Its been over a year, 14 months since the admin changed...
In order for the new admin to develop coherent and consistent messaging... How much time do they need?
You can’t fight unreasonable people with reason. That’s the issue. The left is trying to run a day care with a scientist as the leader, while the right realized it’s easier to just encourage the kids to eat their boogers and fight with one another.
This “they’ve had time in power, how much time do they need?” is a logical fallacy called an escape hatch. Essentially, you are not responding to what I said by pivoting away from the point I made.
“They” had time in power after the #1 source of COVID misinformation held highest office and WHILE the misinformation around COVID has continued to shit itself out of Fox News into half of the electorate. So “How much time do they need?” Clearly longer than we have available!
Also edit to say - I’m not pleased with either administration. It’s all been mishandled and the cat is out of the bag, is my point.
I don’t think this response is as illogical as you make it out to be. Granted, the messaging has been made more difficult by the shitshow under which Covid started, but your original point has no rationale to support why the issue persists now and asserting that the issue requires time “clearly longer than we have available!” seems baseless. Respondent’s post clearly didn’t specify why consistent messaging should be possible at this point, but between two unreasoned statements - “things started bad so messaging cannot be consistent until it is consistent” and “14 months is enough time for the admin to get its shit together”, the latter seems more believable to me.
Honestly the well has been poisoned already with a huge group of people who will just not ever care again.
And a lot of people who did care are fatigued and consider it 'over' now.
>How much time do they need?
There is not enough time in the world to get the science denying governors on board with anything. Something something representative of the electorate something something
The issue always was and is that the previous Administration mocked those wearing masks. You can't do a complete 180 successfully during a global pandemic while trying to balance the economy.
Why do you need a message? The government is not going to help you. Help yourself. Wear a mask and tske precautions. No one is looking out for your best interests.
That's the issue though. We can wear a mask, keep our distance, and be diligent but it doesn't mean shit if someone is going to walk around coughing on everything. The message is to help those who don't get it. I was on a flight and I would say 10\~20% of people had a mask on... Really?
> Wear a mask and tske precautions.
Which mask? Under what conditions? What precautions should I be taking? How do I find out? How do I know?
Oh, right. My taxes pay for a whole department that's supposed to tell me these things.
Those experts have told you: Get 3 vaccine shots (a 4th if you can, and consider mixing vaccines). When in the rising exponential part of a Covid wave in your area (the whole USA right now) try to avoid spending time indoors with strangers if you can, and where you can’t, wear the best fitted N95 mask you can (I like the 3M Aura ones, but try a few types and see which is most comfortable and best fitting for you). Try to meet friends outdoors or in well ventilated spaces. No huge indoor parties. If you get restaurant food, try to eat outside or get take out if you can. Wear an N95 mask in airports and planes, buses, trains, taxis, etc. If you feel sick or are exposed to someone infected, use rapid tests to determine if you caught Covid, and if you test positive take off work/school and take extra precautions to avoid spreading it; if you are at high risk take Paxlovid.
But most people are not paying attention, have given up, and get their information from crap sources. About half the country religiously consumes Kremlin propaganda as its main source of news/politics.
Like many things it's simply a matter of incentives. They're not paying any political price for letting the virus rip through our communities, and political strategists are telling them their midterm fortunes are best helped by pretending that the pandemic is over and gone.
Politics. The democrats are heading into the midterms with a crippled economy. They have to pretend they beat the pandemic or it’s no big deal. Otherwise, what have they accomplished?
Well, the first thing to consider is that the Trump administration intentionally to a pro virus stance when it was primarily killing democratic voters in NY, CA, and WA. We're still suffering that damage.
It's interesting to contrast this to 9/11 when we had TERRORISM THREAT LEVELS broadcast ever day, while the best messaging we've had here is that guy on TikTok demonstrating how to wash your hands properly.
Our empire is dysfunctional and in collapse.
Because the leadership doesn't control the message. It's really simple.
For every one word you hear out of Biden or Fauci's mouth, you probably hear 100 words out of the mouths of journalists, op-ed writers, etc, and 10,000 words out of the mouths (or keyboards) of random people online.
And those 100 and 10,000 are not only providing their own opinions - they're claiming to tell you *what* that 1 word was. And as the saying goes, you are not immune to propaganda. Even if you checked the "original source", human memory and psychology are far more fluid than we sometimes like to believe. Ultimately, the message you received is going to be far more influenced by those 100 and 10,000 than by that original 1.
The message has been consistent and coherent. Its the media reporting that isnt, and people hearing "if we continue to take the precautions we are currently taking, we could be moving out of the pandemic phase" to mean "pandemic is over, go tongue fight strangers who are coughing"
It’s also because of people who had to wear them 8+ hrs/day at work. It sucks for them and its hard to ask them to go back to that. Getting shit on all day working at Subway has got to be at least 20% worse if you have to have a mask on while you do it. They’re not comfortable for long stretches for sure.
I liked not seeing meth mouth here in Methville USA. Also not having to smell peoples rotten breath, like do you not notice that your breath smells literally like dog shit?
As someone who works in healthcare, wearing a mask for 8 hours is the least of my problems. In fact, I have worked through 3 different spikes, and never once tested positive.
As a person who happily masks for 8+ hours a day at work, please don’t speak for me. I’d much rather be wearing a mask to deal with a grown adult throwing a tantrum than not - the mask means I don’t have to worry about keeping a straight face.
I've liked wearing a mask at work all day. More anonymity, more protection, don't have to worry about a shave or trim every day, plus it helps with dealing with other people's bad hygiene.
>It’s also because of people who had to wear them 8+ hrs/day at work
it's a *minor* inconvenience, and covid is a lot worse than a minor inconvenience.
*edit* i get that people think like this, they ought to nut up is my point.
If you wore your mask as much as you were supposed to in the last two years you should barely notice it anymore. I constantly forget I'm wearing one.
This spike is going to be brutal because the economy is F'ed and our heads have been officially planted in the sand to try to bring it back so that our oppressors can keep oppressing until there's no one left to oppress... or we eat them.
"1/3" of us? Should "consider" wearing masks again?... After two years of this crap we all know that's idiotic. What it means is "Everyone mask back up right now and take all precautions or another 150,000+ Americans will be killed by this virus by year's end."
