Yeah, this was just a comment on how different roll out is in different places. And I’m also curious about how our management will changr for the longterm
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I am actually excited to see you getting more relaxed because you have been so cautious that if you are getting relaxed, I feel more okay about my type of relaxing.
I am the same with “masking where it doesn’t cost me anything” and the payoff seems high - public transit, hotels and grocery stores, airports. Places where it does cost me - the rink.
Please take precautions for monkeypox at clubs, we are seeing transmissions from close physical sweaty contact at clubs and pride.
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I’m not worried specifically about covid vaccines. Monkeypox vaccines are hard to get and supplies are limited, and immunosuppressed people- a chunk of whom are at risk due to HIV status and community risk exposure - are having trouble getting the non-live vaccines.
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I had to work so hard to get paxlovid back in mid-may and I’m immunosuppressed. I’m hopeful that this means the ease of roll out has increased.
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I feel the same way about you relaxing your precautions! 
And, I mean, we are still going to choose outdoors when possible. And I would probably weigh whether it is worth it to do an indoor event where you sit close to others and can’t really leave, like a movie. It will just be nice to not have to cancel something because it got moved indoors because weather. Baby steps.
I do not go on the dance floor if it is so crowded that I would be in actual physical contact with others. Because EW, even if we are not having a plague.
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But, as far as monkeypox, it’s just skin contact, right? So, don’t touch people and be relatively covered up in case of accidental contact would be sufficient?
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Absolutely, and pretty sustained skin contact. So if you’re not dressed like the hoe I am in the club, and dancing with strangers, you’ll probably be fine.
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Oh, random thought around masks. I have to take the elevator in my 40-unit apartment building to check the mail and leave the house everytime I take my bike anywhere. I was previously wearing a mask in the building, on the off-chance I shared the elevator with someone.
I don’t wear my mask on my bike anymore because heat/sweat, skin, and low outdoor transmission (also built in social distancing of safe biking distance). It’s pretty annoying to put a mask on and then take it off as soon as I get outside 2 minutes later, especially when also dealing with wearing a helmet and makeup and/or sunscreen on my face.
I relaxed masking indoors in my own building when the state mandate was lifted in March, and started masking again in the building once I got covid in May. I’m back to no masks in the building if I’m just headed out the door on my bike. I have no idea the morality of this, and I do share the elevator with people pretty frequently.
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it’s very readily available in pgh and has been since it came out! sucks that it’s regionally available/unavailable tho!
It was more an issue of getting someone to write me a scrip, and send it to the pharmacy in a timely manner. Seems now pharmacists are allowed to prescribe it.
Tested positive at 4PM on a friday, called my PCP to ask for paxlovid and they couldn’t get me in til Tuesday which would’ve been past the 5 day mark, and wouldn’t prescribe without an appointment. My rheumatologist told me to call my PCP, and when I called back said they couldn’t write a scrip without an appointment and the wait time was 6 weeks but they could MAYBE help me on Monday. the urgent care covered under my insurance said explictly on their website they wouldn’t write paxlovid scrips, zoomcare doesn’t take my insurance and also said no paxlovid scrips on their website. The two pharmacies in the Portland metro that did a “prescribe on site thing” were in the suburbs (I don’t have a car) and didn’t have appointments available for two days.
Finally, after several hours of trying and some bullying from family and @Bracken_Joy, I was able to find a telehealth appt through my insurance page, get seen that night, and then it was taking a covid test on the call, getting read every single bit of prescribing info and cautions, and then she found a pharmacy that had it in stock.
But it was an ordeal, the hardest part for me is I’ll never know if it helped because I didn’t have a control… I did get a paxlovid rebound and had to re-isolate though, which sucked.
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I would go and not worry about it. Now that there’s vaccines and the strains are milder I think most people are going back to normal. I only wear a mask if required. Of course people that are immune compromised need to be more careful.
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This is the approach I’ve taken for a while. Masking whenever it doesn’t really make a difference to the experience at all (stores, transit, flying, etc) but not being all that cautious with things like indoor dining and socializing, a few weddings and other larger events, because at this point I just want to do those things and this feels like a good balance of risk reduction. It does help that I work from home and don’t have to make a decision about wearing a mask for an extended period of time on a daily basis. Plus, no high-risk factors to consider which would probably change things.
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I have been interested to see quite a few people wearing a mask while running this summer. I’m guessing it’s some kind of running thing?
My library knitting group was outside on the patio yesterday because the election had our regular room, and it’s the first time they saw me without a mask. LOL (Most of them knew one another pre pandemic).
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I was doing this before we understood outdoor transmission, and then I kept doing it before going back to the rink because I knew I’d have to skate inside with a mask so I wanted to have the cardio conditioning to skate in a mask. But I dunno if that’s why those peopel are doing it.
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Here, if someone is outdoors and masked, it is usually because they were covid positive and are following guidance to mask for, what is it now? 5 days isolation, 5 days masked?
So that might account for some of it? I saw someone masked at outdoor yoga a few weeks ago and overheard her saying this was why, when someone asked.
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there’s still bike rides here that are run by and for people with disabilities that require masks even though they’re outside all the time.
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I started running with a surgical mask early on when we thought it was necessary. I discovered that it surprisingly helped me. It’s not that hard to breathe through compared to a KN95, and it blocks the cold air in the winter and allergens in the spring/fall. So I still wear one most of the time.
Then again, I don’t run outside at all when it’s this hot. If I did, I doubt I’d still be wearing a mask.
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CDC says it’s time to be done with the pandemic apparently
The revised guidance – released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday – lifts the requirement to quarantine if exposed to the virus, deemphasizes screening people with no symptoms and updates COVID-19 protocols in schools, eliminating a recommendation for test-to-stay after potential exposure.
“This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives,” the CDC’s Greta Massetti said in a statement. “We know that COVID 19 is here to stay,” she added in comments during a briefing with reporters.
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The data says it’s no longer a pandemic in the US and Europe …
Makes sense to me to move to planning for endemic disease
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Honestly the number of people without symptoms who are having to isolate because they tested positive… including people I know on their 3rd round of covid. It kinda makes sense we’re at the point where we’re gonna stop interrupting work and school for just positive tests. But oof.
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