Florence Italy - Wearing Facemasks Outside May Soon be Mandatory

That's good news.

Well that’s just silly.

Have we learned nothing about transmission with this thing?

Yeah, we learned wearing masks helps especially in crowd situations.

It is hardly worth discussing at this point. It really doesn’t matter whether one likes wearing a mask or agrees that one is necessary. As guests in another city or country we need to simply and thoroughly follow the requested protocols.

That's good news.

Not really. It means we are losing ground on the road to 'normal'

Carol now retired, I approve that message. Whether we like that policy or think it's necessary, is a moot point.

Not really. It means we are losing ground on the road to 'normal'

It means the mayor of Florence is taking things seriously. Too bad other mayors/governors/authority figures here in US refuse to do the same. THAT is why we are losing ground.

Good. Florence was very busy when I was there a couple of weeks ago.

I would rather we focus energy and patience on actions that would actually benefit us rather than political posturing of "Hey, see how concerned we are". The CDC does not qualify any need to wear a mask outside, neither does the WHO, MIT study, NY Times and more all report risk of transmission outside is statistically zero. There has never been a documented confirmed case of Covid transmitted outside. If someone subscribes to anything you do to lessen your odds makes sense, then the most sensible thing is not to travel at all but stay in your home and wait this out.

If it's what it takes to spend time there, I'm down.