Where do you stand on "living with Covid", "getting back to normal"

[getmoneyeatpizza]

I got Omicron in January from youngest kid. Was boosted in late September. Still have fatigue, terrible sleep and can't exercise. 3 months later I'm no better. COVID sucks. I wish I could "get back to normal"

[elaine amj]

I got Omicron in January from youngest kid. Was boosted in late September. Still have fatigue, terrible sleep and can't exercise. 3 months later I'm no better. COVID sucks. I wish I could "get back to normal"

Oh no. I would have thought the vaccine + booster would have protected you from long Covid :( That stinks :(

I had what may have been covid (or just regular pneumonia) back in January 2020 and was in bed for 4 months with fatigue. Stayed short of breath for a long time after.

Before, I went on 2-3 hr hikes no problems. A year later, I could manage an hour or so. Now, almost 2.5 years later, I can finally hike 2-3 hrs again although still have to pace myself as I can’t go-go-go all day long anymore. Still haven’t gotten back to 3hrs in the pool but that’s partly conditioning.


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[Poundwise]

A great tool for assessing risk by age at this point: https://www.covidtaser.com/comparison-mobile6

Article on relative risk, very understandable: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/understanding-risk

Finally an understandable guideline on when to stop masking:

"With the most vulnerable people in mind, Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, set out last month to determine how low cases would have to fall for people to stop indoor masking without endangering those with extremely weakened immune systems.
He imagined a hypothetical person who derived no benefit from vaccines, wore a good mask, took hard-to-get prophylactic medication, attended occasional gatherings and shopped but did not work in person. He set his sights on keeping vulnerable people’s chances of being infected below 1 percent over a four-month period.
To achieve that threshold, he found, the country would have to keep masking indoors until transmission fell below 50 weekly cases per 100,000 people — a stricter limit than the C.D.C. is currently using, but one that he said nevertheless offered a benchmark to aim for."

From https://nyti.ms/3JYKtui

[joemcd333]

If anything needs to be mandated it's that everyone needs to spend a day outside, get some sunburn, eat an orange, run a mile, 50 pushups. I am not wearing a mask ever again unless extreme circumstances occur.
The booster shot is marginally effective for a couple months and useless after that. Also small chance of serious side effects for your 2 months of effectiveness.
Natural immunity is superior, despite what liars will tell you. This is was true for the entirety of the pandemic, and even more so now that the virus has evolved into new strains. the vaccine is based on the original strain. Let's say you caught delta or omicron, there is no benefit for you getting a booster after that.
Live a little! It's a slippery slope to wear masks for others "health" how far do you want to extend this logic?

[former player]

If anything needs to be mandated it's that everyone needs to spend a day outside, get some sunburn, eat an orange, run a mile, 50 pushups. I am not wearing a mask ever again unless extreme circumstances occur.
The booster shot is marginally effective for a couple months and useless after that. Also small chance of serious side effects for your 2 months of effectiveness.
Natural immunity is superior, despite what liars will tell you. This is was true for the entirety of the pandemic, and even more so now that the virus has evolved into new strains. the vaccine is based on the original strain. Let's say you caught delta or omicron, there is no benefit for you getting a booster after that.
Live a little! It's a slippery slope to wear masks for others "health" how far do you want to extend this logic?

I'm guessing you are not old enough to be in that risk group.  And 50 pushups probably means male and not disabled.  Congratulations on being in the group least likely to have serious illness or long term effects from covid.  Please recognise that not all of us are so fortunate.

[jrhampt]

Wow, ok.  Natural immunity can cost you dearly, if you survive.  My unvaccinated parents in their mid-sixties nearly did not survive delta last year and still have ongoing cognitive issues 10 months later.  Mobility issues lasted several months and they still are unable to work.

[jinga nation]

The new normal at my gov workplace is "mandatory masks".
We wear them walking in/out of building, or in hallways, or breakroom, or going to the #1/#2 biz room.
Otherwise, take them off at desks. Haven't seen/heard a peep in opposition.
Everyone has to wear, irrespective of vaccination status.

[joemcd333]

Wow, ok.  Natural immunity can cost you dearly, if you survive.  My unvaccinated parents in their mid-sixties nearly did not survive delta last year and still have ongoing cognitive issues 10 months later.  Mobility issues lasted several months and they still are unable to work.

