9~
Before Alabama opened up TN had sort of soft opened certain things about two weeks ago. We went to a winery near Cookeville, TN and while no one was inside except for one couple, it was fine. We then took a short trip down to Short Mountain Distillery to pick up "curbside" a couple of bottles of "apple pie" moonshine.
Now, we stopped to stretch our legs out at a marina which was slammed. Most families did appear to be social distancing. We also went into a few gas stations where no one was social distancing at all.
I do believe the virus is very real and the death rates are high for those who get it, especially those who are elderly. At the same time, I believe that businesses can operate with social distancing measures in place and reduce the risk. But what i'm seeing are block parties, house parties, and then many "gatherings" outside of businesses where people aren't social distancing.
Paul Finely, the mayor of the city of Madison, specifically said, you can't legislate "I don't care".
The point I'm trying to drive home with folks locally and at the state is that if opening up was such a huge deal, then why has my county of 400K seen a steady 4 or 5 new cases a day, even after we opened up? According to the media, shouldn't they have doubled? Tripled?
Similar sized counties like Montgomery and Mobile have been seeing 40 to 80 new cases a day even before we opened back up.
The argument will always be that we should strive to "0" new cases a day. That is just unrealistic until a vaccine is made.
And simply, no amount of lockdown can legislate " I don't care".
We are very concerned as TG's mom is in a nursing home, which luckily hasn't, that we know of, had any cases. We are doing the things we still want or need to do but we are doing them safely. We don't need the government to tell us what to do. We were able to get ourselves some KN95 masks which aren't as good as N95 but are close so that TG could get her hair done and her nails done. The hairstylist had a face shield on and a KN95 mask on as well.
Tommy Battle, the Huntsville city Mayor, said explicitly : " You don't feel safe in a restaurant? Salon? Leave. Let the loss of business to the owners send a message to them that they aren't taking enough safety measures."
In my own estimation, after going to Lowes and HD this weekend, was that the Lockdown had the adverse effect of sending everyone to HD, lowes, and walmart as that was the only thing to do as hardly anyone was in HD or Lowes in comparison to just a few weeks before we opened back up.