A little over four months ago I collected some data on how often people were wearing masks. Somerville still requires masks, cases are up, there is now a state-wide order, and I again found myself with some time during which I could take some notes. These numbers are not completely comparable: last time I tracked on a Sunday, this time a Saturday; last time I counted from 9:41am to 10:21am, this time 9:22am to 9:54am. Still, these should be pretty similar samples of behavior here.

I counted 130 people, but last time I didn't count babies and this time I did, by accident, which means that my number for children is no good. Looking just at adults, I counted 109 (vs 165) people of which 80% (87, +6pp) were masked, 9% (10, +4pp) had their nose exposed, 6% (7, -9pp) had their mask removed, and 5% (5, -1%) had no mask:

It looks like masking rates are up! Additionally, some people with masks on their chin would pull them up over their nose and mouth when passing people, but I counted everyone based on their masking status as they passed a particular mostly dead tree in front of me:

As before, women were less likely to be masked, but both women and men were more likely to be masked than in June:

Outdoors is still relatively safe, even without masks, since ventilation is so rapid, but the bike path is relatively crowded as outdoor places go. I'd be more interested in a comparison of grocery store numbers, but I haven't been inside a store since March and so am not in a good position to check.

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