Among people who don't trust scientists or health experts, they'll probably need it to affect them personally to realize it's real.

Even my extremely evangelical Christian sister (who would put most nuns and monks to shame with her studious devotion) takes it seriously, but her Fox News viewing husband thinks "it's over" now.

So she reluctantly took him to their church this past weekend, after he whined about it so much, but she had them both wear masks while seated in the back away from everyone else.

My sister said they were the ONLY people in the church wearing masks, and everyone else ignored social distancing.

Then her husband wanted to eat at a restaurant after the service. I jokingly asked if he wanted to eat at a notoriously jam-packed place Cracker Barrel, and she replied, "That's exactly where he wanted to go!"

So she called the restaurant with her smartphone to ask about any changes there, in terms of seating arrangements or whatever. The young woman who answered the phone mistook why my sister asked those questions and happily replied, "No, it's all the same and it's just like old times!"

My sister got off the phone and told her husband that they were NOT eating at Cracker Barrel or any other restaurant, and they would just return home and eat the plentiful food they had there! He grumbled, but complied.

Edit: We're in southwestern Ohio, by the way, so keep an eye out for future outbreaks around here!

... to rub off on his mask.

It’s sad. They will be literal victims to his vanity. His completely unwarranted vanity.

... and the other stuff.

And her husband usually seems more normal than my sister, given her OCD-like behavior about the Bible, but he regularly watches Fox News (which she doesn't like).

She's also mostly concerned about HIM, because he pretty much checks off every risk-factor for Covid-19 mortality.

He used to be pretty wild guy and a heavy smoker (until he supposedly "found Jesus" and my sister), so he's got breathing problems. He's elderly (retired). He might be defined as obese, but that's probably a close call. He's diabetic. He's got serious hypertension, needing several drugs to TRY to lower it.

If not for my sister, he might be dead already.

engaging in some group activity where they're all supposedly having so much fun.

that photograph is really disgusting. You just know everyone is pissing in the pool!

where the black and brown folk at?

I had to magnify the picture to notice them, such as the woman with big thighs near the center and back. Then a few others not far from her.

Definitely in the extreme minority there, though.

"Public baths originated from a communal need for cleanliness at a time when most people did not have access to private bathing facilities."

Wikipedia

You probably saw this picture from yesterday at Lake of the Ozarks, MO. All of these people have now gone home to families or are hanging with friends. Many will be going back to work. They'll be in grocery stores, at night clubs, theaters, restaurants, meetings, gyms, churches, salons, beaches, sporting events.. Dollars to donuts most won't be wearing masks.

I couldn't agree more!

"but since its going to be red state people dying, maybe thats why Jared was hoarding all that PPE stuff, to make sure those states have plenty of stuff ready to go."

That says it all. You win the Internet for the day!!!

My apartment for the summer, thoughts and prayers from NYC.

Will they say nobody warned them? Will they say they thought it was all over?

How soon we humans forget. 100,000 dead people and many more sick but not dead. The death toll is still rising but they decided they’ve had enough and they want their life back. Good luck is all I can say. It is just their very lives they are willing to gamble will be safe.

Mind boggling that we can go through what just occurred for the past three months and they can carry on like nothing has happened.

as the saying goes, decrease the surplus repug population. Missouri might be doing itself a favor.

Nothing will break through to the 8-30% of the jokers who congregate and refuse to wear masks (and some even like to cough on others), but many who are not so far in the Trump-bag, would be persuaded by interviews with survivors who had formerly denied the danger of Covid-19 and who had a nasty time in the hospital.

Why are there not more of these? Does the media frown on seeking out and airing these interviews because such practices are not "objective reporting"? (By the way, Fox does this sort of thing daily.)

Then why doesn't Lincoln Project or Michael Moore or someone find and interview these people? The media would cover it as a news story and some of these witless followers of Trump would wake up and start behaving and voting responsibly.

I have a bunch of Trumpy friends from NYC (outer boros, I know, I know), and they're doing the whole "We're done with lockdown" thing, but they wear masks and in their pictures, their children are all masked up. Why? One of our good friends died from the virus. Fine on a Sunday, dead by Thursday. It really does clarify things.

They are grieving the death of 'normal'. (Personally, I say good riddance to some aspects of the old normal. I only wish it hadn't passed with such a price.)

They've got a ways to go before arriving at Acceptance.

The Anger phase is going to be the most dangerous. I fear they will become Angry with those of us who chose to protect ourselves or warned them about what was going to happen instead of those who encouraged their folly.