Currently planning a family trip to the UK to visit relatives next Christmas. Also expecting to attend nephew’s wedding in the UK in September. I doubt there will be any quarantine rules in place by then (and we all have dual citizenship so won’t be banned from travel).
But I’m feeling a lot more equivocal about a major industry convention (normally 10,000 people) being held in person in Washington DC in July.
I read somewhere that it takes about a year for habits to change. It’s pretty much exactly a year ago that we got hit with this and everything shut down. The lockdowns and restrictions have turned those of us who are privileged enough to act this way into a bunch of neurotic shut-ins. It might have been necessary for public health reasons. But I do think it will be an uphill struggle to return to “normal,” not just because of infection control, but because people have been scared to death. Please understand that I am not a Covid denialist or anti-masker or anything like that. But I do think that millions (myself included) are suffering a sort of low-grade depression and anxiety over the fear of Covid, and it will take some time to get over it. I also think that some people have used Covid as an excuse to disengage from life.
Once the vaccine is widely available (hopefully in May), I see no reason to restrict business, gatherings, etc. If you have concerns for yourself, you can self-isolate. Young people need to be back in school. People need to socialize and form relationships in meatspace. Vaccines drastically reduce the chances of hospitalization and death. They are a miracle. The goal of zero Covid cases is unrealistic and utopian, and not worth the cost of achieving.
Now that I am fully vaccinated, when out in public I am single masking with surgical mask instead of KN95/Sonovia mask, and not freaking out about others around me unmasked. For my anniversary H and I are going out to Brunch next Sunday. going to back to Trivia as well. He wants to go to a baseball game. Just the overall stress relief that H will not get Covid and die (heart condition, overweight, cancer survivor, in his 60’s). has taken the stress away. A few weeks ago I went to FL to visit my mom who is fully vaccinated.
My 80+ year old vaccinated mom wants to start scheduling outdoor lunch dates with vaccinated friends (multiple one on one lunch dates). Each vaccinated friend may or may not be spending time with unvaccinated people. We’ve come so far and I don’t want to risk making a mistake. Has anyone heard guidance for seniors?
If all people in a gathering are vaccinated, then risk drops considerably.
If the vaccine does not prevent asymptomatic transmission, then someone would have to be a carrier and someone else would have to be in the unlucky 5% who can get sick after vaccine.
If the vaccine does prevent asymptomatic transmission, then at least two people need to be in the unlucky 5%.
In both of the above scenarios, there would also have to be a contact chain for the transmission events. Also, the vaccines make it much less likely to get hospitalized or die even among the unlucky 5% who do get sick.
Note the 5% number is only for the two MRNA vaccines (and they are actually seeing a bit lower than the 95% IRL).
The CDC just released their guidelines for fully vaccinated people.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/health/covid-19-vaccine-cdc-guidelines-fully-vaccinated/index.html
This is fabulous news.
I just had this report show up in my email. Yay!
My 78 year old father is the same. He already has several restaurant dates planned with his group of fully vaccinated seniors. None have unvaccinated folks in their households, so seems okay to me. He and his friends also still wear masks to grocery shop or whatever and primarily stay home since retired. I would do the same if my youngest child were vaccinated.
Our restaurants here in CT will return to 100% occupancy but with distancing on March 19.
The CDC guidelines are for visits indoors with others when you know the status of everyone else inside with you. I thought they did not recommend indoor restaurant dining yet…or large crowded places. I’m not ready for those anyway…and the weather is getting decent around here so outdoor dining works for me!
CDC Interim Guidelines for fully Vaccinated!
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html
Much of the new CDC recommendations for fully vaccinated people is fairly obvious.
A gathering of all fully vaccinated people is obviously much less risky than before they were vaccinated.
For a mixed gathering of fully vaccinated people and unvaccinated people from one household, it looks like they are splitting it based on the apparent risk factors in the unvaccinated people, due to the uncertainty about whether and how much the vaccines reduce asymptomatic transmission.
Obviously, if there are unvaccinated people from more than one household, they would still be risking asymptomatic transmission between them, even if the fully vaccinated people are reasonably safe.
I don’t know about your restaurants, but at 100% occupancy I don’t think there is space for social distancing! 100% just doesn’t seem like a good idea yet.
@abasket social distancing and masks are still required. And yes, this means tables are spread further apart…so not 100% like pre-covid. But certainly more than now.
Wow. And this made me think of this NPR story last week about a new resident working in a poor ICU unit. At the end they ask her if she considers herself a hero, and she breaks down, says it should not be up to the paid healthcare workers to be heros because people decide to get married during a pandemic, etc (paraphrasing).
I’m trying to understand this - how can it be 100% occupancy for many restaurants? Can it only be 100% of you can meet the space requirements? And include wide walkways for people to walk to the restroom? Speaking of which - I haven’t been in a restaurant - are restrooms open and how do restaurants handle occupancy in bathrooms??
In CT, restaurants are required to have bathrooms. During Covid, they have limited the number of people to…one at a time in most places…except larger places.
All have hand sanitizer and wipes that I’ve seen…and their staff wipes down regularly as well.
Eating in an indoor restaurant still seems like a bad idea before getting fully vaccinated if you want to avoid getting COVID-19.
The new CDC guidelines mention that eating indoors is not highly recommended and neither are activities with crowds.
Some restaurants have done a good job with covid restriction.