Natural immunity to me means you have had Covid already. Best to your parents. Sounds like they did not previously catch covid before delta.

I'm just saying this focus on boosters is false and misleading, particularly if you have already had covid, ie natural immunity.

[joemcd333]

The new normal at my gov workplace is "mandatory masks".
We wear them walking in/out of building, or in hallways, or breakroom, or going to the #1/#2 biz room.
Otherwise, take them off at desks. Haven't seen/heard a peep in opposition.
Everyone has to wear, irrespective of vaccination status.

Sounds like you need to retire early! These policies are a joke, especially if they allow cloth masks. What happens if you refuse?

[Cranky]

Dh and I had our 4th booster shot. We continue to wear masks inside any public place. There are about 10 million people with Covid around here, though most are young and it's been mild.

We continue to live quite normally, just with masks on inside. No problem.

[RetiredAt63]

My DD and SiL went to a wedding a few weeks ago.  Totally outside.  There was a dance floor.  Almost everyone there got Covid, including the bride and groom, and DD and SiL (and their baby once they got home).  Late 20s, early 30s.  Not sick enough to go to the hospital but sick enough to really need to stay home and recover.  DD still tires easily a few weeks later.  Reminds me of when I had pneumonia in my early 40s, sick for a month, tired for another month.  Not life-threatening, but definitely not trivial.

I'm in an at-risk age group and have crappy lungs (never smoked, fyi) so I am still wearing my N95 when I go out in public places - indoors, and outside when there are lots of people.

[YttriumNitrate]

I'm guessing you are not old enough to be in that risk group.  And 50 pushups probably means male and not disabled.  Congratulations on being in the group least likely to have serious illness or long term effects from covid.  Please recognise that not all of us are so fortunate.

The global death rate of males for Covid is about 50% higher than females.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/10/19/at-least-65000-more-men-than-women-have-died-from-covid-19-in-the-us/

[joemcd333]

Dh and I had our 4th booster shot. We continue to wear masks inside any public place. There are about 10 million people with Covid around here, though most are young and it's been mild.

We continue to live quite normally, just with masks on inside. No problem.

You do you, but wearing masks is not normal, and we should not get used to that

[neo von retorch]

Wearing seat belts is not normal.
Having air bags is not normal.
Having anti-lock brakes is not normal.
Getting vaccinated against disease is not normal.
Washing your hands is not normal.
Public education is not normal.

We should not be doing any of these things!

[GuitarStv]

I've always prided myself on a persistent streak of abnormality.  :P

[Arbitrage]

Wow, ok.  Natural immunity can cost you dearly, if you survive.  My unvaccinated parents in their mid-sixties nearly did not survive delta last year and still have ongoing cognitive issues 10 months later.  Mobility issues lasted several months and they still are unable to work.

Natural immunity to me means you have had Covid already. Best to your parents. Sounds like they did not previously catch covid before delta.

I'm just saying this focus on boosters is false and misleading, particularly if you have already had covid, ie natural immunity.

I think your suppositions about infection-based immunity are a bit out of date.  In review articles I've read, infection-based immunity was indeed associated with a stronger immune response than a two-shot MRNA vaccine during the delta wave.  However, it was inferior during OG Covid and Alpha, and comparable to unboosted MRNA during Omicron.  Boosted vaccines were initially shown to be significantly better than infection-based immunity during the first part of Omicron, though I haven't done another literature survey to see how those numbers have evolved through the subvariants.  However, I did see this in a recent publication of Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04865-0

"Limited cross-variant immunity from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron without vaccination"

“In the unvaccinated population, an infection with Omicron might be roughly equivalent to getting one shot of a vaccine,” says Melanie Ott, MD, PhD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and co-senior author of the new work. “It confers a little bit of protection against COVID-19, but it’s not very broad.”

“This research underscores the importance of staying current with your vaccinations, even if you have previously been infected with the Omicron variant, as you are still likely vulnerable to re-infection,” says co-senior author Jennifer Doudna, PhD, who is a senior investigator at Gladstone, a professor at UC Berkeley, founder of the Innovative Genomics Institute, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

[mm1970]

Dh and I had our 4th booster shot. We continue to wear masks inside any public place. There are about 10 million people with Covid around here, though most are young and it's been mild.

