This feels deeply wrong to me, for indoors.
Outdoors… to me, it depends on the situation and how crowded it is.
Is it just me?
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Here’s an article:
Out of curiosity, why for you?
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I imagine this announcement is mostly an incentive for people who are on the fence to get vaccinated so they can stop masking. Public health benefit of getting higher vaccination rates probably outweighs the risk of vaccinated people spreading something while unmasked - it’s becoming increasingly clear that that risk is indeed quite small. Plus cases are finally coming down in a lot of states as more and more people are getting vaccinated. We’re not at herd immunity yet, but we’re getting closer to it between all the vaccinated people and all the additional people who have some natural immunity from covid itself.
I do think it depends on the situation, though. I feel pretty comfortable doing most normal activities at this point, and I still wouldn’t walk on my sidewalk unmasked here in NYC. Definitely not in a cramped grocery store. But that’s more because it has been a revelation not to get a cold or flu all year than because I’m specifically afraid of catching covid again. The pandemic has reminded me that humans are just gross.
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I think the problem I’m grappling with is we have NO idea if people are vaccinated on not in certain places… Like we just decided to move Breakfast on the Bridges to virtual for this summer - almost all the volunteers are vaccinated, but a “hang out and drink coffee with strangers” event that serves a broad population including houseless and at-risk folks - we aren’t going to inquire if people are vaccinated, and we don’t feel we can potentially create a space where people have their masks off to eat and drink with strangers?
…> < Ugh.
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If there was a way to really know that unmasked people were vaccinated, I don’t think I’d have a problem with it.
I went to a funeral this past week that I sat and had a meal in a room of unmasked people, all who said they were vaccinated. I trust about 90% of them that that’s true.
But at home- I don’t trust at all that someone without a mask is vaccinated. We’ve had maskless idiots this whole time.
I already don’t wear a mask outdoors, but I’m not going to a giant festival or anything. That said, the playground can get crowded.
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As others just said, there is no way to distinguish between an unmasked vaxxed person and a maskhole now. And there’s still a small chance I could catch it from a maskhole, even if he/she likely can’t catch it from me.
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I completely agree.
Yes! OMG, can you imagine seeing someone unmasked and being able to think “you are safe to be around” vs “you are a maskhole covid denier antivaxxer and likely taking needless risks”?
I guess my feeling for myself (my unvaccinated child is obviously different for me here) is like… yeah, but its looking like that’s lower than my odds of a car crash, and way lower than my odds of heart disease or cancer if I’m avoiding other health promoting behaviors as a result. 
And even if I do catch it, odds are it will be an incredibly mild case. By interacting with people ever in my life I’ve already been assuming this risk.
I don’t know, it’s interesting to consider. I think stores especially will be slow to repeal mask mandates though, so it’s probably theoretical quite a while longer. I doubt I’ll want to be in tight indoor maskless crowds any time soon, but I’ve NEVER been comfortable in those settings, so that’s not a big change for me.
I think from a public health perspective, keeping extremely tight protocols will risk backfiring in big ways. That’s what scares me most, is if there isn’t adequate incentive for vaccination.
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Yes, I am sure that here, mask mandates will stay.
I am newly high risk, (or, well, was diagnosed as such last week) so there’s that to think about too.
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My county is still high risk so this is my thought basically all the time. Kiddo went outside earlier because plumbers were across the street working on the neighbor’s house, the plumber was trying to be nice and offered a bottled water to Kiddo and instead of being like “Thanks!” now it’s “Thanks… (also why are you not wearing a mask?)”
Yeah I’m trying to figure out how much of my feelings are being unable to relax about The Plague and how much was pre-existing “ew, people” vibes. There’s not exactly a clear line between the two. Also, like you said, there’s the small child at home factor.
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Are stores where you are able to enforce their mask mandates?
ALL the stores around here have them. There are unmasked people in EVERY store. No one says anything to them, because at the beginning of all this retail employees were being abused (and, IIRC, shot) for saying something.
So even the stores that has someone outside telling people to put a mask on doesn’t really do a damn thing to enforce it when people say no, or when people take them off in the store, or when people wear them improperly.
I don’t see “wear a mask indoors” as “extremely strict” though.
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It’s very different here, I think. everywhere everyone is wearing masks most of the time. People are wearing them outside even most of the time. Everyone on transit and the grocery store has been masked.
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Yes, you’ll see some noses and some face shields instead of masks, but I haven’t seen a totally non compliant person indoors in a store in months.
I don’t see masks indoors as extremely strict (heck I’ve had plenty of jobs where I have to wear them), but I know that’s how many people feel about it. And unfortunately, it’s those many people who make or break herd immunity levels.
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Interesting. I wonder if my office (most of us have to work in person) will relax mask rules now.
It would be nice to go back to “wear a mask if you are away from your desk” rather than “mask on at all times unless you are alone in a closed office (or eating/drinking).” I don’t think I’m ready to go back to “no mask.”
Of course, they’ve been carefully not telling us to get vaccinated (just recommending it) or asking if we’ve been vaccinated, so who knows.
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I’m kind of amazed how different all of our experiences are.
Our senior management signed a lets-get-vaccinated pact together and sent it company-wide. It’s on our home page. They’ve been sending out reminders any time there’s a nearby mass vaccination site, and we have a check-in to keep track of how many employees are fully vaccinated. They actually offer time off for going to get vaccinated if you can’t find an appointment outside of your normal work hours.
I’ve definitely seen people in stores without masks, but the majority of people indoors are masked (so far). I’m probably going to keep wearing mine, but we’re sending our kids back to daycare next week because my husband and I are fully vaccinated, and this is kind of stressing me out.
@haypug16, our daycare is also asking everyone in the pre-k and k class (mostly 4 and 5 year olds) to wear a mask this summer in preparation for their transition to public school, so it’s not just your daycare.
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Our offices don’t open until September, but we’ve already been told it’s “must be vaccinated, no masks required”. Our NY offices have very communal spaces, some of the regional ones have more “shared office” rather than open plan, so that varies a bit on how I feel about no masks.
But I guess no it’s in line with the CDC.
I work in a library and our compliance is really good. We rarely have to kick people out for repeated refusal. We do remind people to put them back on*/cover their noses** and people are pretty good about complying once reminded.
*Generally people are only removing in distant parts of the library when they are seated.
**OK, sometimes I am overwhelmed by the # of noses and can’t talk to everyone. But I try when I can.
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I pretty much stayed home this winter - I’m not crazy about winter in the first place. So I dunno how many people were masked at that point.
Since I’ve been vaccinated I’ve ventured inside more, and there are plenty of people with masks under their noses or around their necks, and I’m in a fairly low vaccine acceptance area.
I do feel increasingly comfortable going in places, but I don’t know when exactly I’ll feel comfortable not wearing a mask inside even though, rationally, I do think that it offers me considerably less protection than vaccination does.
It will be interesting to see how I feel when we’ve finished moving to a place with high compliance and high vaccines rates.
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In the US small employers (under 500) are getting reimbursed for offering time off for vaccinations and side effects, so here I hope employers are doing it!
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