my sample size of one crazy family, where they think some combination of nutrition and faith in god is going to protect them if the virus is real, and if they get sick, and if the virus actually kills people
their calculus is: they’re not bad people, and they’re in good health (* ) - so everyone is just making a fuss. just take zinc if you get sick, you’ll be fine ( actual words spoken to me )
no one in my immediate family (** ) has died recently, so… they figure they must be right (*** )
(* they’re not but whatever )
(** knock on wood )
(*** ahg! )
there’s still mandatory masking in my neck of the woods. the more urban spots, everyone is complying no problem. the more rural spots not so much. but generally, i think: mandatory masking is the right way to go still.
masks are known to work, they’re really not that much trouble, esp versus checking passports or something it’s trivial, and a mandate stops the race to the bottom of volunteer methods.
it’s just like when places eliminated smoking inside. you’ve got to create one rule that applies equally to everyone for it to work.
Fascinating thing around here is that all the stores have signs that say some variation of “If you are fully vaccinated, you do not need to mask.” And, of course, everyone who is masked is pretty much fully vaccinated, while the unvaxxed are also unmasked. It is so very frustrating, but there it is.
Well you might think so, but obviously there are a lot of exceptions. The guy I was talking about who caught it in New York is a freaking health care analyst and he still saw fit to go out unmasked to karaoke bars and such during his trip because he thought the vaccine was enough protection. (Some of the contact tracing suggests he may have picked it up at a bar rather than the convention itself)
Karaoke is probably one of the riskiest activities possible for spreading this thing. People are generally packed in tight indoors, drinking booze (which makes them less cautious) unmasked and singing. I’ve seen studies showing that singing, yelling or even talking loudly spreads much, much more aerosol droplets than a conversation at normal volume.
Edit to add: there’s also that Israeli doctor who was fully vaccinated and boosted and picked up omicron in London while attending a cardiology conference where (per photos I’ve seen) nearly everyone was unmasked.
This is why I’ve been repeatedly saying to my elderly family members that vaccination should keep you out of the hospital, but it won’t stop you from getting infected* or passing it to somebody else. Some of them treated vaccination like it was a cue to “go back to normal.” They’ve been eating in restaurants, going to concerts, visiting casinos, etc. and cannot understand why I refuse to join them. At least they all agreed getting booster shots ASAP is important.
In my condo complex they lifted the indoor mask restriction as soon as possible, despite news about the delta variant. We’ll see if it is put in place again, but that depends on state guidelines. As we’ve seen in the news, PA is another area with a huge spike is cases. In the meantime, I’m wondering if I should keep wearing two masks, or add a third.
In my stupid state, the Walmarts that closed for “sanitizing and restocking” during the summer delta surge had too many employees out sick to keep the store open.
Hi from Melbourne, Australia. (You may know us as “the city who’s been under lockdown longer than anywhere else” and “apparently under a fascist dictatorship, if you listen to all the Nazis who’ve been marching in the streets complaining about it.”)
We don’t have to wear masks outside, which makes walking the dogs much more pleasant. But if we can’t “socially distance”, then we must wear a mask, which includes inside shops (except for sitting down at cafés and restaurants). Essential services simply require a check-in and a mask, so supermarkets, the post office, that sort of thing. Other shops require a mask and a check-in and evidence that you’ve been double-vaxxed. This proof is centrally stored, and securely shared with the State-based check-in apps, so that once you check in, your vaccination status is immediately visible.
Also, here in Victoria 91.6% of 15yo+ are double-dosed, 12-15yos aren’t counted in the overall stats but are being done, and 6-11yos is coming soon.
In summary: we have 90%+ double dose, and location check-in for tracking, and compulsory masking in most places. Sure, there are people making a big noise about it, but at the core of that group are literal neo-Nazis, and everyone knows it.
I’ve been saying this since the first reports about the Omicron variety: isn’t a variant that can outcompete Delta but gives milder disease outcomes the absolute best case scenario? It would crush Delta while leading to fewer hospitalisations and deaths. Up until now I didn’t see any epidemiologists saying the same thing but two days ago I read an article in the local newspaper of someone from the national health service saying just that.
Note: this is not an opinion against masks or vaccinations. Obviously we still have to make sure as few people as possible are infected in the first place but my (uncharacteristically) optimist take is that we want this variety to be more virulent than others