We continue to live quite normally, just with masks on inside. No problem.

You do you, but wearing masks is not normal, and we should not get used to that

For 20 minutes while grocery shopping?  While on a plane?  Meh...I mean, I work in semiconductors, so for 20 years (before I got a desk job), I wore a medical-grade mask (along with a full on cleanroom suit), almost all day every day.  It's...no big deal?

If anything needs to be mandated it's that everyone needs to spend a day outside, get some sunburn, eat an orange, run a mile, 50 pushups.

Funny that...

http://34.74.164.53/news/health-news/former-marathon-runner-39-mistook-long-covid-symptoms-for-heart-attack-dangers/

https://www.independent.com/2022/02/27/enduring-long-covid/

[sailinlight]

Dh and I had our 4th booster shot. We continue to wear masks inside any public place. There are about 10 million people with Covid around here, though most are young and it's been mild.

We continue to live quite normally, just with masks on inside. No problem.

You do you, but wearing masks is not normal, and we should not get used to that

You're not going to convince anyone here of this point...

[Cranky]

Dh and I had our 4th booster shot. We continue to wear masks inside any public place. There are about 10 million people with Covid around here, though most are young and it's been mild.

We continue to live quite normally, just with masks on inside. No problem.

You do you, but wearing masks is not normal, and we should not get used to that

I've always been a rebel! ;-) I have quite liked not getting colds, and since wearing a mask has zero problems for me, I'm good with the New Normal.

[PDXTabs]

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

[PDXTabs]

Dh and I had our 4th booster shot. We continue to wear masks inside any public place. There are about 10 million people with Covid around here, though most are young and it's been mild.

We continue to live quite normally, just with masks on inside. No problem.

You do you, but wearing masks is not normal, and we should not get used to that

I've always been a rebel! ;-) I have quite liked not getting colds, and since wearing a mask has zero problems for me, I'm good with the New Normal.

I welcome a new normal where some people choose to wear masks and some don't depending on any number of factors.

[mm1970]

Dh and I had our 4th booster shot. We continue to wear masks inside any public place. There are about 10 million people with Covid around here, though most are young and it's been mild.

We continue to live quite normally, just with masks on inside. No problem.

You do you, but wearing masks is not normal, and we should not get used to that

I've always been a rebel! ;-) I have quite liked not getting colds, and since wearing a mask has zero problems for me, I'm good with the New Normal.

I welcome a new normal where some people choose to wear masks and some don't depending on any number of factors.

And where people don't suddenly accuse anyone of wearing a mask of being "abnormal".  Or of mask wearing itself being "abnormal".

Funny thing, my officemate has been anti-mask for a very long time.  His household has had COVID twice (one of their kids is too young to be vaxxed, so it's really hard to avoid).  He also voted for Trump, but I digress.

We were chatting a few weeks ago about it, and the second time that the household got COVID, you know - he didn't come to work but he still had to go out and go grocery shopping, get meds, etc.  I myself had just gotten over a gnarly cold and my kids were sick the week before that, so I wore a mask every time I went out.  He said "I used to think people were totally stupid - why are you wearing a mask outdoors??  Then I got COVID the second time and realized...duh, maybe they are actually sick."

TLDR, you see me in a mask, it's fair to assume that someone in my house is sick, or I'm going to visit my friends/ relatives going through chemo.

[HPstache]

Dh and I had our 4th booster shot. We continue to wear masks inside any public place. There are about 10 million people with Covid around here, though most are young and it's been mild.

We continue to live quite normally, just with masks on inside. No problem.

You do you, but wearing masks is not normal, and we should not get used to that

I've always been a rebel! ;-) I have quite liked not getting colds, and since wearing a mask has zero problems for me, I'm good with the New Normal.

I welcome a new normal where some people choose to wear masks and some don't depending on any number of factors.

Me too.  Let people choose

[NoVa]

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

I just went through this coming back from London. Not fun. You either need a negative test the day before or a certificate of recovery if you had COVID recently and would test positive (up to 90 days). So in the second case you need a positive test that you can print out from weeks ago, and a doctor to attest that you have no symptoms and are cleared to travel. Nice way to spend the last full day of your vacation.

