Dukes County officials are shifting their approach to COVID vaccination messaging, as well as mask and social distancing signage, as restrictions in the commonwealth are loosened, and eventually will be lifted altogether.
Two weeks ago, Dukes County commissioners decided to embark on a COVID vaccination messaging campaign in collaboration with Barnstable and Nantucket counties.
But during a Dukes County Commission meeting Wednesday, officials acknowledged that restrictions regarding social distancing and mask wearing will soon be void for those who are fully vaccinated.
Starting on May 29, individuals who are fully vaccinated will be able to go largely unmasked in most places, apart from in certain public transit and in some medical facilities.
“A lot of the rules have changed since we last met, so necessary changes have to be made with the messaging,” commission chair Christine Todd said.
Todd said after the accelerated reopening timeline was announced, she met with the Cape Cod COVID Task Force to get a sense of how officials in Barnstable County felt about continuing with a messaging campaign that stressed the importance of getting vaccinated, and the required health precautions if someone is not vaccinated.
“All I heard was, if nothing else, an increased level of support and recognition of the importance of encouraging vaccination, especially because the masks are going to be coming off and people are going to be congregating without social distancing measures,” Todd said.
Commissioner Don Leopold said he thinks the target population for the advertising campaign has changed, and the county should be focusing more on “those who need access to the vaccine,” and less on “those who need to be convinced whether or not to get vaccinated.”
Commissioners also discussed the issue of signage on county-managed properties — particularly on State Beach.
Commissioner Keith Chatinover said he understands that the risk of outdoor transmission is low, and most folks in the county are already vaccinated, but he doesn’t see a problem with having signs posted at areas like beach-access paths, where social distancing would essentially be impossible.
“If the governor says something else, we can always just take the signs down, but I think it’s good to be doing something there. I think the signs at this point are more to remind people we are still in a pandemic, and COVID is still a thing,” Chatinover said.
He added that even though people might still not wear masks or social distance on the beach, signs would encourage people to be more responsible in areas that might be more risky, like in congested downtown areas, or even indoors.
The proposed signs currently suggest 12 feet of separation at the beach between parties, and six feet of separation between individuals while walking on access trails. The signs also stipulate that masks must be worn if people cannot social distance.
“Those are all great guidelines,” commissioner Peter Wharton said. “But the thing about people who come to the Island is they come from all over the country. Areas that are vaccinated, areas that aren’t, ages that are, ages that aren’t, people who are vulnerable, people who aren’t.”
With such a mixed population of seasonal visitors, Wharton said, it’s good to be on the safe side with the signage, but added that enforcement of any regulations on the beach will be essentially impossible.
Dukes County Register of Deeds Paulo DeOliveira said he doesn’t think implementing cautionary signage would be effective, particularly now that the state guidance is allowing folks who have been fully vaccinated to go maskless.
“I don’t know how much those signs cost, and you can put as many signs out as you want, but people are going to do whatever they want. As soon as Memorial Day weekend comes in, people are going to be ready to go outside. I think it’s a waste of money, but I understand,” DeOliveira said.
Dukes County manager Martina Thornton said the signs would cost at least a couple of hundred dollars in total, as she would need about 50 signs to post at various locations on State Beach and other county-run properties.
Todd suggested revisiting the idea of signage later on, and keeping the draft design for the signs as is.
“We will probably put those signs up, and half of them will be vandalized or taken down. We can always get signs if the restrictions look like they are going back in the other direction,” Todd said.
Why does this group continually look for ways to spend hard earned tax payer money.? And not only that, their ideas do not even make sense. Please let’s abolish county government the more that’s printed about this group the more it should be obvious they’re not needed.
Because we the people of Massachusetts refuse to abolish County government?
Do you want the State to run our courts and jail?
Putting up signs now is a waste of money.
