I've been saying this for a while, and happily it is becoming less and less controversial. Our response to Covid has shown that we have already abdicated responsibility for decision-making, at all levels, to possibly well-meaning but misguided and uninformed people. This is fine when there aren't any hard decisions to be made. But now, the result is that we are all living under restrictions that we know are absurd, and do absolutely nothing to slow the spread of an airbourne virus.

On the upside, I look forward to building a greenhouse out of all of the discarded plexiglass.

It doesn't matter that there's a barrier in-between if you're breathing the same air. We knew early that IR detection was more effective.

Oblivious compliance. People prefer the option that looks effective. Besides, it's cheaper.

Do you have a cite for that? Temperature worked fabulously to stop SARS-COV-1 but I was under the impression that it was fairly ineffective for SARS-COV-2. Giving every school a few thermometers would have been a lot cheaper than installing plexi glass.

I'm not sure how "well meaning" the non-scientist committees are that decide which group of people should get the vaccine.

>to possibly well-meaning

If only...

It's pretty obvious since air circulation is the number one factor. Cities notoriously have bad air circulation due to the number of obstacles. It's why as you go higher up, wind speed increases. Throw a bunch of obstacles around a room, and increase the amount of stagnant air. Makes me cringe.

In my interpretation of the initial restaurant studies, good circulation was of mixed benefit. The people in the air flow were the ones that got infected.

Circulation of the same stale air would be bad. However if you have windows open, or outside air being pumped in, it would be a benefit.

I used to think we were at a point in human civilization where this would've been obvious to most.

I’m sorry you can’t have it both ways, you can’t blithely say there’s no proof the barriers are effective and then also claim that they’re horrendous impositions of kids making it impossible for the children to make connections to their class mates. It’s plexiglass, get a grip. If our kids are so highly strung that sitting next to a peice of plexiglass is a problem then I’m worried about more than just corona. This is the sort of “I can’t breathe through this thin piece of cloth” logic that would be mercilessly mocked if it appeared on Facebook let alone NyMag.

It also perplexes me the author shifts claims the barriers aren’t effective when people wear masks whilst not acknowledging that these are kids, you cannot trust them to be great about masks. This is like an article claiming we shouldn’t teach kids to look both ways 3 times before crossing the road because 2 times is more than enough! Well yeah, but understandably, we’re cautious when it comes to safety.

Give no aid to those who moan about the smallest inconvenience during a pandemic.

People complain about the inconveniences because small costs do build up over time, and they suspect that without pushback, they will recur or become permanent. I fully expect another Once-In-A-Century Crisis within five years, because that's how the media works.

Plexi might be effective in a scenario where you encounter some customer every 15 minutes and they don't stay long in your vicinity before and after.

If you stay in a room together half a day, plexi sheets do the same thing a plexi sheet does for you when you are in a pool somebody peed in: nothing.