[jinga nation]

The new normal at my gov workplace is "mandatory masks".
We wear them walking in/out of building, or in hallways, or breakroom, or going to the #1/#2 biz room.
Otherwise, take them off at desks. Haven't seen/heard a peep in opposition.
Everyone has to wear, irrespective of vaccination status.

Sounds like you need to retire early! These policies are a joke, especially if they allow cloth masks. What happens if you refuse?

Not going to let a mask get in the way of a 6 figure job that's pretty easy and gets me closer to early retirement. We wore masks for a long time, and restrictions eased only this May. We knew re-masking orders were going to come (this is a military facility); local numbers have been going up.

[GuitarStv]

Wearing masks to work sucks.  But wearing pants to work also sucks.  WFH forever!

[elaine amj]

My DD and SiL went to a wedding a few weeks ago.  Totally outside.  There was a dance floor.  Almost everyone there got Covid, including the bride and groom, and DD and SiL (and their baby once they got home).  Late 20s, early 30s.  Not sick enough to go to the hospital but sick enough to really need to stay home and recover.  DD still tires easily a few weeks later.  Reminds me of when I had pneumonia in my early 40s, sick for a month, tired for another month.  Not life-threatening, but definitely not trivial.

I'm in an at-risk age group and have crappy lungs (never smoked, fyi) so I am still wearing my N95 when I go out in public places - indoors, and outside when there are lots of people.

Oh no :( and here I am feeling pretty safe outdoors. We attended an outdoor wedding in May. Thankfully all was good but I guess it was riskier than I thought.


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[jrhampt]

Wearing masks to work sucks.  But wearing pants to work also sucks.  WFH forever!

Absolutely!  No pants for me.

[Nick_Miller]

Wearing masks to work sucks.  But wearing pants to work also sucks.  WFH forever!

That begs the obvious question! If you had to choose between: 1) wearing a mask but no pants, or 2) wearing pants but no mask, which do you pick??

[GuitarStv]

Wearing masks to work sucks.  But wearing pants to work also sucks.  WFH forever!

That begs the obvious question! If you had to choose between: 1) wearing a mask but no pants, or 2) wearing pants but no mask, which do you pick??

Sofie's choice!

Probably no mask, because I get fog on my glasses.  But if I didn't wear glasses, it would be no pants all the way.

[YttriumNitrate]

Wearing masks to work sucks.  But wearing pants to work also sucks.  WFH forever!

That begs the obvious question! If you had to choose between: 1) wearing a mask but no pants, or 2) wearing pants but no mask, which do you pick??

Definitely depends on the mask, and the pants. If it's the choice between skinny jeans and one of those flimsy cloth masks that does little except comply with mandates, I'm going with the mask. If the choice is sweatpants vs. an N95 mask, I'll take the sweatpants.

[mm1970]

Wearing masks to work sucks.  But wearing pants to work also sucks.  WFH forever!

That begs the obvious question! If you had to choose between: 1) wearing a mask but no pants, or 2) wearing pants but no mask, which do you pick??

Definitely depends on the mask, and the pants. If it's the choice between skinny jeans and one of those flimsy cloth masks that does little except comply with mandates, I'm going with the mask. If the choice is sweatpants vs. an N95 mask, I'll take the sweatpants.

this is the correct answer.

[PDXTabs]

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

I just went through this coming back from London. Not fun. You either need a negative test the day before or a certificate of recovery if you had COVID recently and would test positive (up to 90 days). So in the second case you need a positive test that you can print out from weeks ago, and a doctor to attest that you have no symptoms and are cleared to travel. Nice way to spend the last full day of your vacation.

🎉🎉🎉 NPR: Starting on Sunday, you won't have to test for COVID-19 to fly into the U.S. 🎉🎉🎉

[NoVa]

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

I just went through this coming back from London. Not fun. You either need a negative test the day before or a certificate of recovery if you had COVID recently and would test positive (up to 90 days). So in the second case you need a positive test that you can print out from weeks ago, and a doctor to attest that you have no symptoms and are cleared to travel. Nice way to spend the last full day of your vacation.

🎉🎉🎉 NPR: Starting on Sunday, you won't have to test for COVID-19 to fly into the U.S. 🎉🎉🎉

Thank goodness. I never thought the policy made a lot of sense. It's not like COVID doesn't exist in the USA.