All the vaccinated people can and will do as they wish, and the unvaccinated people ( because they are mostly “true patriots”) will certainly leave their masks on because they are concerned about the rights of others to move about freely and appreciate the liberties they have . We all have the right to refuse the vaccine, and those that choose to not get it know that those that do get the vaccine are only partially protected. So of course, they would respect the right to freedom and liberty for those of us who are vaccinated. Right? It is only logical , respectful, and in keeping with both the values of our great country and the teachings of most religions.
Don, you are usually coherent- what’s going on here?
No vaccine offers 100% protection to 100% of the population 100% of the time. That said, effective ones can reduce the risk to a minimal level. The current vaccines knock the risk of Covid down to such a low level that the vaccinated don’t need to be walking around on eggshells the way you seem to suggest, being victimized by the unvaccinated. And the notion that killer variants are going to spring forth from stubborn Americans is blown way out of proportion- the real risk is India or other undeveloped countries where there is no health infrastructure to handle the situation appropriately, not Larry from the tackle shop. If you have a killer virus and effective vaccines, being unvaccinated should be it’s own punishment and the vaccinated should be able to go about their lives peacefully and not lecturing or wagging fingers.
Val– I totally agree that no vaccine is going to provide 100 % of anything.
It’s about the odds– I will tell you that a variant is just as likely to mutate in the body of an ignorant American as a smart Indian.
Yes, it’s more likely to emerge from India simply because of the higher numbers of infected people there.
But there is no telling where “patient zero” will show up with a variant that makes the current vaccines less effective, or even useless.
That is the reason I may be sounding less than coherent in your opinion.
For the last year the “true patriots” and “freedom lovers” have pushed back on every effort to mitigate the spread of this virus. They have personally mocked people for wearing masks, and railed against our duly elected and unelected officials who have worked hard to protect us from the virus. Look at what they say about Fauci– He and his family have been receiving death threats for months..
I have a 65 yr old female friend who lives in a hick town in Co. The vaccination rate is at about 30 % — they have not been wearing masks ever–the infection rate is high.
But when she walks down the street with a mask on she is occasionally “coal rolled” — a practice by ignorant trump supporters to shift their diesel truck into neutral, and punch the gas pedal at the right time to envelop the person with the mask in a cloud of diesel exhaust..
Sorry, Val– I am sick of being mocked– Some people here have been telling us to hide in our basements if we are afraid of covid.
If they are so afraid of a covid shot, THEY are the ones who should hide.
Yes– I am up for shaming these people.. Stay tuned for more lecturing and finger wagging from me.
There has been an extreme of dopiness on the fringe right that has been saying and doing absurd things that are beneath contempt, no disagreement there.
When Covid is spreading in the community, masks, distancing, handwashing are all sane and sensible things. So is the majority of people getting vaccinations.
If you are waiting for 100% global vaccination to eradicate Covid, it is just not going to happen. If you can’t sleep well until the risk of a theoretical patient zero is eliminated, here or abroad, there will be a lot of sleepless nights.
Since the pandemic began, there of been far too many “what if“ jeremiads in the media. I have heard that a vaccine would not be developed for five years, a minimum of 3 million Americans will die in the best case scenario, and other alarmist scenarios that never came to pass.
The CDC has now informed us there never was a significant risk of outdoor transmissions, so all the people who have been walking in the woods by themselves wearing a mask have been doing a meaningless gesture. It may have helped them feel better and more secure, but from a safety point of is a non-issue.
Exaggerating, to the point of mocking responsible people, negates your comment into false nonsense. No one thinks that walking alone in the woods ever required a mask. However, right wing extremists who deny, minimize, and lie about covid would also make that stupid exaggeration. Further, if you are unvaccinated and in a crowded situation outdoors (like at Yankee Stadium), it is recommended that you continue to wear a mask.
Val– don’t worry about me losing sleep if some people want to exercise their free will and die from covid.
At this point, they are mostly trump supporters..
It’s an opportunity to widen the margins in congress.
Val– it has also been reported that people hoarded toilet paper. Also gun sales went up when Biden was finally inaugurated, because people think he will take their guns away ( happens every time a democrat becomes president.)
