20 July 2020 — 0511 mdt
Crowd sourced reports on Montana’s compliance
with Governor Bullock’s mask-up directive
Montana’s governor, Steve Bullock, resisted issuing a mask-up mandate because, the AP’s Iris Samuels and Matthew Brown reported, he feared …
… it would backfire and cause fewer people to wear masks despite evidence that they help keep the virus from spreading, a review of thousands of emails shows.
Finally, the dramatic increase in number of new Covid-19 cases (see graphs below), and, I suspect, the state’s effective reproduction rate (Rt) of 1.3+, one of the nation’s highest, left him no choice. On the morning of 15 July, MT DPHHS reported 146 new cases for 14 July. Six hours later, Bullock issued a directive mandating masking-up in indoor spaces open to the public, and in certain outdoor situations, in counties with four or more active cases.
Three days later, I asked my followers on Twitter to send me informal observations on the extent to which people were masking-up. Here are some of their reports:
- Bozeman. “Bozeman Home Depot, had a manned table with all needed, masks and sanitizer. Most with masks, including cheaters. Downtown way up in masks.”
- Bozeman. “ I went to Town and Country (grocery) today. I saw 95% mask compliance”
- Butte. "Butte Safeway was great Friday, 3 bears had guy at door checking for Masks."
- Great Falls. "Just got back from Great Falls Albertsons. Saw very few(maybe 2?) without a mask Face with medical mask."
- Helena, Kalispell, Polson. I'm receiving reports that at Super 1 supermarkets in these cities, masking-up is not being enforced. I’ll try to eyeball the Kalispell store this week.
- Kalispell. “Kalispell Lowes was packed yesterday and I only noticed two people without masks (they were together). The clerk’s mask was below her nose. … there was one little old lady wandering back and forth past the long line at the check out with her mask swinging around loosely, nose exposed. We dodged her and no one else bothered her. Was annoying. I need to clarify before I trigger someone for daring to criticize an old lady — there was something “off” here. She seemed to be inviting conflict. She was getting too close to people and lingering there.”
- Kalispell. “Friday evening, perhaps half the customers at Albertson were wearing masks. That’s a distinct improvement over the pre-mandate era.”
- Kalispell. Mike Jopek posted this Tweet with video of an irate barefaced woman at a grocery store in Kalispell:
Whitefish https://t.co/No07Gy11cH #mtpol
— Mike Jopek (@mikejopek) July 20, 2020 - Missoula and Bozeman. Mixed reports on Ace Hardware. In Missoula, there are reports that the staff are wearing their masks below their noses. But in Bozeman, Owenhouse Ace gets high marks for compliance: “Our Owenhouse ace Bozeman done a good job, chatted with them, some folks made a ruckus, they had to leave, this’ll become the new normal.”
- Rosebud County. "The only place I've seen masks is at the grocery store. They certainly weren't at the county fair rodeo, concert and demolition derby. The Rosebud County Sheriff's Facebook has pictures of themselves at these events, without masks.
The Town Pump is enforcing face mask mandate in their store and there are people boycotting the store because of it.
People in Forsyth are angry about the mandate. I have been wearing a mask for awhile now because I have heart disease, but since the mandate I am starting to face some hostility over it.
I've never felt so disappointed in our community. The sheriff is being praised for saying he's"working for the people and not for Bullock. I can't tell you how sad this makes me. I had a ton of respect for the sheriff before this."
Costco, Walmart, Target, and other big box stores, are adopting “no mask, no service” policies and enforcing them at the door. This is the most effective approach, especially when masks are made available to barefacers who want to shop but say they “forgot” their masks.
Bullock’s mask-up mandate will be effective
Voluntary masking-up was not effective because a recommendation to mask-up made masking-up optional. A mask-up mandate removes the barefaced option, providing customers and managers alike with the certainty they need; for customers, to conduct themselves responsibly; for managers, to know the government will backstop their efforts to enforce mask-up mandates.
Will most people comply with Bullock’s mask-up directive? I believe they will. As word of the directive spreads, compliance will increase because most people abide by the law even when they disagree with it. A small group of unrepentant and irredeemable barefacers, appearing larger than it is because its members bark well above their weight, will defy the mandate, but they will neither get it repealed nor render it ineffective.