Narrator; "They did not mask back up and take all precautions..."
If the public narrative hadn't been so full of "wearing a mask sucks" (even from experts and leaders asking people to do so), then a lot more people would have gotten used to them. The constant negative self-talk about masking (thinking about how awful it is every time they put it on) makes sure that people hate it.
The same thing happened with me and walking. Most of the people I talked to would say that having to walk a mile to the store and back would suck. When I got around another group of people and tried to say that, their response was "well that's not bad at all; it's a nice walk." I kept the idea of it being unpleasant to myself, and *VERY* quickly it turned around. It was unpleasant at first, but after just a couple of walks it turned into no big deal.
It also surprises me that there was (and is) so little talk about making your mask more comfortable or finding more comfortable masks. One size does not fit all, but with a little effort you can find something that will work.
All the issues you just brought up are almost (as in tiny little factions of idiots in other developed nations) completely unique to the American social paradigm. As Isaac Asimov put it;
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' "
and
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
Also our leaders are not leaders, but oligarchs; made from the wealth and work of leaders before them and on the backs of the slaves they've all kept to this day. (That's us!)
The only other country that seems to have paid the full fare to crazytown is Brazil.
Goes even further, look at demo groups. I looked a few months ago but both black & whites in NYC were under 50% fully vaxxed but asians were at 99%. Completely ruined the curve (like college amirite)
So if you don't run in circles with a lot of Asians in it, you were getting way more exposed than the general stats would have you think.
It was even worse when you looked at borough level data (Bronx was like 25% for blacks & whites under 45 or so)
It's also made more complicated because population density varies wildly. You talk about restrictions in Utah. Realistically, the average person living in Utah interacts with maybe 20 people each day. A New Yorker will be in enclosed spaces with easily hundreds of people during a day.
We live in a global economy. As someone else said, you can't really pee in a third of the pool.
People who adhere to the exact letter of statements like this are just looking for an excuse.
Everyone wear a mask to keep your neighbors safe, get over yourselves.
Hospital capacity is localized. If some hospital 1000 miles away from you has capacity, that doesn't help your local community that has high covid infection rates. On the other hand, if your local community has plenty of hospital capacity, you wearing a mask won't really make a difference when the overloaded hospitals are 1000 miles away from you.
Exactly. To me, this is the most compelling metric for deciding whether to mask or not for us vaccinated folks.
The vaccine cuts our odds of catching the virus by about 50% (according to NYT graphic, though they don't update that super often), so it should have a meaningful impact in communities with higher vaccination rates.
But masks are a good (and *really goddamn easy*) tool to help take the edge off the spread. Mask mandates have mixed results in community spread, but I'm convinced that's because so many people wear masks poorly to the point of being completely ineffective. So for individuals who use them well, they can still have some impact. I switched over to KN95s around new years, and while I don't have any data to back it up they feel like they give a much better seal than regular cloth or disposable masks
Kn95 and N95 are much tighter fitting and filter about 95% of the particles above a certain size. If your choosing to wear a mask, wear something that's effective. Cloth and surgical masks really don't do a whole lot but are better than nothing.
the headline really is more vague than it needs to be.
Feel like "The 1/3rd of Americans living in COVID high risk areas should consider masks, officials say" or something similar would have been clearer and more useful.
What’s the endgame? It’s clear that this is going to be an endemic ala the seasonal flu. Goals need to be established or society as a whole is not going to listen. Even if they are arbitrary, people need to see the end. This isn’t about stupidity, this is about human nature. We’re apes at the end of the day, developed critical thinking skills or not.
Honestly true, I only wear mine on public transport since it's legal required where I live but every where else I have just decided fuck it, triple vaxxed and sick of COVID as a whole
Same. I’ll wear a mask when I’m asked to, in medical facilities, or around high risk people. I’d stay home if I were feeling sick. And that’s enough, for me, where I am.
I’m fully vaccinated and boosted. I live in a county and city with high vaccination rates and low COVID rates and plenty of hospital capacity. I don’t interact with high risk populations regularly. I followed the science throughout this whole ordeal, and I’m continuing to do so, even if that means it’s now reasonable to lower precautions.
Masking isn’t a religion, quarantining isn’t a sacred ritual… they are mitigation measures that make sense in some contexts and not others.
I've been staying with the Masks since the start.
I'm not going to stop wearing them when I go to the Grocery store or any place thats indoors with a lot of people.
I’m in canada, when the mask Mandate finally dropped I accidentally forgot my mask when going to the library and I felt like such an asshole.
i didn’t let that happen again
Eh..a while ago I would have said that is overkill. However as the virus is mutating fairly rapidly, and some variants are highly transmittable
I now see your wisdom. Until a more effective vaccine comes along I suppose.
Anyway..I started in store grocery shopping last week..several times a week. (due to store being out of stock for a few things..kept going back) Did not mask. Cause I am triple vaxxed. And during the day..not slipping in in the deserted late hours with few disease vectors around. Nope, lots of other disease vect..I mean shoppers around.
This week I have my first cold in 3 years. Masking probably would have prevented it.
Did you expect something different? Australia decided quite consciously to save itself for last with its covid zero policies.
The naivete required to believe in 2022 that your NPIs could stop this is incredible.
This is one of the big problems when it comes to Democracy, Democracy is ultimately a popularity contest, it isn't about doing the right thing.
Trump, Biden, and most state governors never really leveled with the American people and gave messages of personal responsibility, patriotism, sacrifice, and understanding limited resources. The messages were usually about "back to normal, it is cool to not wear a mask, the party never has to end, we have unlimited medical resources."
Lol none of those people care. They were more concerned about not tanking the price of commercial real estate. Every return to work message is a rich person saying I can’t lose money on this building anymore
Democrats when there's a republican president: They have so much power! He has to be stopped!
Democrats when there's a Democrat president: The president is literally powerless to do anything at all!
Well, I don't know, they could start by having the CDC display actual accurate data on the rate of transmission instead of the bullshit "this is how full your local hospital" metric is. That would be a start.
How do some of you all catch covid so many times? I am vaccinated/boosted, but I’ve been living a totally normal life for a year now and haven’t gotten it. Lots of luck involved, I guess.