The most popular web site for survival food is https://4patriots.com/collections/food– they have lots of links to “patriot” web sites..
So it seems the right wingers have also been doing a meaningless gesture. It may have helped them feel better and more secure, but from a safety or security point of is a non-issue.
Just last week, there was a run on gas in predominately red states. Both sides exhibit irrational behavior.
what is your point ? Do people walking around inthe woods with masks on hurt anyone– even any chance of possibly hurting someone ?
I would rather see people walking around with masks on in the woods than seeing people buy their 20 th ar15, and another thousand rounds of amo.
I guess whatever makes you feel good.
I agree with you, Don. Sick of selfish, stupid, cowardly people who fall for lies, then spread more lies themselves… and then mock those who do the right thing for the community. The loudest complaint from covid deniers who think the vaccine is “propaganda” is that they are being “shamed” and “bullied”. This is what they cling to because when you ask for their reasons for not getting the vaccine (or wearing a mask), they speak about conspiracy nonsense that has no basis in reality. I look at the social media pages of deniers and read their insanity and it makes my head spin. There are a good number of covid deniers on the island, but the hope is that the rest of us who are now vaccinated will carry these ignorant, afraid moochers along, with enough of us being vaccinated to stop the spread. The incoming summer crowds make this iffy, though. Our daily new case numbers are not going down enough– Wednesday there were 17 new cases. Most of the cases are coming from the hospital testing, meaning they are symptomatic. Those who are not vaccinated and happily going maskless may have covid and be asymptomatic and spreading it that way. Most island cases are not traced to a known source, so it’s likely they’re coming from asymptomatic people going to stores and restaurants without masks. Very disturbing to everyone who cares about those who cannot take the vaccine– young children, some cancer patients, etc. I agree 100% that those who absolutely refuse the covid vaccine are selfish, ignorant cowards who should feel shame– but they feel no such thing.
Well, Jackie, it sounds like we are going to have two very different summers. I am going to be relaxed, joyful, sipping wine, hanging out with friends, laughing, traveling, and celebrating the return to normalcy. It sounds like you will be scowling, skulking, gnashing your teeth at social media posts, and looking at strangers on the street warily, wondering “Are they vaccinated? Are they not? Are they virtuous? Are they scofflaws?“. Free will is an amazing thing…
Oh my, Val, making angry, sexist, and wrong assumptions is unbecoming. I’m vaccinated, so there’s that to start. You can exaggerate what courteous, vaccinated people do to show respect toward strangers, but since you clearly don’t actually know, let me help you out. They do not wear masks alone in the woods. What they do when they see strangers on the street, (and they want those folks to feel relaxed and safe in case the strangers are cancer patients or can’t take the vaccine), courteous, respectful people slip their mask up over their mouth and nose so that the strangers can feel relaxed by coming close and perhaps speaking to people whose vaccination status is unknown to them. Imasgine if everyone treated strangers with this kind of respect! However, vaccinated people like myself get together with others who are vaccinated, and we are unmasked. Being vaccinated does not excuse anyone from thinking how someone else, even a stranger, might feel. Unlike covid, Val, courtesy never killed anyone.
It’s been exceedingly common for people to be walking in the woods alone with masks on, to the point where The Atlantic mentioned it as an irrational behavior in their excellent article “ The Liberals Who Can’t Quit Lockdown”- you’ll find many kindred souls in the piece.
Val: I almost missed this little gem from you. Sexist tropes with accusations of an angry woman (scowling, skulking, gnashing teeth, lol) didn’t work, so now you’re trying gaslighting? I don’t need to find “many kindred souls” among people with “irrational behavior,” but nice try telling a woman she’s crazy. Really, check your old, tiresome misogyny at the door. I have always advocated for following the experts’ guidelines– not doing more than necessary, and not doing less. I continue to advocate for respect and courtesy in public when vaccination status is unknown. I also have expressed my lack of patience with the selfish and stupid covid deniers and minimizers.
