Do you think you could also pass some laws to make people stop doing irresponsible things when they aren't at work?  You know, the 16 hours a day that folks aren't being paid?

Seems like there is an awful big chunk of an employee's day that their place of employment has no control over... and yet the employer is the one subject to citation should too many employees get sick.

We have mask mandates, curfews and limits on social gatherings... and who is enforcing that?  I don't mean who is supposed to enforce it, I want to know who is actually enforcing that.  They're great ideas and people oughta follow them.

But at least in my town, no one is enforcing these rules.  Customers do whatever they want and employees keep their mouths shut because their crumby minimum wage job isn't worth getting screamed at or assaulted by some hoaxer hillbilly crying about his rights like Abraham Lincoln just freed his slaves.

That guy (we've all seen that guy plenty of times in 2020) gets to walk around proud as a peacock like he's in control of his own destiny and nobody can tell him what to do, while businesses are trying to keep their employees and customers safe and not go broke trying. 

And who gets cited?  The business is cited because the Commonwealth isn't standing up to the individual people outright defying the law.

Yes, workers need to be protected and some standard should be in place... but can we level the playing field a little?  Seems like an awful lot of pressure to put on people trying to make ends meet when half of the population equates mask-wearing with forced sterilization or concentration camp branding.

When I go to 7-11 and see 5 people mouth-breathing all over the coffee makers despite the employees wearing masks and standing behind plexi-glass partitions, I don't blame the 7-11.  I blame the entitled self-absorbed citizens that can't fathom the slightest inconvenience in their lives, and I blame the government that tells the 7-11 that it's their job to risk their lives arguing with people who don't care about public safety.  People who would love to rally their like-minded brethren into boycotting, vandalizing or publicly shaming people who had the audacity to try to enforce rules that even police wouldn't enforce.

Meanwhile we have businesses trying to figure out if their HVAC system is up to snuff so they can avoid citations while Customer Karen McRightWing is deliberately coughing on the employees.

"Well that business should call the police and that customer will be treated as a trespasser," says everyone who still believes it's the business's fault.  And to some extent, they're right.  Those people need to be addressed.

But when there are law enforcement officers around the country and in this state outright saying they won't enforce mandates... when public enforcement is a coin toss... why would any business think the law will be on their side?  Why would they assume anything more than this pandemic is terrible and their government has abandoned them?

I'd love to dream that this will all be moot in a few months, but some of these same people aren't going to get a vaccine because they think it'll give them autism and lower their credit score, or that it's just playing into whatever "the other side" wants them to do.  Nothing like acting only in spite.  

There is a level of personal accountability that simply has not been addressed and all the standards in the world, with all the threats of investigation and citation by the various regulatory authorities, all shooting from the hip with the best intentions in this unprecedented time, aren't going to change the fact that individual people will continue to do individually foolish and careless things at the expense of others until they are held accountable for their actions more so than the establishments they frequent and put in jeopardy.

Oh, and thanks for the online portal to report COVID-19 cases.  That makes life easier.