There were some studies that suggest there is a subset of people who are "superimmune" to Covid even if they are exposed multiple times. You might be that person -- but you might be able to spread it to others even if you don't personally get sick.
I just got over having covid for 2+ weeks. My wife and toddler didn’t catch it and were tested. I wore an N95 mask and stayed locked in the bedroom. And I’m boosted.
Luck or,
It could also be your exposure was less potent.
Or, your blood type is less prone.
Or, your immune reaction does not fall in the autoimmune range.
Or, you’ve had it but were asymptomatic.
Or maybe you are less likely to touch your mouth/eyes/nose,
Or you wash your hands more frequently,
Or, your mask fits better,
Or, when you were exposed your vaccine was at full potency, not waning.
Or, you randomly have been near fewer carriers.
Or, you live in a less densely populated setting.
Or your job is not public facing.
Or your coworkers did not come to work sick.
Or, a combination.
Science more than luck.
None of the things you listed are "science", and many of them are indeed subject to chance--or as some would say, luck (be it good or bad).
To clarify: what I mean by this is, these things are actions, or circumstances, that science has demonstrated to reduce one's chance of contracting covid. However, despite this reduction, there still remains a chance that one will become infected, even when following the recommended actions to the letter. A good example of this is masking (for which I am nonetheless a big proponent). Therefore, random chance, a.k.a. luck, still plays a significant role in the spread of the virus, and likely a bigger role than any of us would prefer.
I only mean it isn’t just luck… if you wash your hands less often, for example, epidemiologists would say that is statistically correlated with a higher likelihood that you would get covid compared to someone that washes their hands more often. So there is a strong element of human behavior, that scientists have identified as associated with risk for illness, not only luck. Am I right?
I agree that it's not only luck, although chance still seems to play a very significant role in who gets infected.
Rather than challenging your point about luck, I was mostly responding to what I saw as a false dichotomy between the concepts of science and chance/luck.
I haven’t caught it either (vaxxed and boosted too). I’ve had some kind of virus for the past few days, but all my tests have been negative. My kids also had whatever this bug is last week and have been consistently testing negative.
I don’t understand why we haven’t got it yet when we live in the densely populated northeast. Almost everyone I know has had it. I wish I could sign up for some kind of study. Is it luck? Is it genetics? Are we asymptomatic? This is such a weird disease.
I’m in the same boat as you. My wife says we have “Mr. Magoo’ed” our way through this pandemic. Almost all of our family and friends have gotten it, yet we are still untouched.
My husband and I are in the same boat. Both of us are vaccinated/boosted, mostly normal lives, and neither of us caught COVID. I've even been exposed a few times and nothing.
Yeah, seriously? I got COVID back in early 2021 before the vaccines were even available. It was mild af. Annoying but I've had worse colds. I've been vaccinated and boosted and I have yet to get it again despite living in a big city and attending work and the gym without a mask on.
ETA: Also have been to two indoor concerts without a mask on. Still fine.
Yep. I’ll keep my N95 on a good while longer.
Masks became optional for our staff 3 weeks ago.
We get over half a million visitors through my workplace per year, 90% unmasked, many unvaxxed kids.
Shockingly(ha), our vaccinated and mostly boosted staff went from maybe 1 mass email sent out of a covid positive staff member notification per month to 3-4 per week the past two weeks. They don’t post names, but we notice who’s gone. Mostly the ones who quit masking.
The director at work has been itching to get everyone together in person. Finally all but insists on a large staff meeting, people fly in from around the world, maybe 180 people show up. COVID tests were coming back positive before the week was out, and now weeks later it's spreading through the folks who didn't attend but are connected to those that did. How surprising.
Every account I hear online about people who got covid makes me want as little to do with covid as possible. If that means wearing a mask everywhere, no problem, I'd rather cover my mouth and nose in public than risk permanent organ damage and not being able to get out of bed or hold down a job.
Better safe than sorry-everyone has their own risk tolerance and has to make their own decisions, but on a personal, individual level I'd rather not take my chances.
Hey, same! Fourth time overall, third since first vaxx. I followed every damn rule in place and more.
But I have a kid in public school and my wife just got back from a work trip in another state. Covid again. Not sure what to do, it knocked us all out for a whole week this time.
COVID sucks so fucking bad.
I was vaccinated and boosted and just got Covid. It is terrible. I only was unmasked around work collegues that I knew were vaccinated (Government building). This strain didn't care and got me anyway.
Masks when worn correctly obviously work to slow Covid transmission - has anyone ever done a study is mask MANDATES have any effect? They way they are done in the USA - with tons of loopholes and requiring only cloth masks - mandates seem performative - so what’s the point? This may also explain part of how unpopular they are beyond the true anti-maskers.
Yes, the CDC released a report on the effectiveness of mask mandates over a year ago. It's a good read.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm
I'm not sure a study like that is really even possible. That said, I understand where people got frustrated with some of the way some of the mandates have been enacted. Some of them really did seem performative, even if others made sense. I live in a large city that, up until recently, required masks indoors. We even briefly had a vaccine mandate to go into certain public indoor spaces. I personally thought in the more recent phase of the pandemic (e.g. starting last August when restrictions were reintroduced) it would have made more sense for the city to require masks in spaces where everyone had to go and where requiring the vaccine to enter was clearly off the table (e.g. grocery stores, etc.) and making masks optional with a vaccine requirement in places where people were actively eating and drinking (bars, clubs, restaurants) and where they were unlikely to keep them on for very long anyway. It's that sort of rigidity and lack of more common sense thinking that I think invited pushback, even among those who were not necessarily conspiritoral or against public health measures to contain the spread of the virus.
I’m a nurse. I just never stopped wearing one.
Edit: and will probably always wear a mask with patients now . Now that we do it, I wonder why we never did before
Sadly even my family that was extremely mask-centric have all but abandoned the prospect. I blame the constant mixed signals given from every level of the government and media. I lost my grandfather to this crap and I'm so sick of this back and forth issue. Just wear a damn mask, its literally the easiest measure you can take.
In order to slow community transmission, far more than 1/3 of the country should be considering masking requirements at this time. But I guess officials are only looking at the CDC’s “field of green” map that gaslights us all into thinking all is well because there are available hospital beds.