[PDXTabs]

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

I just went through this coming back from London. Not fun. You either need a negative test the day before or a certificate of recovery if you had COVID recently and would test positive (up to 90 days). So in the second case you need a positive test that you can print out from weeks ago, and a doctor to attest that you have no symptoms and are cleared to travel. Nice way to spend the last full day of your vacation.

🎉🎉🎉 NPR: Starting on Sunday, you won't have to test for COVID-19 to fly into the U.S. 🎉🎉🎉

Thank goodness. I never thought the policy made a lot of sense. It's not like COVID doesn't exist in the USA.

Speaking of not making sense, it didn't apply to land border crossings. My backup plan was to drive from Vancouver, BC to Portland, OR in a rental car.

[habanero]

Where I live pretty much noone has spoken about covid in the last 4 months. And whenever its a topic its always in past tense. A bygone era. A thing of the past you remember and memory itself is already getting foggy. A lot of folks have already forgotten the once strong opinions and how tragic every single covid case was and there were no limits to what should be done to prevent it. As a fun fact deaths from covid peaked several weeks after it was decleared over (and our count is highly accurate its not like there were a lot proior that got unreported). Almost noone is aware of this as the newspapers etc stopped publishing daily updates when everything reopened and life was back to normal.

Probs around 0.01% of gen pop wear a mask in public settings. If even. Public space, public transport, bars, restaurant, concert venues. All packed. No masks.

To me its utterly bizzarre this is still a thing in the western henisphere.

As a side note it was in the news the other day that we've had the highest excess deaths since ages last year. Not due to covid, but predominantly from various heart problems. The intersting part isn't the number itself or the causes, but the fact that noone, and I mean abseloutely noone gives a flying fuck. If we a year or two had the same numbers of excess deaths due to covid the whole nation would have freaked out. Our CDC had no clear explanation, but a few theories.

(I live in Norway, btw)

[pdxvandal]

Dumb policy. I flew back from Mexico a few months ago and tested, uploaded the results to my airline app. My friend and her kids were traveling on the same airline a few hours later also tested, but the airline didn't even want to see their results. Odd, but it really is a money grab by Mexico (my actual test felt barely legit) thanks to stupid U.S. policy.

My friend actually flew to Mexico a few weeks ago unknowingly Covid positive, then got symptoms while there. He was "stuck" for 6 days beyond his initial return flight and ended up paying a local $200 for a fake negative test result so he could get back home. I may have done the same thing.

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

I just went through this coming back from London. Not fun. You either need a negative test the day before or a certificate of recovery if you had COVID recently and would test positive (up to 90 days). So in the second case you need a positive test that you can print out from weeks ago, and a doctor to attest that you have no symptoms and are cleared to travel. Nice way to spend the last full day of your vacation.

🎉🎉🎉 NPR: Starting on Sunday, you won't have to test for COVID-19 to fly into the U.S. 🎉🎉🎉

Thank goodness. I never thought the policy made a lot of sense. It's not like COVID doesn't exist in the USA.

[sui generis]

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

I just went through this coming back from London. Not fun. You either need a negative test the day before or a certificate of recovery if you had COVID recently and would test positive (up to 90 days). So in the second case you need a positive test that you can print out from weeks ago, and a doctor to attest that you have no symptoms and are cleared to travel. Nice way to spend the last full day of your vacation.

🎉🎉🎉 NPR: Starting on Sunday, you won't have to test for COVID-19 to fly into the U.S. 🎉🎉🎉

This is the best news I had all day and I had a really good day!

I fly home on Wednesday and am happy not to spend the time and money on my last day getting a test.  Given the seemingly high rates of "false" negatives (everyone I know who has had COVID lately starts the story with testing negative 1-2 times first), I had not been feeling like the testing requirement provided much protection to travellers, and was sticking to my N95 masks at airports and on the plane like glue.

It definitely felt like hyposcrisy anyway.  Not like there was no COVID in the US and we were trying to prevent it coming in.  When I flew home from overseas a few months ago, it was a short, half-full flight and everyone had to get a COVID test.  I then got on a packed full domestic flight all the way across the country (i.e. 3x as long) and no one had to have a test.  What were we accomplishing there?

Good riddance to that rubbish.

