I think summer is very reasonable. Everyone (in the us) will have been able to be vaccinated at that point and the spread rate should be less than 1, with an already low infection rate.
But, I’ll wait to hear what the science says before I start acting… I’m no virologist or public health scientist/doctor.
I’m gonna keep wearing a mask even now because I like the look. Not in the gym though
What do you mean by ‘acting’?
Edit: not a trick question. I’m just curious what you mean.
Oregon, ya? I won’t hold my breath.
I will wait to hear what the science and public health officials have to say before i change my SOP in regards to mask wearing… My SOP being to always err on the side of wearing a mask if there is any question.
WA is crushing the vaccine rollout. DOH goal is 45,000 vaccinations/day. Our daily average is 56,900/day. We are already at 20% of the state vaccinated, and that number should increase quickly with the J&J one-shot vaccinations (yours truly is getting on Thursday).
Oregon is allowing everybody over 16 to get a vaccine soon. I think the vaccine rollout will go just fine.
Even now, a lot of stuff is back to what it was pre-2nd lockdown
I think OR is also doing well, as pointed out below.
I’m hopeful that will help the Gov open up countywide, but I’m not yet convinced they’ll remove masks, social distancing requirements or limited occupants in buildings.
I had the 'rona already. I’m not an annoying covidiot who causes a scene, I’ll wear it if it’s required.
I don’t wear one in my office (no one does).
I work on the office side of the construction industry but am in the field for meetings and whatnot a handful of times per week. One of the things i really notice is that the folks who take mask wearing VERY seriously have no type (hilariously so sometimes). I learned quick to not assume how someone felt about mask policy so i just wear it whenever i am around others… even when walking a site outside. I think a many people would prefer others wearing a mask around them, but feel embarrassed to speak up, so i just err on the side of wearing one. In my office, attendance is voluntary and no one wears a mask at their desk, which are generously spread out, but we are required to wear one when we leave our desk to go anywhere else, and you will get called out for it.
Same with me. Lately I only get onsite once a month or so.
Onsite though, we are required to wear masks at all times. Primarily driven by the GCs and fear of OSHA. Our office has six individuals who spoke openly about how much mask wearing sucks… so just took them off.
I’ve literally had an architect who triple masked in a meeting onsite, only to not wear one in his office with myself and his colleagues. I don’t get it.
It’d be interesting if the USA manages to fully vaccinated their population and dramatically curb community based transmission ; as a result a trouble bubble between Aus/USA would eventuate.
This would mean one of the first countries Australia opens up to was also the country with the most rampant rate of spread, highest death toll etc.
I’m hearing talk about Australia wherein politicians and epidemiologists are stating they won’t even open international travel if the entire population is vaccinated
At the moment people are on board because they are afraid for the safety of their loved ones (typically elderly). There’s a lot of fear mongering and misinformation spreading around, but generally speaking we know the vaccine usually stops people from falling severely ill. I don’t think the general population will buy “but there’s a more infectious UK variant” and whatnot as an excuse to keep borders shut if everyone has been vaccinated.
I’m not anti lockdown or anti safety, but I’ve noted some state governments (cough WA cough) seem to be revelling in this unforseen level of granted power allocated to them. To an extent the border closures and at times excessive restrictions have been more political than logical.
The states are trying to set precedent over “who can be covid tough”. Coupled with a suprisingly isolationist streak between individualistic states, at times it’s been pathetic.
Don’t recall the exact specifics but during the end of harsh lockdowns, two states both with low case loads (as in like under one hundred active cases) were trying to work out a deal. An individual from a border town from state A was dying and required a heart transplant (or something) from a state of the art hospital in state B. State B said “no, the risk of the guy bringing covid is too high”. To which I was thinking “not only would it be a statistical anomalie for him to have covid, but with his degree of heart failure he’d be dead if he caught a cold, let alone covid”.
Well… State B said no and the patient died… Needlessly mind you.
We have Australians who have been stranded overseas for nearly eighteen months now. Initially people chose to stay overseas under the thought “surely they can’t keep borders closed forever?”. To which my response is “HAAAAAAAA”.
People safe at home are saying “serves em right, should’ve come home”. It was a hassle to get home with flights being cancelled left right and centre, others didn’t want to lose like 20K on a lost trip. It’s almost as if we’ve become a spoilt brat, isolationist country. Our set of beliefs step from our inherent need to continually strive for elimination… But this isn’t possible long term, this is going to end up being like the seasonal flu in the sense it’ll be a recurring yearly illness (albeit probably somewhat deadlier) following mass vaccination
Even NZ let’s people leave by choice, even if this means you probably won’t be able to get back in… Australia? Nah, blanket international travel ban going on… I think fifteen months now. Sooner or later someone is going to challenge the ban, as I do believe this ban is unlawful to a degree.
This has been my experience also. I’ve been wearing a mask at the gym since last June and at first it seemed like it was interfering with breathing but I don’t think it actually was. Now I don’t even notice.
Oddly the two most vocal anti-maskers i work with are both architects. One works in my building, floor below, and rips down all the covid/masking signs he can find. He almost got his ass kicked when a large crusty site superintendent who had recently lost his mother to covid saw him doing that. The other will start off 50% of his calls with me bitching about mask mandates. Both are the artsy architect types too.
To get it back on topic, wasnt it a fad a couple years back for folks to train in those Bane masks to help increase their VO2 max? When i was sucking wind after my final front squat set yesterday, i just thought to myself that while my leg set was over, my lungs were still getting the workout through the mask. its all training haha. Its also a bit of an ego boost when you are lifting heavier and more intensely with a mask on fulltime than the other bros in the gym who take their mask off to deadlift 225 five times.
masks are scientifically proven not to work for reducing infectious disease transmission
Well damn, that solves this issue.
1 year later, how many people have looked at this fact first hand?
It’s not a fact.
That’s a big number. I assume you can source this? 3M more reports of children missing above a ‘normal’ year?
And as for anyone contending that ‘governments are going to be mandating masks indefinitely…’ just fucking stop with this nonsense. I live in Texas, and our mask mandate ended weeks ago. There won’t be a single state with a statewide mask mandate in the next few months. That’s going to be left to county/city governments very, very soon across the country.
Almost everyone who wears a mask this summer in the US will be doing it voluntarily, or at the request of businesses. It will not be mandated by the government, that’s barely still the case right now.
Yeah, I think the masks will fade off soon. Even Fausci (the guy without a mask at the ballgame last year) was having trouble defending them at a Senate oversight panel, just mumbled something about variants but couldn’t directly answer Sen Paul’s specific questions.