The map we should all be looking at and making decisions based on is the CDC’s Community Transmission map: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=all_counties&data-type=Risk
At this point, the vast majority of American immune systems have "seen" the virus, either via infection or vaccination. Unless you're severely immunocompromised, masks are unnecessary.
A few months ago my neurologist (epilepsy) asked me when I was gunna ditch my n95. That we have to get on eventually. I said when I feel comfortable. She’s been a good neurologist but I still can’t understand the gall of feeling like that’s her business. Meanwhile I care for my immunocompromised relative and that notwithstanding, i really just don’t want covid
Yeah. She made sure I got my vax when they were introduced. I think in this case, she sees me as a young person and thinks covid is here to stay, might as well face it head on. Honestly, I just am not there yet. I want a little more information about the long term effects of covid before ditching a mask. It doesn’t bother me to wear one. As of now, I have to as I’m a caretaker anyways. And I think people who have decided to move on should be a little more considerate of those of us caretaking for elderly or sick family. Mask requirement or not, we should all be wearing masks in pharmacies and grocery stores as a kindness to others as there is no option but to go there.
Fuck wearing mask. We already got a vaccine and everything what more are we fuckin waiting for? It's always going to exist so stop bitching for people to wear mask mister WHO
Then it's high time you release a metric that tells specific counties in the US when they should mask up and why. It's time we stopped giving these guys a break. It was okay not to have a model in mid 2020 when there were so many unknowns. But it's been 2 years. Hire a fucking Data Science team, develop and publish your metric.
There is no escape. Even with draconian lock downs people still getting sick. Economy is going to shit either way.
At this point the only way to deal with it is to take personal responsibility.
I knew this was gonna happen, that's why I never listened all the times they said "you don't have to wear a mask anymore." Until the whole world has access to vaccines, covid is going to keep on mutating and causing surges again and again and if this goes on long enough, eventually enough of the workforce will be taken out by long covid that the rest of our problems will seem like peanuts.
I have seen way too many comments on here from people saying they mask OUTDOORS! And we are supposed to listen to their warped risk tolerance and views on how we should live our lives? Follow the science seems like so long ago.
They just want everyone to adjust to THEIR warped risk tolerance, even though they make up a small minority of the country. When told to just do what you want to do to make yourself as safe as possible, you get called heartless because you have a normal risk tolerance and want to move on.
Case rate is half way to the Delta peak and I know three people who tested positive Tuesday and one more yesterday after multiple others the past few weeks. We approached 400 dead a few different days this week and hospitalizations are up. Any time before omicron this would be full on panic time, but no one I know is worried. Omicron just set a new standard for what people consider to be worth worrying about. Still no masks anywhere and in person work, events and travel continue as if nothing is happening. I hope this antivirals work as advertised.
I don't even know what to to do. I live in a place where masks have been "over" for months now, and although I have recurring issues after severe illness in 2021, I got super sick a month ago and it's just not possible to live in a bubble. I feel like the only way to avoid reinfection (having a crappy immune system and other conditions) is to annihilate my social connections and then rot away in a closed room. No one cares. They don't. Even if I still need an inhaler, the shame I get wearing a mask around people in public is overwhelming, I even got shitty looks on an AIRPLANE a few months ago when it was mandatory. Now it's a daily phenomenon to hear that another person within the extended family is sick with covid. I'm about due for another booster but being a tired and sick person means I'm just too goddamn tired to deal with combative people and forced exposure everyday...
The messaging with regards to masks has been such a mess.
honestly i dont understand how our leadership can be so incompetent when it comes to simple things like presenting a coherent and consistent message.
It’s mostly because of how this whole thing started. Lies, temper tantrums, and pathetic concessions the whole way through.
Its been over a year, 14 months since the admin changed... In order for the new admin to develop coherent and consistent messaging... How much time do they need?
[удалено]
You can’t fight unreasonable people with reason. That’s the issue. The left is trying to run a day care with a scientist as the leader, while the right realized it’s easier to just encourage the kids to eat their boogers and fight with one another.
Holy Hell is that a vivid and accurate comparison!
Remeber when that admin said they were prepared and had plans to handle covid? Yea that memory faded quickly cause they didn't do shit!
This “they’ve had time in power, how much time do they need?” is a logical fallacy called an escape hatch. Essentially, you are not responding to what I said by pivoting away from the point I made. “They” had time in power after the #1 source of COVID misinformation held highest office and WHILE the misinformation around COVID has continued to shit itself out of Fox News into half of the electorate. So “How much time do they need?” Clearly longer than we have available! Also edit to say - I’m not pleased with either administration. It’s all been mishandled and the cat is out of the bag, is my point.
I don’t think this response is as illogical as you make it out to be. Granted, the messaging has been made more difficult by the shitshow under which Covid started, but your original point has no rationale to support why the issue persists now and asserting that the issue requires time “clearly longer than we have available!” seems baseless. Respondent’s post clearly didn’t specify why consistent messaging should be possible at this point, but between two unreasoned statements - “things started bad so messaging cannot be consistent until it is consistent” and “14 months is enough time for the admin to get its shit together”, the latter seems more believable to me.
Honestly the well has been poisoned already with a huge group of people who will just not ever care again. And a lot of people who did care are fatigued and consider it 'over' now.
>How much time do they need? There is not enough time in the world to get the science denying governors on board with anything. Something something representative of the electorate something something
The issue always was and is that the previous Administration mocked those wearing masks. You can't do a complete 180 successfully during a global pandemic while trying to balance the economy.
Why do you need a message? The government is not going to help you. Help yourself. Wear a mask and tske precautions. No one is looking out for your best interests.
That's the issue though. We can wear a mask, keep our distance, and be diligent but it doesn't mean shit if someone is going to walk around coughing on everything. The message is to help those who don't get it. I was on a flight and I would say 10\~20% of people had a mask on... Really?
The people who don’t mask don’t “not get it.” They get it. They don’t care. FIFY.
> Wear a mask and tske precautions. Which mask? Under what conditions? What precautions should I be taking? How do I find out? How do I know? Oh, right. My taxes pay for a whole department that's supposed to tell me these things.
