As COVID cases rise in Branson, so does concern that it's not being taken seriously
Source: Kansas City Star
In mid June, after an increase in cases, Marshall urged everyone to wear masks. That plea appears to have had little effect on some.
One county resident posted on the health department’s Facebook page earlier this week that “everywhere I go I’m like the only one wearing a mask. And then people stare at you.”
Another resident followed with: “Shut the town back down before it gets worse. Clearly people are not taking it serious!”
Health officials regularly release information on possible exposure related to tourists who tested positive after returning home.
Read more: https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article243738007.html
what do you expect for the entertainment capitol of the bible belt?
= new reply since forum marked as read
... unless you MANDATE it. You give people an inch, they take a mile. Re-opening phases take into account all sorts of trend data about the disease, but fail to take into account the propensity of people in large numbers to make bad choices that affect entire communities.
It's absolutely silly for these leaders to be like, "We encourage you to wear masks while we get our economy going again. Be safe out there! .... Oh NO, our cases are going up! Remember to please wear masks!! .... Oh this is terrible! The deaths OMG! Oh, the humanity! Why won't this stop!? We strongly encourage you to wear your masks!"
Just friggin' mandate the masks already.
Requiring masks in the middle of a health crisis like this one is NOT socialism. 
(If the government -- or Trump -- owned the means of production of the masks, THAT would be socialism.) If you want to phase in your economy, you're going to HAVE to make people wear masks.
It seems a lot of people must be thinking (or getting the message from political leaders) that everything's okay AS LONG AS THE HOSPITALS DON'T GET MAXED OUT. Which is to say: "Another 500,000 of us can die, but if the ICUs can handle the load -- and as long as I'm not one of them -- then it's all good! Yippee!!"*
But it doesn't have to be that way. Mandate the masks.
Are masks a 100% guarantee you won't catch it? NO, but if the other guy is also wearing a mask, the combination DRASTICALLY reduces transmission risk when you're out and about. < But this doesn't fit neatly on a bumper sticker, so it must not be true, right?
* 122,000 people have died already, over 4 months. Is that "better" than if they had died in one weekend? Is it any less horrendous if 500,000 die over a year than if it happens over, say, 2 weeks? If the 9/11 deaths had happened in small mass shootings over a couple of years instead of all in one morning, would that have been considered acceptable?
==========