As for The Atlantic, you sadly missed the point: “Either you believe that you have a responsibility to take action to protect a person you don’t know or you believe you have no responsibility to anybody who isn’t in your immediate family.” Guess we all know where you stand on that.
Don, you miss the point. Don’t be hard on yourself, emotional Liberals often do. Excessive panic mongering by the media and government that is unhinged from the medical reality of the pandemic has done more harm than good buy a longshot. After hearing endless Jeremiads, people can’t tell what is is legitimate safeguards (social distancing, masks, hand washing and vaccinations) and what is excessive nonsense, especially when the risks have dropped to negligible levels. With the plummeting of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, it seems as if no good news goes unlamented by the panic crowd, justified by hypothetical what if‘s that will likely never happen, ie the variant bogeyman (its likelier that variants will be benign). We could be struck by an astroid tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean people need to hide under their beds.
Val, it is “unhinged” (and then some) to think that people wearing masks (in situations where you’ve determined they are unnecessary) are somehow damaging to you or the community. Get a grip. It’s time for Trumpists to accept that their rallies and denials unnecessarily killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Other than enraging you, how has a person washing his hands or walking in the woods wearing a mask hurt you?
Don, and I’m almost positive there will be quite a few people finger wagging right back at you…can you guess what finger they will be using?
They can react with anger if they want. Just don’t lie to private business when they ask if you are vaccinated before you come in mask less.
But then again, it’s hard to finger wag when you are on a ventilator.
With or without the pandemic, more mask use equals less death.
Long after the pandemic is in the dust bin of history operating room personnel will still be wearing masks.
Yes Your 💯 right !!!
This is what we have to go on: ”Commissioner Don Leopold said he thinks the target population for the advertising campaign has changed, and the county should be focusing more on “those who need access to the vaccine,” and less on “those that need to be convinced whether or not to get vaccinated.”
Incentives have been shown to work to get people vaccinated, those for whom it’s been a logistical hardship or simply haven’t gotten to it– free beer, donuts, special seating in restaruants, etc. Signage won’t do it. And true, nothing works for the conspiracy theorists, the ones who think vaccines are “propaganda”. The vaccine bus was a great idea and it would be helpful to see it parked at the SSA lot in Vineyard Haven and OB, with announcements on the ferry that it’s available for free, no appointment necessary, for those as yet unvaccinated coming over.
I totally agree with Bob Murphy and I would gladly sit on another “Dukes County Charter Review Study Commission” as I did in 2008”.
It is long overdue!
Who will run the jail and the courts?
Small government?
County government is small.
State government is big.
The island always votes for big government (D) and it has been proven to be a total mess!
Maybe the `threat` of that will get better serious people in there and also have term limits of say 5 years.
I was partly successful to get their elections every two years to try to weed out the really bad apples as after while it has been proven that they get to big for their britches and become useless like ALL politicians if they are in there for a while!
As it is very well known there is one particular very important department that I am totally disappointed with county managers choice to fill that position which is basically indefinite.
(End of story)
Massachusetts always votes for big government (D) and it has been proven to be a total mess! You want a small mess leave it to the County, you want a big mess leave it to the State.
End of story.
Has Woody ever been a politican………
Not sure how long you have been around Albert but me a politician = **A person who is professionally involved in politics**
“No way in hell”!
From reading a Gazette article, it seems that many of the new cases ARE traced to close contacts. I apologize for saying something incorrect about most of the new cases. However, it remains true that we cannot know all the cases that are asymptomatic and are being spread to unprotected people. The rest of the state has decreasing numbers. It does not make sense that the island numbers are not going down.
The focus here should be how to get the numbers of Covid-19 cases down before visitors flock to MV for the summer. In the early days of the pandemic, and now, this involves identifying groups spreading the disease by good contact tracing and appropriate quarantine. This appears not to be happening, since the numbers are even higher this week than before–a red spot on the U.S. map. This is not a theoretical question of how to approach Covid-19, but a simple public health issue that needs focused attention promptly.
