The Infectious Nature of Bars

The problem with making public health policy decisions based on what you want rather than what you know is that when the enemy is a virus, it really does not care about how tired you are of being home, or how much you miss people.  It's success is in its patience and its persistence.
So when getting re-elected mattered more than who lived and who died, that was the point at which we completely lost the battle in the pandemic.  The superstar in this spectacular failure, which literally everyone could have predicted, is bar culture.  We already have a problem with many people being convinced that wearing a mask is either someone trying to control them or a sign of fear or weakness, so less than 50% of people wear them, when we really need more like 80% compliance.  Then there is the nature of what one does in bars and restaurants.  We put things in our mouths and so it is impossible to wear masks.  Add in alcohol, which does not ever improve one's judgement, and there is the recipe for disaster.  And overflowing ICU's.  It has been largely young people who are testing positive, but this has not stopped hospitals from filling up, and even if we improve dramatically in the days and weeks to come, we cannot fix what is already broken.