It’s near impossible for her to make a non-hypocritical decision at this point. If you get COVID it’s on you, citizen, not the policymakers! 
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I do not like this mayor, I did not vote for this mayor (not like the other option was that great either, it was a complete hold your nose and vote situation, but I had too many BIPOC people in my circle saying that Lightfoot was problematic), and I’m pretty sick of this mayor.
’
I mean, not like Rahm or Daley would’ve been handling this better, but, I guess I would expect less from a white straight man?
I about choked when I read the Block Club article about how she stands by her decision to keep Lolla open. Apparently she wants to cast Chicago as a big city that can do well with no restrictions? I mean, don’t we all, but with cases rising, it doesn’t seem like that is what is happening.
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We made the first change to our activities in a while–we were supposed to go to a Rockies game as a work teambuilding thing but the Boy decided to blow it off. I think he didn’t want to go more than anything else, but also was spooked by all the people in government testing positive for delta! And after a “rooftop reception,” which sounds like an outdoor thing.
Right now I don’t know that we are planning to do anything else differently. We have occasionally eaten in a restaurant since restrictions were lifted but do not frequent crowded places (like if we go to a restaurant, we often skip lunch and go mid-afternoon when it’s not so busy). I have some travel plans coming up and a wedding in October that I really, really want to make–but right now I am keeping my ears open and trying not to be too attached to any one plan.
My sister is a health care provider, as I’ve mentioned, and I think many health care providers are on the side of “do what you want if you’re vaxxed” because they were going to work at the fucking hospital all year, so the rest of us with our caution seem kinda precious to them. And she’s my big sister, too, so I usually take my cues from her!
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Well, South Dakota is pretty darned masked free. We’ve eaten in restaurants twice, and it’s too hot to eat outside. Well, I would, but other people in my family wouldn’t and really it’s all or nothing in a household.
I increasingly think everyone is going to get some form of Covid eventually. Ugh.
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Surprise! The unvaccinated person just tested positive for COVID in a delta variant hotspot. 
My dad took a rapid test on Monday before watching pipsqueak and will take one again today. Assuming that comes back negative we won’t be keeping her out of daycare but we aren’t going to let my parents watch until next week so I’m off work today to watch her instead. My parents will take an additional COVID test 6 days after the possible exposure, before coming back to watch her…hopefully that’s enough??
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Full accuracy from what I’ve seen lol.
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The sauna at my gym is finally reopened. I am so happy! And noodley.
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Yeah…I thinkost essential workers are somewhere on this spectrum. Indooasks are cool though
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This perspective on positive covid tests among the vaccinated was reassuring to me: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/21/covid-testing-vaccinated/
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I will say it’s interesting to see how my own frame of reference has changed re: risk.
I road out the scariest parts of the pandemic in the US while not working and being essentially isolated. Now I’m an essential worker. The risk profile has changed in general (yay vaccines! yay access to testing and not overwhelmed healthcare facilities!) but my internal risk meter has changed, too. Now that I’m exposed to the public for 8 hour shifts, I find myself overall less concerned. I’m not sure if that’s just exposure to risk influencing my perception of it, or a more “logical” response to my community’s generally safe levels.
I can’t know, in the end.
But I’m just ruminating. I’ve more or less become someone who is in the “vaxxed, can do what I want” mentality. I obviously follow rules of places I visit (I’m not an asshole) but I don’t mask at work or when it’s not required.
I do keep a reasonable pulse on my community’s rates and will adjust if I feel it’s prudent, but I guess what I find interesting is that what I feel is prudent (for me) has really changed. It’s easy for me to feel that way as I don’t have kids, though, and I totally get that the “under 12’s can’t get vaxxed” issue is real.
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I am also in the mostly life back to normal camp
I am back to work in an office, but we still are not back to normal.
We don’t go into other people’s houses. We avoid anywhere indoors with our kids during peak times. The kids wear masks public/indoors except daycare 
Daycare is really disappointing to me.
Today they decided no more masks for vaxxed parents because “I’m tired of being mask police and I’ve run out of disposable masks to hand out.”
I’m SURE that all the parents who she was having to chase down to wear masks were definitely vaccinated.
I still am mad the kids are not wearing masks. There is ZERO public health guidance that says unvaccinated children should not be wearing masks, and she has offered zero rationale for that change.
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I honestly have a LOT more sympathy for this position after having started working with the public now. It can be very confrontational, and nobody gets paid enough for that. It’s the difference between the chance of an acute danger (someone losing their shit at you) or a difficult to see/understand danger.
Earlier, when the grocery store I worked at still required masks, I saw a guy lose his shit and throw an entire meal at the manager on duty who asked him to wear a mask. These incidents are rare (and often, I think, secretly desired on the part of the part of the person instigating the conflict) but they’re not nothing.
I know your situation with kids is completely different. 
I have a boat load of sympathy for the lack of clear guidelines on how to protect kiddos. But just putting it out there that that particular reason isn’t a nothing one re: why they stopped requiring masks of self-reported vaccinated people.
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I honestly have a LOT more sympathy for this position after having started working with the public now.
I mean, I get that, but it’s not really the general public, it’s only parents of already enrolled children.
Maybe she feels like she just has to protect her business, and can’t anger customers, but I often feel we are stuck with the whims of daycare because in a childcare desert, there aren’t many other places to go. No one has spots.
And when the “parents wear masks” thing started, we were all told that if we forgot our masks, they would just bring the kids out for us, like they had been for the last year. It was total news to me that she even had masks to borrow.
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Since it appears that your parents want to resume their lives why not put the baby in daycare instead of having them provide care a few days a week? I understand that without the virus it’s great for the baby to have it’s grandparents.
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She is in daycare 2x/week as well…it’s such a hard choice because at 9 months she can’t wear a mask and none of the other babies can either. Teachers and older kids are masked except when eating but I don’t know if the teachers are vaccinated (my parents are). I’m hoping renewed communication on expectations with my parents will be the most effective thing since they love watching her.
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Wait - your daycare is allowing unmasked parents indoors? I’d be upset too.
All the daycares we toured still do not allow parents, masked or unmasked, indoors. We pick up our kids at the door or in the outside play area if that’s where they are. All adults and kids over 3 are masked. I don’t know if the daycare employees are vaccinated or not, none of the local places will disclose.
That said, we’re two months into daycare and two colds in, so germs are a-spreading.
Husband and I working in person nearly full time. We are masked at work again, after ~ 2 weeks of no masks. Case rates in LA are going up again, so I feel like our current activities are using up our risk allocation (I know that’s not really a technical rationale 
). We’re not doing any other indoor stuff.
I do miss the gym though.
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We don’t use daycare right now, but the one near us has no one masked. Parents can come and go as desired. It’s crazy how different things are across the country.
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Our daycare stopped requiring masks a while ago, late May early June I believe.
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Our daycare lets people inside for drop-off/pickup but still requires masks for everyone (and there is 100% compliance as far as I’ve ever seen).
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