Housekeeping: Happy Masked Fourth of July, America

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

This year is a bit different. If you plan on celebrating the birth of your nation by blowing up a small part of it (still one of my favorite Simpsons lines), you best be doing it with a mask on and socially distanced from anyone you don’t live with.

That’s because the world is still in a pandemic, and wearing masks will help break the chains of disease transmission and get us past it sooner. It’s not a political statement, it’s basic science.

It’s the heart of summer, so you’re going to want to go out. If you do, just be careful, avoid high-risk situations, wear your mask where appropriate, and maintain social distance as necessary. And don’t blow any extremities off with fireworks.

Either way, we’re off Friday, July 3, to observe the holiday. As usual, some posts may pop up, and some tweets may tweet, but we won’t be at our desks like we normally are. We’re back full speed on Monday.

This Fourth of July will be a bit bittersweet, knowing that people are getting sick, and some are dying, and the rest of us will have to take precautions that are inconvenient. But if we all do the right thing, we can beat back this virus. Hopefully, next year will be a lot more “normal.”

We’ll get through this. And we can still have fun this Fourth, if we’re smart and safe.

Be good out there, and we’ll see you Monday.

[Image: Yuganov Konstantin/Shutterstock]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Arthur Dailey Arthur Dailey on Jul 05, 2020

    Hope that this link is not erased. It compares the effectiveness of different fabrics. Generally any non N95 mask is worn to protect those around you, rather than the wearer. However some fabric combinations can create an electrostatic effect which can prevent virus carrying aerosols from penetrating. It is believed that COVID is primarily transferred via airborne aerosols rather than droplets or by contact transfer. Meanwhile the USA is suffering record number of cases, while the rest of the 1st world is fairing much better. What is the reason for that? https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03252

  • Old_WRX Old_WRX on Jul 05, 2020

    @slavuta, "Any way. Biggest “Disinformation Bureau” as I see it, is located in US schools, colleges and television." True.

    • See 3 previous
    • Slavuta Slavuta on Jul 06, 2020

      @CaddyDaddy - when was declaration of independence signed? - 1984 'nuff said

  • Teddyc73 Teddyc73 on Jul 06, 2020

    I enjoyed my holiday weekend mask free and I interacted with all kinds of people. So did my friends. You wear your mask all you want but for me, no way.

    • Lie2me Lie2me on Jul 06, 2020

      Remember the TV show "Jacka$$"? Teddy, it wasn't meant to be a blueprint for living :(

  • Teddyc73 Teddyc73 on Jul 06, 2020

    "It’s not a political statement, it’s basic science." Really? Is this the same science that states a man is a man and a woman is a woman and they can't be changed into the other? That science? Because that particular science seems to be thrown out the window. And the funny thing is in Pennsylvania that have a health secretary who is a man dressed as and pretending to be a woman telling the citizens about the so called science of wearing a mask. You can't make this stuff up.

    • See 5 previous
    • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Jul 07, 2020

      What does gender or gender identity have to do with wearing a mask to protect others? SARS-COV-2 is droplet spread. Some argue that it might be airborne but studying transmission (that's known as science) points back to droplet spread. Science grows and changes based upon evidence. Not on whether or not you are comfortable with gender identity.

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