Talk About Tennis 2.0

I'm not going to argue that no one should be wearing a mask in a grocery store in Georgia, where just over 40% have gotten even one vaccine dose. I'm also not going to say that the two are equivalent: surely not wearing a mask when you should is orders of magnitude worse. But this does go the other way too. I don't understand why so many people still wear masks when they're walking alone outside here. As of a week ago, 81.7% of people in my zip code had at least one dose.

It's one thing to say that FULLY vaccinated people don't have to wear a mask in public indoor places (stores, etc.). Personally, I will continue to wear a mask after I get my 2nd dose... but if some FULLY vaccinated people don't wear a mask, it's not a huge issue to me.
Where it goes completely wrong, however, is to have this policy of FULLY vaccinated people not having to wear a mask, and then NOT VERIFYING if people are FULLY vaccinated or not. This is downright insane.

It's like saying that only people who've purchased tickets to Centre Court may enter to watch the match - and having NO-ONE there to verify that people have tickets.
Actually, it's significantly worse than that, because of the very real health risks involved.

As for people walking alone outside wearing a mask... yes, I've seen that here, too. Doesn't make much sense, and it's hard to understand. The only thing I've come up with is that they are coming from or going to more than one store, and are just too lazy to make the huge effort of putting the mask on and/or taking it off... So they just put it on and take it off once.
Yesterday, I saw a young woman of about 20 years old sitting completely alone on a bench (outside) waiting for a bus on a hot, sunny day. She had a mask on. You still must wear a mask on public transport (and in all stores) here - so she was ready to get on the bus. But I saw her sitting there for at least 15 minutes - alone, outside, and masked.

Some people maybe have psychological scars and are afraid still. I don't wear a mask outdoors as I think it makes no sense, but if someone wants to it doesn't bother me.

Now that I'm vaccinated I've stopped wearing a mask outside but I'm still more comfortable wearing it indoors.

That's in contrast with our state requirements - they've basically opened up almost everything indoors to be mask-free (excluding public transportation). Businesses can still require them on their own, but most aren't.

We have a high vaccination rate and cases are running extremely low in MA (dropped to 100 per day) so I guess that's why most people feel comfortable no longer wearing masks. I'd feel more comfortable waiting until we have no deaths per day (still about 5-10 per day).

JazzNU wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 9:08 pm For the first time this week, I walked into 2 places (grocery store and Panera) and some of the people weren't wearing masks. That's allowed by those companies and the state if you're vaccinated. But it was a bit of a shock to just see full faces of people outside of a restaurant. Nothing changed in the last week in terms of mandates or allowances, so I didn't get the memo that this was the week when we'd start doing that.

Also, bit of a surprise at who wasn't wearing a mask - all of them were senior citizens.

Is everyone else having the same experiences? And I guess I'm really asking those who live in areas where everywhere they went people wore masks.

Businesses here (including in my workplace) have made it optional if you are vaccinated (honor system).

Yesterday, I took off my mask at the gym and it felt very weird (became optional too).

I've definitely seen unmasked people walk into businesses this week even if the mask sign is still up for everyone.

BTW, the other day, there was some sort of group of 20-25 high schoolers on a trip going into Starbucks(100% not local to New York City, you can tell by... the lack of diversity). None were wearing masks. They were definitely under 16 and since most states have allowed 12+ vaccinations only recently, very doubtful they were vaccinated...

Togtdyalttai wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:13 am I'm not going to argue that no one should be wearing a mask in a grocery store in Georgia, where just over 40% have gotten even one vaccine dose. I'm also not going to say that the two are equivalent: surely not wearing a mask when you should is orders of magnitude worse. But this does go the other way too. I don't understand why so many people still wear masks when they're walking alone outside here. As of a week ago, 81.7% of people in my zip code had at least one dose.

That's very interesting. Outside mask wearing has dropped to very low levels here. Probably 1 in 20 I'll see outside might wear one, but that's about it and certainly not when they are alone. Surprised to hear you're still seeing that so often.

