Those projection graphs from Sweden are encouraging, but also darkly hilarious. The have the "masks" dashed line projection on everything, but then as you scroll down there is a "mask use" graph showing that only 5% of their population has been using masks this whole time. The funniest part of that graph is that they then have this dashed line projection that goes from that flat 5% mask use they've had all along that spikes straight up to 100% mask use on that graph on today's date, which I guess is what the "masks" future projection on all of their other graphs is based on.
"We." What does that even mean in the USA?
Where I live (southern state in the USA), unfortunately a pretty high number of people have just ignored the mask laws all along. The couple of times I have ventured out recently, mask compliance has been completely terrible even in situation where there is large signage everywhere and regular PA announcements that people need to have their masks coving their nose and mouth at all times. Restaurants have been open at full capacity dine in since last summer and many have brisk business based upon the number of cars in their parking lots.
Long before vaccines were available, two of my local grocery stores that have "drink in" wine/beer bars reopened them so people can hang out and drink. Seriously, go drink at a normal bar, you louts. I've had to adjust my schedule and only grocery shop in the morning now, before the "in store bar" is open, but the people who work in the grocery stores and restaurants have no little choice and even less say in these decisions.
Just found out completely by accident this past week that both my boss and my other half's boss (different person) have older kids who have been attending in person at the most expensive and exclusive local private K-12 school this whole time. So, of course I had to look it up: elementary school there is about $25K per year per child. They stayed open even though all of the public schools in the area, where our kids go, have been shut down and moved to remote learning only for the past year. I think it wouldn't bother me much at all if not for their completely feigned empathy this whole time for folks who have actually been trying to adhere to social distancing guidelines, work full time, and basically home school their kids full time. They were trying to pretend they were in the same boat with most of their employees and actually had the gall to give people little lectures about how they could manage things at home better and get more work done. Hypocrites. Any last little shred of goodwill I had towards them is completely gone.
One of my good friends from college told me she has been eating in restaurants this whole time bc it has been allowed in Florida and she thinks it's perfectly fine "at places where she knows the people who work there." Did she get COVID? Yep, in December. Did she spread it? Almost certainly. Does she work in a job where she likely spread it far and wide to many high risk people? Yep, she works in a major hospital for crying out loud.
So, a lot of people just don't care and are have been ignoring the law and best advice of epidemiologists for quite some time if not the whole time. All of that makes me glad that some folks can be vaccinated. Because there is no "we" in the US. There's only "me." Me me me me me.