In an emergency session this past week Tucson mayor Regina Romero convened an emergency meeting of the Tucson City Council, and they voted in her mandatory curfew unanimously, only making one change. She wanted it to start at 8:00 PM and end at 5:00 AM. The council modified this to start at 10:00 PM, and it went into effect this past Friday.
There is no doubt a lot of science behind this. The Democrats, the champions of science, know some things that the rest of us don't. This new curfew has some interesting language in it, and I'm very sure that science played a large part in this. Let's look at the science.
With the curfew being between the hours of 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM, this tells us that COVID cannot possibly be transmitted outside of these hours. When we first had lockdowns we didn't know this. We thought that the virus didn't care what time of day it was. Now we know better. It's very dangerous after 10:00 PM, and you'd better not leave your house until 5:00 AM.
What's really interesting is that these hours are not reflective of sunrise and sunset times local to Tucson at this time of year. Our earliest possible sunset is 5:17 PM and change, and that passed us a few days ago. Our latest possible sunrise comes in around 7:30 AM (I'll have to check that again) and that happens next month. Now if we look at this in terms of astronomical twilight this does narrow the nighttime hours some, but still it's significant to note that the virus needs about 4 or 5 hours of darkness before it can activate.
There is another interesting fact about the virus. It absolutely, positively can not be transmitted to or from anyone who's homeless. How do I know that? The homeless are exempt from the curfew. I understand that there will be the argument that we can't really round them up and take them off the street, but if we can lock down the economy and force everyone to stay home, then why can't we round up the homeless and house them somewhere?
Now the first responders are exempt too. On this one there's some logic that's easier to understand. Crime does not observe the curfew and neither do medical emergencies, so in this instance we don't need science to justify their exemption. Other language in this ordinance allows exceptions for going to get medicine for a family member or a pet, to flee a dangerous situation, or if you're going to/from work. Of course, those exemptions are not based on science.
All of that said, the curfew is set to expire on the 23rd of this month. It may be extended. Or maybe the virus will decided to wake up earlier, say at 8:00 PM. The virus might also decide to stay up later. As far as I know science hasn't yet figured out what makes a virus come off of a graveyard shift and work either day or swing, but I'm very sure that the scientists who are studying this will inform our mayor and city council accordingly.
And of course, our city leaders know what's best for us, and if they say we can't eat out but they themselves get to, there has to be some science behind this that the rest of us are not capable of understanding.
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