[RetiredAt63]

My DD and SiL went to a wedding a few weeks ago.  Totally outside.  There was a dance floor.  Almost everyone there got Covid, including the bride and groom, and DD and SiL (and their baby once they got home).  Late 20s, early 30s.  Not sick enough to go to the hospital but sick enough to really need to stay home and recover.  DD still tires easily a few weeks later.  Reminds me of when I had pneumonia in my early 40s, sick for a month, tired for another month.  Not life-threatening, but definitely not trivial.

I'm in an at-risk age group and have crappy lungs (never smoked, fyi) so I am still wearing my N95 when I go out in public places - indoors, and outside when there are lots of people.

Oh no :( and here I am feeling pretty safe outdoors. We attended an outdoor wedding in May. Thankfully all was good but I guess it was riskier than I thought.


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Just stay off the dance floor!   

[Cranky]

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

I just went through this coming back from London. Not fun. You either need a negative test the day before or a certificate of recovery if you had COVID recently and would test positive (up to 90 days). So in the second case you need a positive test that you can print out from weeks ago, and a doctor to attest that you have no symptoms and are cleared to travel. Nice way to spend the last full day of your vacation.

🎉🎉🎉 NPR: Starting on Sunday, you won't have to test for COVID-19 to fly into the U.S. 🎉🎉🎉

Which means that half the people on your plane probably have covid. This will not bother lots of people, but will definitely be a factor for me.

[PDXTabs]

I have a trip planned to Canada and the UK in September. Neither of those countries require SARS-CoV-2 tests to travel if you are fully vaccinated. But I'll need one to come back into the USA if nothing changes.

TH: Airline officials press Biden to end COVID-19 testing for international travelers

It's like the Democrats don't want to win the midterms.

I just went through this coming back from London. Not fun. You either need a negative test the day before or a certificate of recovery if you had COVID recently and would test positive (up to 90 days). So in the second case you need a positive test that you can print out from weeks ago, and a doctor to attest that you have no symptoms and are cleared to travel. Nice way to spend the last full day of your vacation.

🎉🎉🎉 NPR: Starting on Sunday, you won't have to test for COVID-19 to fly into the U.S. 🎉🎉🎉

Which means that half the people on your plane probably have covid. This will not bother lots of people, but will definitely be a factor for me.

But my itinerary is for US -> Canada -> UK -> Canada -> US. The test was only required for the very last leg of my journey (which is also the shortest flight). If half the people have COVID I would be surprised but I was already going to spend 90% of my trip on planes with no testing required. This saves me hundreds of dollars in retail tests too (at least if I chose to get tested at YVR).

[joemcd333]

Media driven terror. There are still people wearing masks in their cars, alone, outside.

Where I live pretty much noone has spoken about covid in the last 4 months. And whenever its a topic its always in past tense. A bygone era. A thing of the past you remember and memory itself is already getting foggy. A lot of folks have already forgotten the once strong opinions and how tragic every single covid case was and there were no limits to what should be done to prevent it. As a fun fact deaths from covid peaked several weeks after it was decleared over (and our count is highly accurate its not like there were a lot proior that got unreported). Almost noone is aware of this as the newspapers etc stopped publishing daily updates when everything reopened and life was back to normal.

Probs around 0.01% of gen pop wear a mask in public settings. If even. Public space, public transport, bars, restaurant, concert venues. All packed. No masks.

To me its utterly bizzarre this is still a thing in the western henisphere.

As a side note it was in the news the other day that we've had the highest excess deaths since ages last year. Not due to covid, but predominantly from various heart problems. The intersting part isn't the number itself or the causes, but the fact that noone, and I mean abseloutely noone gives a flying fuck. If we a year or two had the same numbers of excess deaths due to covid the whole nation would have freaked out. Our CDC had no clear explanation, but a few theories.

(I live in Norway, btw)

[Turtle]

Media driven terror. There are still people wearing masks in their cars, alone, outside.

Where I live pretty much noone has spoken about covid in the last 4 months. And whenever its a topic its always in past tense. A bygone era. A thing of the past you remember and memory itself is already getting foggy. A lot of folks have already forgotten the once strong opinions and how tragic every single covid case was and there were no limits to what should be done to prevent it. As a fun fact deaths from covid peaked several weeks after it was decleared over (and our count is highly accurate its not like there were a lot proior that got unreported). Almost noone is aware of this as the newspapers etc stopped publishing daily updates when everything reopened and life was back to normal.

