Posted by tom kearns
a resident of Charleston Meadows
on Aug 12, 2020 at 10:22 am
tom kearns is a registered user.

It's about time the county is going to enforce the mask wearing.

Posted by Online Name
a resident of Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Aug 12, 2020 at 10:28 am
Online Name is a registered user.

They're "fines' not "fees." The headline is confusing.

Posted by Elitist
a resident of Midtown
on Aug 12, 2020 at 11:06 am
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Fining people is an elitist policy. Only rich people support and can afford fines like this. Financial threats at a time when people can least afford it is a terrible approach. Policies like this also turns neighbors against neighbors KGB style. Carrot always works better than the stick. We are turning into a police state.

Posted by Online noname
a resident of another community
on Aug 12, 2020 at 2:27 pm
Online noname is a registered user.

The problem in Santa Clara county has long not been wearing or not wearing masks. It is about the fact that the problem hasn't been dealt with. The county and state opened when cases weren't down. Everything is open EXCEPT schools. We could have been New Zealand but instead we are Brazil. The fines are going to hurt the most vulnerable in the county who are going to be the most likely targeted by the police. If everyone stayed home and stopped whining about going to restaurants, we could have been long done with this crisis. Our kids could be in school. We could be only dealing with hotspots instead of being closed until some day, maybe, there will be a vaccine.

Posted by Fr0hickey
a resident of Fairmeadow
on Aug 12, 2020 at 3:39 pm
Fr0hickey is a registered user.

Science says that people with comorbidities (advanced age is one such comorbidity) are the most affected. These are the people that should be protected. All others should be encouraged to get immunity (blood serum, exposure to COVID19, vaccine, etc.). By mandating masks, the non-comorbid people are being deprived of exposure opportunities to build virus immunity. This ends up hurting the comorbid people.
Chalk this up to another govt program with opposite consequences to the goal.

Posted by chris
a resident of University South
on Aug 12, 2020 at 6:09 pm
chris is a registered user.

Fines have worked in other countries . The US has failed. The US should finally get around to trying what has worked.

Posted by David
a resident of Los Altos
on Aug 12, 2020 at 6:35 pm
David is a registered user.

It's really misleading to say that local cases have surged. There was a problem with the state database that delayed reporting of cases. During that time we had a small artificial decline in cases. Now that the problem is fixed, the older cases came in over the weekend and this past Monday making a lot of cases appear on those days. This was not a surge. We're just seeing a steady state in cases or maybe a very slight increase. In a few more days we'll know what the daily case rate really is, but it is clearly not a surge.

Posted by Facts and Figures
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Aug 12, 2020 at 6:52 pm
Facts and Figures is a registered user.

Where's the contact tracing data that tells us the source of the current so-called surge?

I'm all for masks, but $25 is a stiff fine for a low income individual. Like a parking ticket, with fees and penalties, a mask fine could take someone from financially stable to broke. We need to have incentives. Pay low income communities for mask wearing, not the other way around.

Posted by David
a resident of Los Altos
on Aug 12, 2020 at 6:54 pm
David is a registered user.

Or if there was a surge, it started at the beginning of July and held constant for that month.

Posted by Peter Carpenter
a resident of Menlo Park
on Aug 12, 2020 at 7:08 pm
Peter Carpenter is a registered user.

The surge in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties continues:

Web Link

When are we going to stop the denial?

Posted by Mark Weiss
a resident of Downtown North

on Aug 12, 2020 at 10:09 pm
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Posted by Anonymous
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Aug 12, 2020 at 10:39 pm
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It’s time for a fine. No excuses! Get with the program.

Posted by midtowngrl
a resident of Midtown
on Aug 12, 2020 at 11:14 pm
midtowngrl is a registered user.

how did we get people to wear seatbelts? fines
how did we get people to wear helmets? fines
how will we get people to wear masks? FINES.
and i'm fine with that!
if someone is legitimately low income and truly can't afford masks, then lets GIVE THEM SOME. First offense, they get a mask, 2nd, they get a fine.
studies show if we could get to 80% mask use we could almost knock the virus out. the closer to 100% the better. Web Link we could have been spared the "second wave", tho i don't think we ever made it out of the first one.

Posted by chris
a resident of University South
on Aug 13, 2020 at 1:20 pm
chris is a registered user.

Stanford has gotten the message. Today, they disinvited undergrads from campus in the fall. This comes 2 days after fall sports were cancelled.