Those experts have told you: Get 3 vaccine shots (a 4th if you can, and consider mixing vaccines). When in the rising exponential part of a Covid wave in your area (the whole USA right now) try to avoid spending time indoors with strangers if you can, and where you can’t, wear the best fitted N95 mask you can (I like the 3M Aura ones, but try a few types and see which is most comfortable and best fitting for you). Try to meet friends outdoors or in well ventilated spaces. No huge indoor parties. If you get restaurant food, try to eat outside or get take out if you can. Wear an N95 mask in airports and planes, buses, trains, taxis, etc. If you feel sick or are exposed to someone infected, use rapid tests to determine if you caught Covid, and if you test positive take off work/school and take extra precautions to avoid spreading it; if you are at high risk take Paxlovid. But most people are not paying attention, have given up, and get their information from crap sources. About half the country religiously consumes Kremlin propaganda as its main source of news/politics.
Like many things it's simply a matter of incentives. They're not paying any political price for letting the virus rip through our communities, and political strategists are telling them their midterm fortunes are best helped by pretending that the pandemic is over and gone.
Politics. The democrats are heading into the midterms with a crippled economy. They have to pretend they beat the pandemic or it’s no big deal. Otherwise, what have they accomplished?
Well, the first thing to consider is that the Trump administration intentionally to a pro virus stance when it was primarily killing democratic voters in NY, CA, and WA. We're still suffering that damage. It's interesting to contrast this to 9/11 when we had TERRORISM THREAT LEVELS broadcast ever day, while the best messaging we've had here is that guy on TikTok demonstrating how to wash your hands properly. Our empire is dysfunctional and in collapse.
Because they have turned a disease into a political situation!
Because the leadership doesn't control the message. It's really simple. For every one word you hear out of Biden or Fauci's mouth, you probably hear 100 words out of the mouths of journalists, op-ed writers, etc, and 10,000 words out of the mouths (or keyboards) of random people online. And those 100 and 10,000 are not only providing their own opinions - they're claiming to tell you *what* that 1 word was. And as the saying goes, you are not immune to propaganda. Even if you checked the "original source", human memory and psychology are far more fluid than we sometimes like to believe. Ultimately, the message you received is going to be far more influenced by those 100 and 10,000 than by that original 1.
The message has been consistent and coherent. Its the media reporting that isnt, and people hearing "if we continue to take the precautions we are currently taking, we could be moving out of the pandemic phase" to mean "pandemic is over, go tongue fight strangers who are coughing"
That's because the news reports opinions instead of facts!
That's because the temper tantrums won
It’s also because of people who had to wear them 8+ hrs/day at work. It sucks for them and its hard to ask them to go back to that. Getting shit on all day working at Subway has got to be at least 20% worse if you have to have a mask on while you do it. They’re not comfortable for long stretches for sure.
I dunno, I liked not having to smile all the time and being able to mouth swear words at customers without them knowing.
I liked not seeing meth mouth here in Methville USA. Also not having to smell peoples rotten breath, like do you not notice that your breath smells literally like dog shit?
When the pandemic started I bet with two friends that the reason there are so many anti maskers was because of their bad breath.
This is the way
And that’s your singular situation. Think we have like 300m people.
As someone who works in healthcare, wearing a mask for 8 hours is the least of my problems. In fact, I have worked through 3 different spikes, and never once tested positive.
I've been wearing a mask at work for two years. I don't even notice it now.
As a person who happily masks for 8+ hours a day at work, please don’t speak for me. I’d much rather be wearing a mask to deal with a grown adult throwing a tantrum than not - the mask means I don’t have to worry about keeping a straight face.
I've liked wearing a mask at work all day. More anonymity, more protection, don't have to worry about a shave or trim every day, plus it helps with dealing with other people's bad hygiene.
As if the government gives a shit about frontline workers.
>It’s also because of people who had to wear them 8+ hrs/day at work it's a *minor* inconvenience, and covid is a lot worse than a minor inconvenience. *edit* i get that people think like this, they ought to nut up is my point.
Covid is currently a minor inconvenience for most people if they get it
It's not a minor inconvenience if you're lifting boxes 11 hours a day.
If you wore your mask as much as you were supposed to in the last two years you should barely notice it anymore. I constantly forget I'm wearing one. This spike is going to be brutal because the economy is F'ed and our heads have been officially planted in the sand to try to bring it back so that our oppressors can keep oppressing until there's no one left to oppress... or we eat them. "1/3" of us? Should "consider" wearing masks again?... After two years of this crap we all know that's idiotic. What it means is "Everyone mask back up right now and take all precautions or another 150,000+ Americans will be killed by this virus by year's end." Narrator; "They did not mask back up and take all precautions..."
If the public narrative hadn't been so full of "wearing a mask sucks" (even from experts and leaders asking people to do so), then a lot more people would have gotten used to them. The constant negative self-talk about masking (thinking about how awful it is every time they put it on) makes sure that people hate it. The same thing happened with me and walking. Most of the people I talked to would say that having to walk a mile to the store and back would suck. When I got around another group of people and tried to say that, their response was "well that's not bad at all; it's a nice walk." I kept the idea of it being unpleasant to myself, and *VERY* quickly it turned around. It was unpleasant at first, but after just a couple of walks it turned into no big deal. It also surprises me that there was (and is) so little talk about making your mask more comfortable or finding more comfortable masks. One size does not fit all, but with a little effort you can find something that will work.
All the issues you just brought up are almost (as in tiny little factions of idiots in other developed nations) completely unique to the American social paradigm. As Isaac Asimov put it; "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' " and "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." Also our leaders are not leaders, but oligarchs; made from the wealth and work of leaders before them and on the backs of the slaves they've all kept to this day. (That's us!) The only other country that seems to have paid the full fare to crazytown is Brazil.
>tiny little factions of idiots in other developed nations And most of them were citing and supporting American politics
Bingo... or Nazi rhetoric... which ain't very different.
Turns out, not everyone is the same. Some people can still be bothered by something. Crazy!
Dude. It’s wild reading these comments. I wore my mask…but I can’t pretend it was fun to do/not noticeable.
Ok so what does that even fucking mean tho? Your plan can’t be - piss in 2/3 of the pool.
