I say all this while still being EXTREMELY upset about how this was handled/communicated in the US because now service industry employees are baring the brunt of having to enforce masks, without laws to back them up…overnight.
Even in liberal, mostly mask-wearing Portland, the vegan donut shop employees were having to deal with lots of anti-maskers and fiesty teenagers over the weekend. So I can’t imagine what employees are having to deal with in more conservative/mask skeptical areas and in bigger stores.
This is exactly where I’m at. Like. Am I thrilled? No. But do I see their rationale, plus trust in good epidemiologist for the parts I’m not as clear on? Yea. I’m also a little uncertain still on how to handle my kid in all this. But I’m not going to lose all trust in public health authorities and medicine now.
The NYT has regularly surveyed a group of epidemiologists about what they, personally, considered to be safe or unsafe. The latest installment was Saturday, I think, and by and large the epidemiologists were astonished and not at all sure that this was a great idea. Which was interesting.
Our state lifted the mask restrictions a few days ago. I am carrying one in my purse but not wearing it unless the store requires it. I am fully vaccinated.
Something that occurred to me about the way the CDC’s changes feel - around this time last year my work announced that the office would stay closed through at least August and I just about cried because after all the uncertainty it was good to know on major thing, that we would definitely all be home together (for better and worse) for at least the next couple months. It was something known after weeks of chaos and uncertainty.
The past few months things have been improving, we’ve had something somewhat in our control that we can do (get ourselves and our loved ones vaccinated) and now it feels like that hope for something like certainty has been betrayed. The goal posts for families with kids have been shifted yet again while everyone else seems to be able to move forward. I’m trying to remind myself of the facts, of logic - my state’s seven day case average is on par with where we were mid-October before vaccines were even on the horizon, and when I talked to our pediatrician on Friday she had absolutely no qualms about sending Kiddo back to school in person in the fall.
Anyway, just putting that here in case it helps anyone else with Feelings around the CDC’s change. There’s still lots of aspects of it that suck (I feel for all the retail workers!) but it’s helping me try to deal with Feelings.
Illinois has lifted its mask mandate, but Chicago has not… so, we’ll see how this goes. Most people are still masked in stores and even outside.
I’m making myself go without one outdoors while just walking around in not-crowded conditions but where I do pass people. It feels deeply weird and kind of disrespectful to others who are masked outdoors. I guess it will take some time to feel OK.
And last but not least, people drive on highways every single day without thinking about it, which is far higher risk than the average post-vaccine adult wandering around maskless.
If I assure you that I regularly have panic attacks when driving on highways, can I continue to be overworried about Covid risk?
(Actually, with vaccine, I’m less worried for myself. But I think the mask change puts my kid at much higher risk, because so much of our population is unvaccinated. I wish the CDC would have mentioned children under 12 in their communication. Like should people who work with children under 12 stay masked? Should children under 12 avoid any indoor area with unmasked people? But it seems like we are ignoring the population entirely.)
I’ll have to go read it again, but I don’t remember a childcare call out.
Healthcare and vulnerable populations. But vulnerable is probably the wrong term for most children. Still, they arent vaccinated so I’d hate to see covid pediatric rates climb
Indian variant is now in northern Germany, where vaccination has been very slow to roll out. There is only one known case and they’ve locked down two apartment towers where it was found.
Looks like cases are going down but deaths are going up in India, as we’ve seen with the delay in many other places of ~30 days from infection spike. Pretty much no one believes the numbers in India, since they’re likely to be underreported in rural areas.
I thought we know that vaccinated adults are very unlikely to shed the virus even if they do get breakthrough covid? I thought that was the whole idea with the “no masks required” bit? Am I wrong?
Or are we concerned about kiddos not wearing masks and sharing it amongst themselves?
i was thinking unvaccinated adults spreading to kids and then amongst themselves. i assume lifting mask mandates means everyone is gonna, not just vaccinated.
it seems like it’s not a big deal if kids get covid but idk. it’s a weird disease. it freaks me out.
Ah yea. Once again the crux of the issue the “saying vaccinated people can not wear masks means everyone will give up on wearing masks”. I have no idea how to solve this and frankly this is my main issue with the CDC rec communication. I LOVE that they reassured fully vaccinated people that the chance of infecting someone else or getting covid is very low. I dislike how they handled it, I feel like the CDC didn’t talk to behavioral public health people (the difference between “public health in theory” and “public health in practice”)
Yup, not a big deal except for the few cases where it is unfortunately.
My county is ending “All COVID Restrictions” on June 2nd.
I talked a big fucking game about the CDC guidelines being science based (caveat: FOR VAXXED PEOPLE) therefore being a cool dude over here. But I’m totally not emotionally prepared for this, so yeah.
Very curious how this will play out in my work place (a grocery store) and extremely thankful I will be fully vaccinated that week.
My county has great numbers right now, and 63% of the population has had at least 1 vaccine dose. This is all awesome as hell.
And I’m not mad at the CDC for saying what the science (presumably) says: that vaccinated people are safe.
I’m weirded out that counties and states are taking it all the way to “rip it off and fill them bars up” town. o_O;; That does not seem to be the same thing, and it’s definitely a 0-60 feeling.
Like, Lollapalooza music fest is going on at full capacity?!? It’s not until late July, which, who knows how things will be then. And they say they are going to require negative test or proof of full vaxx status to get in… which, those lines to get in are going to be unbelievably long, this thing draws huge crowds to the point that Boyfriend and I won’t even go downtown during it. And, well, it’s not that hard to forge a vaxx card.