules entirely. Masks are still required in health care facilities and some schools. Federal mask requirements are still in place for public transportation. OHA continues to recommend mask wearing for the unvaccinated, the immunocompromised, people at higher risk for complications, seniors over 65, and “those who live w/ someone in one of these categories. Especially in communities w/ higher levels of disease." My library posted signs that “strongly encouraged” masking.
In China’s Cultural Revolution, the true believers heaped abuse and public humiliation upon people accused of incorrect (capitalist) thought. In subtle ways, OHA will pressure people into masking to show they are caring, responsible citizens. They’re going to use media rather than mandates to achieve behavior modeling.
In the progressive western cities, it may succeed. On the first day the mask rules were dropped, a significant number of people remained masked. The entire staff of my local library was masked, as were 80% of the patrons. In Costco, it was 50/50. Reports flooded in on Twitter that showed islands of liberation (pubs, sports bars) as well as islands of high compliance (libraries, Whole Foods).
The coming weeks and months will be decisive. At this writing, 50% of the people walking around downtown Portland were still masked. Outside. The sides seem evenly matched in this culture war. In most states, the freedom to breath freely has won the day, but this is Oregon and things are different here.
I refuse to call him an epidemiologist as he has no degree, no training and no certification in that science.
We could pretend to be as afraid of the masked as they were afraid of us mask-free people. I won't call them names since that has not helped anything and we would be better off enticing them to our way of thinking.
"the true believers heaped abuse and public humiliation upon people accused of incorrect (capitalist) thought."
Pile the abuse on the bastards still wearing them. Coward is a good one, anyone masking their kids can be accused of abuse. Idiot is another good one. Someone mentioned Derp, not good here but maybe good in Oregon. Raise your eyes as you walk past the morons. Shake your head.