Though I should add the caveat that my county is among the highest vaccinated in the state and cases have dropped significantly, less than 2% positivity rate, and averaging less than 20 cases a day in a county of 830k. Personally, I've been waiting for the increased vaccination rates plus the significant drop in positivity rate to even consider ditching the mask, so I'm very happy the time has arrived.

That being said, I'm pretty uncomfortable with the idea of not wearing a mask in an establishment where the employees (most not making a ton of money) are still wearing masks and I have yet to see that happen, so until it seems like that's a personal choice for them, I'm likely to keep wearing one for the time being as I don't want them feeling uncomfortable where they work. I'd be more than willing to keep wearing a mask while shopping if the employees were allowed to ditch the masks. Me wearing it for 30 minutes versus them wearing one for 8 hours is just not remotely comparable.

Yahooo! Finally got my vaccine appointment, for this Sunday afternoon.

Where as before we saw exponential growth currently in Switzerland exponential decay. It's still a bit more than in US (two week incidence 84 per 100k), but nothing like it used to be and positivity rate is low (2.3%). We start returning to office a bit more from next week.

Apparently we were a bit too pessimistic about our vaccinations. Colombia is also progressing so, again, my trip to the USA made it the most expensive vaccines in the world. You are getting it soon. If the manufacturers can keep up the pace or even increase production, the rest of the world may start catching up with the USA/EU.
After 18 months of terrible news, a bit of optimism may be due. It looks as if this virus can be defeated. Now, set up the proper virus detection systems to avoid another pandemic, which is simply waiting out there. Whatever the cost, it will be drops in a barrel compared to what this pandemic has cost the world.

Togtdyalttai wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:13 am I'm not going to argue that no one should be wearing a mask in a grocery store in Georgia, where just over 40% have gotten even one vaccine dose. I'm also not going to say that the two are equivalent: surely not wearing a mask when you should is orders of magnitude worse. But this does go the other way too. I don't understand why so many people still wear masks when they're walking alone outside here. As of a week ago, 81.7% of people in my zip code had at least one dose.

Just to offer another perspective, I got my second vaccination months ago, but I still wear a mask when I go out for the following reasons:

1. It makes other people feel more comfortable with me. They don't have to worry if I'm an anti vaxxer or not.

2. It doesn't really bother me that much, so why not?

3. There is still a very small chance that I could still get sick.

In SF most people are masked when you go out, and even in restaurants they ask you to wear a mask inside when you aren't eating.

Kevin

Right now, I would caution very, very strongly against optimism in 'defeating' this virus to any degree...
During the 1st wave, many people were saying that if there is a 2nd wave, it would not be as bad as the first. The 2nd wave was worse than the first.
During the 2nd wave, many people were saying that if there is a 3rd wave, it would not be as bad as the 2nd. The 3rd wave was worse than the 2nd, largely due to the variants.
Now many people are saying (and behaving as if) we have control over this virus. I don't believe that for a second.

Apart from the virus being able to mutate in unpredictable ways - with some of the mutations being more transmissible and even more dangerous -, feeling that we've won the battle now also results in many people completely letting their guard down and living life as they lived it before this virus existed - as is being seen in many parts of the U.S. now.
It's WAY, WAY too early to think that way.

While I'm seeing thousands of maskless fans crammed together into indoor NHL hockey games in the U.S., I'm seeing far more empty seats than full ones at the OUTDOOR Roland Garros venue - and the relatively few occupied seats are mostly apart from each other, and contain fans wearing masks.
France is doing it right. The U.S. is not.

Difference is that we all are vaccinated now. That's a big deal.

My point is that this virus is unpredictable. And part of that unpredictability is that it may be able to evade the current vaccine protections (as is currently being hypothesized about the Delta variant).

It's far, far too early in the game to believe that we've won this battle.

One could believe or not, but soon time to relax most rules. I think in Switzerland there will be no more restrictions by August. Except probably masks in public transport.