Yesterday on boston.gov:
Mayor Michelle Wu and Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Commissioner of Public Health and Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission, today announced Boston’s COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Declaration will end on April 1, 2022. The announcement follows a vote by the Boston Board of Health during their Wednesday meeting following the recommendation of Dr. Ojikutu. The Emergency Declaration has been in place since March 15, 2020.
During their meeting, Boston Public Health Commission officials provided a recommended framework for Boston Public Schools to use in determining when to lift the school masking requirement. Dr. Sarimer Sánchez, from BPHC’s Infectious Diseases Bureau, advised reviewing the school masking policy when the number of positive COVID-19 tests per day in Boston falls below 10 cases per day per 100,000 residents, while considering other COVID-19 metrics. BPHC is also encouraging development of “mask friendly” policies for students and staff, and increasing access to vaccines in school communities. The current COVID-19 daily case incidence is approximately 13 cases per 100,000 residents in Boston. The final decision on revising the school mask policy will be made by Boston Public Schools.
At least for now, the Science-informed emergency continues and children are forced to wear masks. But on April Fools’ Day, Science will say that it is safe to emerge from the bunker.
Related:
Will this mean a departure from the Sunshine state back to the woods of Middlesex county?
JJ: Certainly, Middlesex County in Maskachusetts has many advantages over our Jupiter, Florida neighborhood (Abacoa), e.g., comparatively cheap real estate (especially after adjusting for lot size) and a wide variety of marijuana retailers that are guaranteed to be open through any lockdown (since Science says that they’re “essential”). If we accept the New Yorker magazine’s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds (which, of course, we must) then the right time to move north is when we observe caravans of neighbors packing up U-Hauls and heading north. As of February 17, 2022, however, U-Haul says that isn’t happening.
https://www.wjhg.com/2022/02/17/u-haul-surplus-florida-movers-other-states-might-have-trouble/
U-Haul Officials said in 2021, there’s been a huge growth of people moving to Florida.
“It just doesn’t seem like there’s any type of slow down, it’s just getting busier and busier,” Florida U-Haul Vice President Mario Martinez said.
According to U-Haul statistics, Florida is the number two growth state in the country, just behind Texas.
Bay County Realtor Don Cooley says the pandemic could also be a factor.
“Since the pandemic happened and Florida’s kind of open, so to speak, even more people want to come here,” Cooley said.
He said there are only 89 single-family homes available in Panama City Beach right now, compared to 1,500 a year and a half ago.
Does this mean we will see more footage from KBED?
JJ: Anyone contemplating a move from a free state to a slave state might also consider that the slave states have previously teased subjects with brief periods of freedom. For example, in Cambridge, MA the mask order was dropped effective June 15, 2021 (because nearly everyone had been injected with the Elixir of Fauci) and then reinstated September 3, 2021 (because a saliva-soaked cloth mask is a necessary ally for the protection of the Elixir of Fauci).
To see how Science is properly followed, read these:
https://www.cambridgema.gov/covid19/News/2021/06/cityreopeningdetails
https://www.cambridgema.gov/covid19/News/2021/08/cityofcambridgetorequiremasksforallemployeesandvisitorsinmunicipalbuildings
https://www.cambridgema.gov/covid19/News/2021/08/emergencyorderrequiringuseoffacemasksinindoorpublicplaceseffectiveseptember3
Here in MA suburbs supermarket employees were all unmasked and local gas station mart took down the human cashier sneeze guards. No idea if/when that stuff returns.
The FAAANGs are hauling workers back to Calif*. Rents are back up to 2019 levels & rising beyond to catch up with 50% inflation. It won’t be long before Fl*rida workers find that suddenly the only new jobs are on-site. How Hanscom airfield (KGRNSPN) yearns for the thud of Greenspun’s SR-20.
lion: Except in health care, real estate development, aviation/space, hospitality, and, maybe finance, there will often be better jobs available in states other than Florida. The question for a working-age individual is whether it is worth giving up liberty for a somewhat better career. There are plenty of Americans who actually want to give up what had been their rights, e.g., to send children to school, to operate a business, to walk outside without a mask, etc. For those people, California, New York, and Maskachusetts are the natural choices. For the minority of Americans who place a positive value on liberty, a job in Florida that pays somewhat less will result in a higher overall life satisfaction.
What’s the value in knowing that it is always legal to open the door, walk outside without a mask, and drop an unmasked child off at the neighborhood school? For those who Follow Science (except for papers such as https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4046809 that conclude masking is ineffective), the answer might be -$50,000 per year. As we saw from the Gavin Newsom recall vote, the majority of Californians want Gavin Newsom as their daily guide. For someone who rejects Science, on the other hand, the answer might be +$100,000 per year.
(The main problem for a worker in Florida is not that better jobs are available somewhere else, but that so many people of means have fled lockdowns in California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Rents for a 2-3BR apartment in our building have gone up 70 percent in the last 12 months. House prices are 2X what they were two years ago. This inflation is fueled by the influx of Northerners bringing their savings from their high-paid northern jobs.
I personally experience a lot of value on every neighborhood dog walk from the absence of flying insects (killed by massive spraying?), the absence of political and social justice signs, the absence of political and social justice bumper stickers, the absence of pit bulls (banned by the HOAs), and the overall friendliness of people. Would it be better to have more money and walk around San Francisco instead? For people who love seeing tents on the sidewalk, yes!
+$100,000 is really +$45,000 after taxes which is about $25,000 – $30,000 in 2019 dollars.
Credit goes to Vladimir Putin to end the covid19 pandemic?
Workers have just gone through the office here in suburban EU removing the Covid pancarts and dumb one way arrows instituting a one way system on corridors (that only Karens heeded)
No more indoors masking on Monday
OC: What’s a “pancart”? And Vive La France, Vive Macron (who preserved you)!
philg: by pancart I had meant workplace poster.
Of practical impact on me, the dumb, because useless, one way corridor system will end – I will be able to take the stairs to the parking garage again, avoiding the rush hours queuing for the lifts (2 pers max!)
I am moderately thankful to Macron. Ending the restrictions just in time for the March elections is quite something.
OC: We should buy Macron a George W. Bush-style “Mission Accomplished” T-shirt to wear while campaigning. Maybe with an illustration of the coronavirus underneath.
(for young readers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Accomplished_speech )