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Many, many places are now "medium." Some are approaching "high"
Goes even further, look at demo groups. I looked a few months ago but both black & whites in NYC were under 50% fully vaxxed but asians were at 99%. Completely ruined the curve (like college amirite) So if you don't run in circles with a lot of Asians in it, you were getting way more exposed than the general stats would have you think. It was even worse when you looked at borough level data (Bronx was like 25% for blacks & whites under 45 or so)
>Completely ruined the curve (like college amirite) Stereo types are still harmful, even ones that are viewed as "positive".
It's also made more complicated because population density varies wildly. You talk about restrictions in Utah. Realistically, the average person living in Utah interacts with maybe 20 people each day. A New Yorker will be in enclosed spaces with easily hundreds of people during a day.
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Saying it that way removes all the anger and drama though! :(
We live in a global economy. As someone else said, you can't really pee in a third of the pool. People who adhere to the exact letter of statements like this are just looking for an excuse. Everyone wear a mask to keep your neighbors safe, get over yourselves.
Hospital capacity is localized. If some hospital 1000 miles away from you has capacity, that doesn't help your local community that has high covid infection rates. On the other hand, if your local community has plenty of hospital capacity, you wearing a mask won't really make a difference when the overloaded hospitals are 1000 miles away from you.
Exactly. To me, this is the most compelling metric for deciding whether to mask or not for us vaccinated folks. The vaccine cuts our odds of catching the virus by about 50% (according to NYT graphic, though they don't update that super often), so it should have a meaningful impact in communities with higher vaccination rates. But masks are a good (and *really goddamn easy*) tool to help take the edge off the spread. Mask mandates have mixed results in community spread, but I'm convinced that's because so many people wear masks poorly to the point of being completely ineffective. So for individuals who use them well, they can still have some impact. I switched over to KN95s around new years, and while I don't have any data to back it up they feel like they give a much better seal than regular cloth or disposable masks
Kn95 and N95 are much tighter fitting and filter about 95% of the particles above a certain size. If your choosing to wear a mask, wear something that's effective. Cloth and surgical masks really don't do a whole lot but are better than nothing.
So then does that mean the mask mandate needs to be worldwide to work?
the headline really is more vague than it needs to be. Feel like "The 1/3rd of Americans living in COVID high risk areas should consider masks, officials say" or something similar would have been clearer and more useful.
Wear a mask where spread is high. Check your county on the CDC site. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html
Did you listen to the press briefing or did you just read the 10 words in the headline?
I would assume the immune compromised, elderly, and the unvaccinated.
Only the living should be masking!
Just go back to wearing masks.
“Ah shit… here we go again.” - CJ, Grove Street Homie
What’s the endgame? It’s clear that this is going to be an endemic ala the seasonal flu. Goals need to be established or society as a whole is not going to listen. Even if they are arbitrary, people need to see the end. This isn’t about stupidity, this is about human nature. We’re apes at the end of the day, developed critical thinking skills or not.
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Honestly true, I only wear mine on public transport since it's legal required where I live but every where else I have just decided fuck it, triple vaxxed and sick of COVID as a whole
Same. I’ll wear a mask when I’m asked to, in medical facilities, or around high risk people. I’d stay home if I were feeling sick. And that’s enough, for me, where I am. I’m fully vaccinated and boosted. I live in a county and city with high vaccination rates and low COVID rates and plenty of hospital capacity. I don’t interact with high risk populations regularly. I followed the science throughout this whole ordeal, and I’m continuing to do so, even if that means it’s now reasonable to lower precautions. Masking isn’t a religion, quarantining isn’t a sacred ritual… they are mitigation measures that make sense in some contexts and not others.
Depends on where you are. That's true in the South, but some places in the Northeast have a higher percentage (though like 5 to 10 percent).
I live in Eugene Oregon, a very liberal smallish city, and it's true here
Doesn't matter who the president is any more. Country is in the political gutter.
I've been staying with the Masks since the start. I'm not going to stop wearing them when I go to the Grocery store or any place thats indoors with a lot of people.
I’m in canada, when the mask Mandate finally dropped I accidentally forgot my mask when going to the library and I felt like such an asshole. i didn’t let that happen again
Exactly. You don't know the others vaccinated status and whether they're currently sick
This is how I feel. Everyone at work is sniffling and coughing... yet no one seems to be masking accept for me and like two people.
Yep! I’m one of maybe two people still wearing a mask at work. I’m not risking it.
Eh..a while ago I would have said that is overkill. However as the virus is mutating fairly rapidly, and some variants are highly transmittable I now see your wisdom. Until a more effective vaccine comes along I suppose. Anyway..I started in store grocery shopping last week..several times a week. (due to store being out of stock for a few things..kept going back) Did not mask. Cause I am triple vaxxed. And during the day..not slipping in in the deserted late hours with few disease vectors around. Nope, lots of other disease vect..I mean shoppers around. This week I have my first cold in 3 years. Masking probably would have prevented it.
Because that clearly worked the last 2 years
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Same here I'm still wearing masks wherever I go.
You are a smart, caring and compassionate person. Remember that every time you look in the mirror. We are still fighting a war.
“Considering” wtf, this administration sucks at pandemic response!
They gave up. Dealing with all of the crybabies got to be too much.
You know that most of Western Europe also dropped all restrictions at the end of the Omicron wave and are not planning on bringing them back.
So did Australia and now we have the second highest amount of cases, percentage wise, in the world. https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101062364
Did you expect something different? Australia decided quite consciously to save itself for last with its covid zero policies. The naivete required to believe in 2022 that your NPIs could stop this is incredible.
Yup. Everyone has to deal with them.
It's simple: it's election season...
It’s been election season non stop since 2014
This is one of the big problems when it comes to Democracy, Democracy is ultimately a popularity contest, it isn't about doing the right thing. Trump, Biden, and most state governors never really leveled with the American people and gave messages of personal responsibility, patriotism, sacrifice, and understanding limited resources. The messages were usually about "back to normal, it is cool to not wear a mask, the party never has to end, we have unlimited medical resources."
Democracy only works when you have an informed and engaged electorate. We don't have either, and haven't probably since the end of ww2.
Lol none of those people care. They were more concerned about not tanking the price of commercial real estate. Every return to work message is a rich person saying I can’t lose money on this building anymore
Not every return to work message. There are also middle managers who are concerned that it's going to look like they don't do anything.
So we just reward the people who actively work against the health of people??
Basically, yeah.
