After Mandating Masks Outdoors, Oregon's Active Covid-19 Cases Increased 73%

Please note that at the same time in Oregon you can eat and drink inside restaurants with no restrictions on capacity or vaccination status. Just wear a mask when not eating or drinking.

Nothing about this spike after implementation is surprising. This was just the last switch left to pull that wouldn't interfere with commerce.

This headline is designed to imply that this policy somehow made things worse. It didn't. There were just no policy choices left that wouldn't have cost real money or required proof of vaccination.

Fortunately a number of events, even outdoor ones, are now requiring proof of vaccination Those rules are not coming from the state but the private companies.

For better numbers, sort by "Deaths 1M pop" and "Total Cases 1M pop" [1] to see how each state is coming along. You can also click on each state for time graphs. I should add it may be useful to also overlay data from windy.com looking at atmospheric NO2 and PM2.5 levels in a given area. [2] And of course, none of this takes into account the rates per 1M pop of people with pre-existing issues such as T2D, pre-diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, Morbid Obesity, COPD, asthma, malnutrition, job related lung inflammation such as coal miners, etc... I don't have a good chart for that.

[1] - https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

[2] - https://www.windy.com/45.510/-122.673?cams,no2,45.069,-122.6...

Just imagine if they didn't mandate mask. It would be much more than 73%. Perhaps the article title is wonky.

The National Review is a right-wing publication, and since it's the right that has been pushing anti-vaccine and anti-masking narratives because of "muh freedomz!", anything coming out of NR is inherently suspect.