I have hope too, but I think that’s because of the part of the country we are in. We’re already above 50% of adults and something like 35% of the total population (1st dose), and it’s still going strong, although appointments are starting to become easier to get. Over 84% of adults in the 75+ age group, and over 89% of adults in the 65-74 age group have gotten first doses. These numbers exceed predictions for these age groups. (Weekly numbers are updated on Thursdays, so it will be interesting to see - those are last weeks’ numbers.) Children (<16) comprise almost 19% of the population here so are completely ineligible thus far. Mask compliance is also strong. Nevertheless, the governor still expects supply to outstrip demand by the end of the month (although that’s just for 1st doses).
ETA: So what I mean is, while it’s looking very good here, there are parts of the country that are just… ugh… and it might tank it for all of us.
Just found out that renfaire will be open this season. Would you go, fully vaxxed?
Pro:
Masks required unless eating or drinking.
Mostly outdoors. No totally enclosed buildings unless they close the doors of the ladies’ room, which they generally do not.
Since we’re moving this is likely our last chance to go to this faire.
Uh, I really really really want to??
Con:
No capacity limits as far as I can tell.
Located in Wisconsin, where the court just ruled that the governor cannot impose any capacity limits even in restaurants and bars. And where there are more maskholes.
Always packed. I’ve no idea how people will socially distance there.
Even in nonpandemic times people get drunk and lose their goddamned minds at faire.
Exactly how will the mask mandate be enforced in a crowd that large?
Season runs thru Labor Day so my inclination is to see how things are in late summer and make a late-breaking decision then. Right now though I feel pretty squicky about this.
On a serious note, my mom was telling me Sunday that a 64 year old friend of hers hadn’t gotten vaccinated yet. I guess she was waiting on the health department to call her or something? And this was after I had gotten my first shot. I managed to not completely lose my shit on the phone but what the fuck people. It’s available at four places I can think of off the top of my head besides the health department, all four of those have multiple locations in every county. I don’t know if technology is the problem or what but wow.
A slice of good news.
49.6% of my county has had at least one dose of vaccine.
We ARE getting there. There will be lag, as always, and certain parts of the States (and the world) are in harder places than others. But it’s way way way too early to call this over and just our lives now.
Me, no.
It’s way too many people.
Also, I won’t eat or drink in public, because covid doesn’t care if you are eating when you take your mask off. So it would be a really long, hot day, with no real ability to eat/drink.
But, I have kids who are not vaccinated. If that wasn’t the case, my risk tolerance might be different once I am fully vaccinated.
Sigh. Yeah. If I had to decide today, it would be no. But then, right now going to the grocery store in person feels like jumping out of a plane to me, let alone being in a Crowd with People for Fun.
This would be my concern, if I couldn’t get away from people to eat/drink. But otherwise with it outside, me in a mask, and if I didn’t have an unvaccinated kid (or analogous situation like seeing someone who could not or was not vaccinated yet regularly)? I would go.
I’m hearing locally that a lot of older people do not understand that you need to chase vaccine appointments, and are waiting for their doctor or for the county to contact them. Outreach to people without Internet access has been pretty bad here.
You can go in and out with a hand stamp so we could always bring our own food in a cooler in the car and eat in the parking lot. Or buy food and carry it outside (because I want my damn cheese fritters!). Likely can’t do that with booze but I don’t NEED to drink there.
The only place this falls apart is that it’s usually hot and I drink a ton of water there. I wouldn’t want to keep running out to chug water.
@meerkat haha, if 16 we need a parent/guardian with them. If 17, the admin team can make a phone call to confirm parental consent.
In my state, where vaccines are available to anyone 16 and up, we have 35.5% of the population with at least one dose received. 21.9% fully vaccinated. According to census.gov, 20.9% of the population is 65+ and 19.7% are under 18.
I’d go to the ren faire too. Now, probably not, but in August? Sure. It’s outside and adults that want a vaccine will have one by the end of the summer.
I also agree with others that the situation will not be so dire long term. Hospitalization rate is down in NY, and we have a mutation here. The reduced rate is probably partly due to the end of the post holiday surge, but the rate is going down fastest in the elderly group that’s gotten the most vaccines. So it seems like the vaccination campaign is helping. We just need to get more shots in arms. https://twitter.com/NYCHealthCommr/status/1382327010324799490
My prediction is that as the most eager people become vaccinated and we continue to increase supply, there will be more bandwidth for outreach campaigns. As others have pointed out, I bet there are plenty of people willing to get a shot who just don’t care to spend the energy chasing one down and are waiting to be called.
and adults that want a vaccine will have one by the end of the summer.
To me the problem is that more than 50% of our country doesn’t want them, and won’t ever get them. They think it’s “the flu” and they don’t get flu shots either…
(Right now my state is almost 26% fully vaccinated. Less than 40% of the state gets flu shot, and it’s not “experimental”.)
If it was really, really important to me I would probably go, try to go early or on a weekday if that’s possible, do / see my favorite things and leave early before it got super-crowded. If camelback’s are allowed they are made for situations like this.
We’ll see when it comes to it, but I think part of Biden‘s plan for announcing May 1 as the country being open to everyone for the shot is it will have a big public health education campaign pushing to get vaccine hesitant people to go in. I know the Washington State Department of Health already sent an email to me and all of the registered healthcare providers in the state to do our part and come back misinformation and everything. They sent us links to all sorts of tool kits for addressing it and how we can help. So I think we’ll see a campaign for picking up some of those extra people.
Where are you seeing polling that shows that level of vaccine hesitancy? The polling that I’ve come across shows 62% want a vaccine as soon as possible, and another 17% are waiting to see how it goes for now. To me, that implies those 17% are persuadable, especially as they see millions of people get vaccinated with no major issue. I think it’s very possible for us to hit 70-75% of adults eventually choosing to get vaccinated. (Source: https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/dashboard/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-dashboard/) I’m sure it varies some by location, though, and this is just one poll - maybe it’s not fully accurate.
(Anecdotally, I know plenty of people who do not get the flu shot every year because “it doesn’t work anyway” but were first in line to get the covid vaccine.)
I wish it were open on weekdays!
It tends to be most crowded first thing in the morning. Though, people are probably more sober then, and possibly not eating/drinking yet.
We’re technically not supposed to bring food or drink through the gates. I usually sneak in a water bottle in a large purse and refill it at the drinking fountain.
It might also work to choose a day that isn’t hot and thus requires less chugging of water.
Boyfriend and I briefly discussed and decided it’s way too soon to know what risks are OK in late summer. Discussion tabled.
for me it depends a lot on local conditions at the time. we are at 8.5% positivity in my town right now which is a little high. i’ll feel better once that is down to 2-3% like it was last summer.