Rob, by now everyone knows what the experts say RE reducing case numbers, including the importance of vaccination. Too many people are not complying and our numbers are stalled. Of those still not complying, many of them never will. The same way that incentives can be used to get more people vaccinated, more disincentivizing can be used to achieve this goal, a goal that sane people want. For example, one commenter on this page who has minimized covid, mocked responsible citizens, and spread false covid info, has publicly admitted he would not have taken the vaccine at all except for the fact that some of his personally desired travel requires it. Appealing to the purely selfish interests of uncaring individuals is a good way to reach for herd immunity and thereby lower cases. Vaccine passports are a good thing. You can’t force people not to be stupid and selfish, but you can appeal to their more base interests and help lower numbers as a result.
Some of the posters who indict the cynical are scrambling for rationale. They know Fauci is a dud; they know the teachers union collaborated with CDC to keep the schools closed; they know the masking and other guidance has been arbitrary and inconsistent so now they grasp at pathetic straws mentioning variants and probabilities and incoherent rants against the selfish(or is it shellfish) who dont vaccinate or who dont march in step with big brother. They wont rest until every person is absolutely safe from everything. One day there will be an audit on this pandemic and we will find the whole thing should have been handled differently.
Andy– you are correct that things should have been handled differently– Perhaps in 2022 we will have wider democratic margins in congress and we will not be hobbled by people who want to investigate a private citizen because he made a paltry sum of money in Ukraine.
Where are Hillary’s e mails anyway.
And just for a laugh, did you see fox’s top story this morning ?
Monica Lewinsky tweeted an eye roll emoji yesterday..
ENGELMAN, isn’t there a religion that worships, like, ON THEIR KNEES, the hope that everyone will be absolutely safe? Question: Why wouldn’t the oyster share his pearl? Answer: Because he was shellfish.
Also, skepticism and cynicism are not the same, but you’ve confused them. A covid skeptic doubts and questions the accepted medical expert advice, as GET VACCINATED. A covid cynic believes the experts and their advice are motivated by self-interests. Not knowing the difference, you’ve changed the subject from how to get more people vaccinated to your confusion and a relentless resentment/obsession with Fauci.
Actually no Jackie. Christianity is Jewish and we dont worship for people to be safe but thankfulness that Christ died for our sins and gave us eternal life. This world can not show us anything that is good and we await the next one. The world is broken dont you know if you look around. There is hope for those who trust Christ as their savior. What are you still waiting for?
I don’t now who wrote this but I hope it’s a wake-up for any fake-christians who think that mocking people for wearing masks or for caring about others is okay:
“If you see people masked after the CDC removed masking requirements, please remember…
-People may have cancer
-People may have autoimmune diseases
-People may have unvaccinated children at home
-People may have high-risk loved ones they are protecting
-People may have asthma and realized over the last year that their symptoms are alleviated by wearing a mask outdoors
-People may have symptoms but are unable to stay home; they could be protecting you from the flu or a cold
That woman wearing a mask who is alone in her car? She may be on her way to pick-up a cancer patient, a newborn, or an unvaccinated family member and not want any chance of her breathing in the vehicle making her passenger sick.
That guy who appears to be healthy to you, masking in a store that doesn’t require it? He could be at high risk, unvaccinated, or protecting a loved one at home from exposure.
Don’t be a “maskhole” and keep your humor to yourself. People wearing masks have their reasons or it could be their personal choice…”
This article is about signage. Although people say they are ineffective, I believe that the reminders, in public places, remind people that we are not back to “normal.” I know I, as a vaccinated individual, would be glad to see them. That way, when the unvaccinated Covid-deniers act as they will, I know they’ve been warned and that the island and county governments do care. We are leaving our signs requiring masks for the unvaccinated on our restaurant website and menu board. May 29th was an arbitrary date, and too precipitous in my opinion. We’ll just have to hope that signage reaches at least a few people – I think the minimal expense is worthwhile, even if enforcement cannot happen.
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