The Tragedy of the Public Parks (CW: pandemic)

[cimorene]

I don't read the comments myself, but waxjism likes to open Twitter threads and read all the subthreads of replies. Today's episode of Don't Read the Comments: a British public park being closed in one of the highest covid-affected areas; council tweets that there were over 3000 people in the park today.

Highlights include:

• 3000? That sounds like a lot. Source?


• 3000? That doesn't sound like that many. That park is probably big. Once you spread them all out they probably weren't close together. They probably weren't there at the same time.


• They probably weren't THAT crowded. Unless it was "like a concert" they're fine.


• They're sunbathing, so it's okay, because the sun will make Vitamin D and their bodies will use it to successfully fight the infection


• They're sunbathing, so it's okay, because they would just sunbathe in the road and get run over and be even more crowded if the park was closed


• Their homes probably don't have a lot of green spaces, so they HAD to be at the park for their mental health, even if by doing so they form crowds that are disease vectors


• Even if they have green spaces available, their children probably needed to be at the park to play, because social distancing measures may have to continue for months and months, and children can't be kept inside for that long


• It's not fair to close the park, because even if these guys are wrong, the 'innocents' (who would have maintained social distance while hanging out in the park) are now unable to use the park too


• It's hypocritical to close the parks if police officers are allowed to patrol without face masks and/or standing less than 6' from each other


• The problem isn't people who want to walk in the park, it's runners who aren't staying far enough away from them


• The problem isn't runners, who would have kept their distance if other people weren't in their way, it's the walkers and sunbathers who are taking up the path so the runners had no choice because they couldn't leave the path


• It's pointless to close the parks, because anybody who was going to be in a crowd will simply have a party indoors and there will be less fresh air there, so they will be more likely to get sick than if their party was at a park