If you didn't already see it in this morning's Tabs, you should go over to Vox and read this nifty summary of what experts say the USA should be doing to control the Rona and safely get the economy going again. It's very good! TL;DR version (if Vox is too long for you, rethink your reading habits): We could be doing this smart like a lot of other countries are, and it's still not too late to smarten up now, but it would require the USA to commit to a real plan and also spend money (so enjoy your second wave of COVID-19). Rather than summarize the whole thing, which would be Voxing Vox, which would be Axios we guess, let's look closely at one of those points. In addition to wearing masks everywhere, getting testing rates up (and testing smarter), doing serious contact tracing, and such, the article suggests there would be some real benefits to letting people go outside more, as long as we can manage to not be incredibly stupid about it. (We are Americans. Good luck to us.)

Here's the basic point: While limiting indoor public gatherings (especially in crowded settings) is still very much necessary to prevent transmission of the virus, the evidence seems to suggest that outdoor spaces like parks and beaches can be reopened, as long as people maintain social distance and wear masks while they're in those spaces.

Outdoor air is not magic, and it is possible to inhale droplets from another person's mouth outside. But the evidence seems to indicate that outdoor transmission is not, in practice, a huge problem. A detailed study of public outdoor spaces in Wuhan, China, found "undetectable or very low" levels of virus everywhere they looked. A study of more than 1,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases in other Chinese cities could only document one case of outdoor transmission.

Let's look at some science on all that, shall we?