Only about a third of people at the rink now are wearing masks - my coach offered to put one on when he saw I was wearing one for our private.
I’m still wearing my FFP2 mask for skating but feeling increasingly silly about it. I’m wondering if I am protecting myself at all when there are so many people not wearing masks. I’d definitely love to not continually break out from sweating for 2-3 hours under a mask, so I’m wondering if I should lighten up mask duty when training alone.
Initial vaccine series in Austria count for 180 days and boosters for 270. True in much of the EU but not all. But it may be irrelevant by the time most people’s “expire” given vaccine requirements for dining and checks for travel are already being lifted a lot.
I am in a similar situation but a well-fitted high grade mask will definitely offer protection! I don’t think it would be worth wearing a cloth mask or surgical mask around a bunch of bare faces but I’m still doing a KN95 in the office (only two others are masking out of 24).
I think you can make a rational argument either way, so for you the right decision might be to stop masking. But good masks do help lower your exposure.
Yea, I’ve still not had Covid that I know of so I wonder how much the mask wearing is delaying the inevitable (I assume I will get it, at some point). I’m also still wearing them in German class but I do fantasize about getting to take my
Mask off and drink coffee and water during a 2.5 hour long German class…
I was going to wait until this summer, or until I saw the local numbers going up, but dd came home yesterday with a positive test.
She has a runny nose and can’t taste stuff but otherwise feels okay. None of the rest of us have tested positive.
The doctor says she should work from home but the rest of us are free to carry on as we wish unless we develop symptoms and then we should retest. Sounds a little sketchy to me…
We’re all vaccinated and the 5 adults are boosted.
Anyway, I’ll probably get a booster this summer if I don’t get Covid now, but if I do get Covid I’ll wait until fall.
I like this epidemiologist for advice: Fourth Dose Q&A - Your Local Epidemiologist
Given the way the waves have gone the last two years, I would lean towards getting it before summer for the South and before Fall for the North.
The only sane part of the arguments about scrapping our vaccine passports was that they would need to increase the requirement to three shots and then continue modifying for booster efficacy and availability. But they actually scrapped it for insane reasons
It was bad here last summer, and I expect it to get that way again over the next month or so with the new variant becoming so prevalent. Those who had Omicron may not get it, but that means those who had Delta likely will (and down here, virtually none of them are vaxxed…)
We got ours on Friday. And we’ll get another in the fall if we can. Sort of expect it to be integrated into flu shots by then.
I’ve read that masks are less effective if they are wet, so the mask may not be offering the protection you think it is once you are sweating.
I’m hesitant to give any actual advice in your situation though because your situation is a fair bit different than mine.
How is @aaronpk doing? Is he home yet?
It usually doesn’t get on the mask at all except along some of the edges. I wear the duck-style masks so they don’t touch my face mostly, I’m just sweating underneath them making a nice dome of grossness.
On a plane itinerary from hell (mostly because BA canceled his trans-atlantic flight with 8 hours notice) back home today. They let him out of Austria.
ugh they cancelled the LHR-SFO flight and there was no “change” option on the website, it said to call them. When I called them they just weren’t answering their phones because of “call volume”. The only option was to cancel the flight for a refund and book an entirely new flight, which I did, but then that flight was late getting from LHR to DFW and I missed the connection from DFW to PDX. Now I am stuck in a hotel in Dallas and I have a new flight out in the morning.
We are at peak so we are reducing covid measures what the fuck
The end.
Following the American model I see. Excellent, excellent. What could go wrong.
throws all plans out the window
I shan’t be participating in the general population I assume.
It’s a whole COVID “Top Is In” thing 
Oh god 
It’s also the British model. As far as I can tell, it’s everyone but China model as this point
That feels very Ghost In The Shell. I can’t decide if the tippy taps are cute or creepy.