Probs around 0.01% of gen pop wear a mask in public settings. If even. Public space, public transport, bars, restaurant, concert venues. All packed. No masks.

To me its utterly bizzarre this is still a thing in the western henisphere.

As a side note it was in the news the other day that we've had the highest excess deaths since ages last year. Not due to covid, but predominantly from various heart problems. The intersting part isn't the number itself or the causes, but the fact that noone, and I mean abseloutely noone gives a flying fuck. If we a year or two had the same numbers of excess deaths due to covid the whole nation would have freaked out. Our CDC had no clear explanation, but a few theories.

(I live in Norway, btw)

And some people have discovered that masks are also good for things like allergies, preventing sunburn, cutting down on gasoline fumes, etc.

[mm1970]

Media driven terror. There are still people wearing masks in their cars, alone, outside.

Wait, are they in their car, or outside?  I'm confused.

If I put on a mask to go into a store when someone in my household is sick, but I have to make a second stop, I just leave it on in the car in between, rather than mess with it (once you have it situated so the glasses don't fog up, don't fuck with it).

Same thing if I'm outdoors.  About 3/4 of the time when my household members get sick, I don't.  But I still don't want to be spreading stuff.

[Captain FIRE]

Yeah if I'm wearing a mask in the car when alone, it's because I'm too lazy to take the mask off in between stops.  (It also speaks to the fact that masking is not so onerous that I need to strip it off the instant I'm in the car....)

Or it's because work was done on our car, and we're being cautious right afterwards till it airs out, because I'm not going to assume that the repair technician wore a mask while in it.

[Kris]

Yeah if I'm wearing a mask in the car when alone, it's because I'm too lazy to take the mask off in between stops.  (It also speaks to the fact that masking is not so onerous that I need to strip it off the instant I'm in the car....)

Or it's because work was done on our car, and we're being cautious right afterwards till it airs out, because I'm not going to assume that the repair technician wore a mask while in it.

Exactly.

Laziness or efficiency =/= living in fear.

[joemcd333]

Lol I had a good chuckle at this. if the first part is serious, it's a prime example of virtue signaling. If the second part is serious, it's a prime example of media driven hysteria

Yeah if I'm wearing a mask in the car when alone, it's because I'm too lazy to take the mask off in between stops.  (It also speaks to the fact that masking is not so onerous that I need to strip it off the instant I'm in the car....)

Or it's because work was done on our car, and we're being cautious right afterwards till it airs out, because I'm not going to assume that the repair technician wore a mask while in it.

[neo von retorch]

Actual stated factual reason a person decided to do something

too lazy to take the mask off in between stops

Reality distortion field activated

example of virtue signaling

Actual scientific fact

Viral infections are spread through tiny droplets that people exhale. Masks reduce that very spread

Reality distortion field activated

example of media driven hysteria

[RetiredAt63]

You know, being outside isn't a guarantee of not catching Covid.  If you are close to other people, especially if they are exercising and breathing heavily, you can catch it.  My DD and SiL went to an outdoor wedding a few weeks ago, with an outdoor dance floor.  Almost everyone at the wedding caught Covid, including the bride and groom.  Everyone on the dance floor caught it.  Fortunately they are all young and healthy and well vaccinated, so cases were nasty but not requiring hospitalization.  And of course people took it home, my baby (<1 year old) grandchild has now had Covid.

So why is it so silly/why are people scoffing at taking an easy precaution?  For the flu season I get the flu shot and am careful about exposure.  I respect the flu, I lost 2 grandparents to the Spanish flu.  Covid is as nasty or nastier, so why should I not take the same precautions for it?

[SunnyDays]

I don't understand why people are so snickery about those of us who continue to take precautions.  Even if you consider them extreme. 

You don't know that we don't have immunocomprised family at home or are such ourselves.  Or have someone too young for a vaccine in our circle.  You have no idea what others' situations may be, so please don't presume that you know best.

I will continue to do what I believe is best for me and my circle - I don't care what others say or think.

I kind of wonder if it isn't some degree of fear behind it - it reminds people that there's a potentially dangerous virus out there.