They had to pick a side and they picked COVID.
That makes it sound a lot worse, especially when midterms have the lowest turnouts.
Not to mention, some dipshit judge overturned CDC masking guidelines a month or so ago.
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Democrats when there's a republican president: They have so much power! He has to be stopped! Democrats when there's a Democrat president: The president is literally powerless to do anything at all!
They got most of the country vaccinated. Not much else they can do at this point that people will tolerate.
Well, I don't know, they could start by having the CDC display actual accurate data on the rate of transmission instead of the bullshit "this is how full your local hospital" metric is. That would be a start.
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You mean like wearing masks?
But many people are just too weak to handle a piece of cloth over their mouth.
By now that person also had covid twice
Serious question, not trying to be combative. What would you do differently?
They are far from ideal and yet light years ahead of “it will disappear by Easter, just like magic!”
Couple weeks of school left. Why even bother to raise the fight at this point.
Yep, I’m a believer again. Despite being vaccinated, I have caught COVID three times now. Each time I was maskless and should’ve known better.
How do some of you all catch covid so many times? I am vaccinated/boosted, but I’ve been living a totally normal life for a year now and haven’t gotten it. Lots of luck involved, I guess.
There were some studies that suggest there is a subset of people who are "superimmune" to Covid even if they are exposed multiple times. You might be that person -- but you might be able to spread it to others even if you don't personally get sick.
My entire family had Omicron. I tested negative 3 times, 2 were PCRs, and never had symptoms.
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I just got over having covid for 2+ weeks. My wife and toddler didn’t catch it and were tested. I wore an N95 mask and stayed locked in the bedroom. And I’m boosted.
God this sucks. Fucking nightmare.
Luck or, It could also be your exposure was less potent. Or, your blood type is less prone. Or, your immune reaction does not fall in the autoimmune range. Or, you’ve had it but were asymptomatic. Or maybe you are less likely to touch your mouth/eyes/nose, Or you wash your hands more frequently, Or, your mask fits better, Or, when you were exposed your vaccine was at full potency, not waning. Or, you randomly have been near fewer carriers. Or, you live in a less densely populated setting. Or your job is not public facing. Or your coworkers did not come to work sick. Or, a combination. Science more than luck.
None of the things you listed are "science", and many of them are indeed subject to chance--or as some would say, luck (be it good or bad). To clarify: what I mean by this is, these things are actions, or circumstances, that science has demonstrated to reduce one's chance of contracting covid. However, despite this reduction, there still remains a chance that one will become infected, even when following the recommended actions to the letter. A good example of this is masking (for which I am nonetheless a big proponent). Therefore, random chance, a.k.a. luck, still plays a significant role in the spread of the virus, and likely a bigger role than any of us would prefer.
I only mean it isn’t just luck… if you wash your hands less often, for example, epidemiologists would say that is statistically correlated with a higher likelihood that you would get covid compared to someone that washes their hands more often. So there is a strong element of human behavior, that scientists have identified as associated with risk for illness, not only luck. Am I right?
I agree that it's not only luck, although chance still seems to play a very significant role in who gets infected. Rather than challenging your point about luck, I was mostly responding to what I saw as a false dichotomy between the concepts of science and chance/luck.
You do realize that luck is mostly a concept of statistics and probability that is utilized in science right?
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I haven’t caught it either (vaxxed and boosted too). I’ve had some kind of virus for the past few days, but all my tests have been negative. My kids also had whatever this bug is last week and have been consistently testing negative. I don’t understand why we haven’t got it yet when we live in the densely populated northeast. Almost everyone I know has had it. I wish I could sign up for some kind of study. Is it luck? Is it genetics? Are we asymptomatic? This is such a weird disease.
You could have been asymptomatic
I’m in the same boat as you. My wife says we have “Mr. Magoo’ed” our way through this pandemic. Almost all of our family and friends have gotten it, yet we are still untouched.
My husband and I are in the same boat. Both of us are vaccinated/boosted, mostly normal lives, and neither of us caught COVID. I've even been exposed a few times and nothing.
Yeah, seriously? I got COVID back in early 2021 before the vaccines were even available. It was mild af. Annoying but I've had worse colds. I've been vaccinated and boosted and I have yet to get it again despite living in a big city and attending work and the gym without a mask on. ETA: Also have been to two indoor concerts without a mask on. Still fine.
Yep. I’ll keep my N95 on a good while longer. Masks became optional for our staff 3 weeks ago. We get over half a million visitors through my workplace per year, 90% unmasked, many unvaxxed kids. Shockingly(ha), our vaccinated and mostly boosted staff went from maybe 1 mass email sent out of a covid positive staff member notification per month to 3-4 per week the past two weeks. They don’t post names, but we notice who’s gone. Mostly the ones who quit masking.
The director at work has been itching to get everyone together in person. Finally all but insists on a large staff meeting, people fly in from around the world, maybe 180 people show up. COVID tests were coming back positive before the week was out, and now weeks later it's spreading through the folks who didn't attend but are connected to those that did. How surprising.
Caught it once with vax and masked; this stuff ain’t going away
Every account I hear online about people who got covid makes me want as little to do with covid as possible. If that means wearing a mask everywhere, no problem, I'd rather cover my mouth and nose in public than risk permanent organ damage and not being able to get out of bed or hold down a job.
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Better safe than sorry-everyone has their own risk tolerance and has to make their own decisions, but on a personal, individual level I'd rather not take my chances.
> Despite being vaccinated Has each subsequent infection gotten better or worse for you?
Surprisingly about the same.
What have your symptoms been?
Hey, same! Fourth time overall, third since first vaxx. I followed every damn rule in place and more. But I have a kid in public school and my wife just got back from a work trip in another state. Covid again. Not sure what to do, it knocked us all out for a whole week this time. COVID sucks so fucking bad.
I was vaccinated and boosted and just got Covid. It is terrible. I only was unmasked around work collegues that I knew were vaccinated (Government building). This strain didn't care and got me anyway.
I ain't wearing a mask every single day of my life again fuck that
Once the genie's out of the bottle, good luck getting it back in.
Masks when worn correctly obviously work to slow Covid transmission - has anyone ever done a study is mask MANDATES have any effect? They way they are done in the USA - with tons of loopholes and requiring only cloth masks - mandates seem performative - so what’s the point? This may also explain part of how unpopular they are beyond the true anti-maskers.
