Critics say the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s signs explaining New York’s new mask option policy for public transit riders undermine previous messages and put people at risk. ro.
Urban Transport Authority
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Critics say the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s signs explaining New York’s new mask option policy for public transit riders undermine previous messages and put people at risk. ro.
Urban Transport Authority
“Starting today, masks are encouraged but not required” on subways, buses and trains in the area, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on Wednesday. Officials said the change reflected the latest health data.
Simple, right? After all, the MTA has won praise during the pandemic for using clear, positive language to educate public transit riders on how to stay safe. But that changed in a quintessential New York City minute when people saw the signs the MTA used to explain the new policy.
The messages, in the signature yellow color of the MTA, urge people to respect anyone who wears a mask, or chooses not to – and also sympathizes with those wearing masks improperly, leaving New Yorkers and admired by health professionals, who see it as a thumb in the eye for those who endured becoming the early global epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The backlash cites the threat that omicrons pose
“Who designed your poster should be fired. It’s a public danger and conceals misinformation!!” Dr Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist, said in response to the MTA’s tweet about the change.
Critics of the new policy say it puts immunocompromised people at risk. They argue that it is too early to abandon the mandate to mask masks, noting that omicron and its subvariables BA.4 and BA.5 have recently prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to urge everyone to new enhanced photos.
Independent Center for the Disabled, NY speak it “disagrees and is not pleased” with the decision to lift the mandatory mask wearing on public transport.
New Yorkers can also be excused for feeling a bit disgruntled. The day before the MTA showed new signs, the city’s health department stated“New Yorkers: When in public transport still have to wear a mask. All masks must cover the nose and mouth.”
Send memes
Those involved in the new MTA sign say it undermines the company’s previous message, which reminds public transit users not to wear masks under their chin or just cover their noses. .
Previous versions of the MTA’s mask signs have taught motorists how to wear masks properly. The agency now says masks are optional.
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Previous versions of the MTA’s mask signs have taught motorists how to wear masks properly. The agency now says masks are optional.
Urban Transport Authority
A series of memes soon emerged, aiming to apply the MTA’s new approach to other situations. Anti-smoking tasks in the home or pee in the poolfor example, translates to a slippery slope as “recommended but not required”.
During the pandemic, New Yorkers have been told many times that they are “in here together”. Governor Kathy Hochul echoed the idea when she tweeted out MTA’s new policy.
“Nothing says ‘we’re together’ like ‘you’re friends’ on public safety messages,” Katie Mack replied to Hochul on Twitter.
The problem of when to wear a mask won’t go away
Under the severe threat of coronavirus, many people living in densely populated areas have come to see the duty of wearing masks as a general inconvenience to save lives. The compulsion to gag and gag has pervaded everyone’s lives, from their dreams to their corner shop. But a drop in the rate of new cases, deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19 this year has led officials to abandon many of their mask-wearing duties.
People riding the New York City subway and other public transit no longer have to wear masks. But critics are angry at the transportation agency’s policy change – and its message.
John Minchillo / AP
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John Minchillo / AP
People riding the New York City subway and other public transit no longer have to wear masks. But critics are angry at the transportation agency’s policy change – and its message.
John Minchillo / AP
Latest data in New York City shows that those rates are still fallingwith a daily average of 1,921 cases, 63 hospitalizations and 5 deaths.
MTA already exists hello wear mask as a sign of respect – an idea that has found a home in New York and other major cities, where masks have become one more ingredient in a complex blend of personal choice and public accommodation that cities require.
So it might come as a little surprise when the MTA suddenly tweaked that combination by telling people to just “be friends,” which everyone protested. As anyone using an MTA can attest, some patrons are willing to have the idea of ”you befriend” far beyond the scope of the mask.