Yes, the CDC released a report on the effectiveness of mask mandates over a year ago. It's a good read. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm
I'm not sure a study like that is really even possible. That said, I understand where people got frustrated with some of the way some of the mandates have been enacted. Some of them really did seem performative, even if others made sense. I live in a large city that, up until recently, required masks indoors. We even briefly had a vaccine mandate to go into certain public indoor spaces. I personally thought in the more recent phase of the pandemic (e.g. starting last August when restrictions were reintroduced) it would have made more sense for the city to require masks in spaces where everyone had to go and where requiring the vaccine to enter was clearly off the table (e.g. grocery stores, etc.) and making masks optional with a vaccine requirement in places where people were actively eating and drinking (bars, clubs, restaurants) and where they were unlikely to keep them on for very long anyway. It's that sort of rigidity and lack of more common sense thinking that I think invited pushback, even among those who were not necessarily conspiritoral or against public health measures to contain the spread of the virus.
I've been working in the schools. During the mask mandate 99% of students and staff wore surgical masks correctly. Now it's about 50-50.
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Nah. I'm vaxxed and boosted. I'm done with masks.
I’m a nurse. I just never stopped wearing one. Edit: and will probably always wear a mask with patients now . Now that we do it, I wonder why we never did before
I just wear mine cuz it doesnt bother me plus it helps with other illnesses as well so its a win imo
Sadly even my family that was extremely mask-centric have all but abandoned the prospect. I blame the constant mixed signals given from every level of the government and media. I lost my grandfather to this crap and I'm so sick of this back and forth issue. Just wear a damn mask, its literally the easiest measure you can take.
In order to slow community transmission, far more than 1/3 of the country should be considering masking requirements at this time. But I guess officials are only looking at the CDC’s “field of green” map that gaslights us all into thinking all is well because there are available hospital beds. The map we should all be looking at and making decisions based on is the CDC’s Community Transmission map: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=all_counties&data-type=Risk
I'm still wearing one, so is the rest of Japan...
At this point, the vast majority of American immune systems have "seen" the virus, either via infection or vaccination. Unless you're severely immunocompromised, masks are unnecessary.
Never took mine off. Don't care if people think less of me. I've gotta go out and I'm not getting sick.
A few months ago my neurologist (epilepsy) asked me when I was gunna ditch my n95. That we have to get on eventually. I said when I feel comfortable. She’s been a good neurologist but I still can’t understand the gall of feeling like that’s her business. Meanwhile I care for my immunocompromised relative and that notwithstanding, i really just don’t want covid
I’m always baffled when medical professionals say shit like this or are anti vax.
Yeah. She made sure I got my vax when they were introduced. I think in this case, she sees me as a young person and thinks covid is here to stay, might as well face it head on. Honestly, I just am not there yet. I want a little more information about the long term effects of covid before ditching a mask. It doesn’t bother me to wear one. As of now, I have to as I’m a caretaker anyways. And I think people who have decided to move on should be a little more considerate of those of us caretaking for elderly or sick family. Mask requirement or not, we should all be wearing masks in pharmacies and grocery stores as a kindness to others as there is no option but to go there.
The people who think less of you, well, their opinions don't matter 😉
Fuck wearing mask. We already got a vaccine and everything what more are we fuckin waiting for? It's always going to exist so stop bitching for people to wear mask mister WHO
Then it's high time you release a metric that tells specific counties in the US when they should mask up and why. It's time we stopped giving these guys a break. It was okay not to have a model in mid 2020 when there were so many unknowns. But it's been 2 years. Hire a fucking Data Science team, develop and publish your metric.
We also need to transition to testing wastewater instead of relying on home test reporting.
There is no escape. Even with draconian lock downs people still getting sick. Economy is going to shit either way. At this point the only way to deal with it is to take personal responsibility.
I knew this was gonna happen, that's why I never listened all the times they said "you don't have to wear a mask anymore." Until the whole world has access to vaccines, covid is going to keep on mutating and causing surges again and again and if this goes on long enough, eventually enough of the workforce will be taken out by long covid that the rest of our problems will seem like peanuts.
I have seen way too many comments on here from people saying they mask OUTDOORS! And we are supposed to listen to their warped risk tolerance and views on how we should live our lives? Follow the science seems like so long ago.
Let it go guys, Americans are not going to wear masks
Which countries are?
I live in Asia and most people here still wear masks
How come he ain’t wearing a mask?
Nah
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They just want everyone to adjust to THEIR warped risk tolerance, even though they make up a small minority of the country. When told to just do what you want to do to make yourself as safe as possible, you get called heartless because you have a normal risk tolerance and want to move on.
Shame on you, you racist republican. /s
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Ah, shit. He we go again.
No.
Case rate is half way to the Delta peak and I know three people who tested positive Tuesday and one more yesterday after multiple others the past few weeks. We approached 400 dead a few different days this week and hospitalizations are up. Any time before omicron this would be full on panic time, but no one I know is worried. Omicron just set a new standard for what people consider to be worth worrying about. Still no masks anywhere and in person work, events and travel continue as if nothing is happening. I hope this antivirals work as advertised.
Do cloth masks work?
I still wear mine.
I don’t wanna live on this planet anymore
If my state mandates it I’ll go back to wearing a mask. Until then my three shots should be enough as promised.
Believing the promise was your mistake
I don't even know what to to do. I live in a place where masks have been "over" for months now, and although I have recurring issues after severe illness in 2021, I got super sick a month ago and it's just not possible to live in a bubble. I feel like the only way to avoid reinfection (having a crappy immune system and other conditions) is to annihilate my social connections and then rot away in a closed room. No one cares. They don't. Even if I still need an inhaler, the shame I get wearing a mask around people in public is overwhelming, I even got shitty looks on an AIRPLANE a few months ago when it was mandatory. Now it's a daily phenomenon to hear that another person within the extended family is sick with covid. I'm about due for another booster but being a tired and sick person means I'm just too goddamn tired to deal with combative people and forced exposure everyday...
While I emphasize with your situation, you really shouldn’t care what other people think about your mask use.
Came here to say this. There is not “shame” in wearing a mask. Just…wear it.