“President Biden said he expects public health experts, and the White House, to be “more aggressive” in laying out what fully vaccinated individuals can do, in an effort to continue to persuade Americans to get vaccinated.”
This will be interesting.
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We went out and ate in a real restaurant today to celebrate med school lad’s birthday plus med school graduation this coming Friday. It felt really good and not the least bit scary with all of us vaccinated even with the place full and masks on all employees, but not diners. The food/drinks were good too!
We picked a place that was totally new to all of us (H, myself, the lad, lad’s GF) and tipped the waitress well.
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Glad you had a good time, @Creekland!
I thought it was interesting that Fauci said unequivocally in a town hall the other night that fully vaccinated people don’t need masks in any outdoor setting whatsoever, except maybe a real cheek-by-jowl crowd for an extended period. And he said he was hopeful that the same would happen indoors, though he didn’t give a specific timeline or infection-rate target. Not exactly the caricature of a guy who loves mask mandates as a sheer expression of power.
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CDC web page (updated today) on what they consider safe for fully vaccinated people to do:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html
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I don’t know how I feel not wearing a mask! My husband is of course, great, I don’t need that anymore! No masks!
It feels uncomfortable after this past year
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Something I had forgotten but was pointed out in the paper… VA is planning to drop the covid restrictions and mask requirements June 30th. Unless the state changes the law, it is normally illegal to wear a mask in businesses, etc in VA. It will be interesting to see what happens with that.
What I found interesting is Dr. Walensky’s formulation of risk; basically, if you are inside and you are vaccinated, sharing space with an unvaccinated person, that the unvaccinated person is taking the responsibility for possible transmission. This has implications for mask policy in classrooms, offices etc. I don’t want to have to wear a mask at work, even though I’m vaccinated, just because a few of my co-workers or students don’t want to be vaccinated. I think people of any status, vaccinated or not, who want to wear masks for their own comfort level should continue to do so and not be shamed for it, but I don’t think vaccinated people should be compelled to wear masks anymore to make the unvaccinated feel safer.
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If all parts of VA have easy vaccine availability now, then anyone age 12+ without a medical contraindication should be able to be fully vaccinated by June 30 if they not already are.
Those medically unable to get vaccinated will then have to be extra careful if they want to avoid COVID-19, and parents of under 12 children who are medically higher risk will also have to be extra careful where they bring their children, but for most others, COVID-19 risk after when everyone has had the opportunity to become fully vaccinated should be mainly a voluntary personal risk that one takes by refusing vaccine, rather than an involuntary risk that others may impose on you.
Agree, once everyone who wants a vaccine has had the opportunity to become fully vaccinated (i.e. when the remaining unvaccinated people are voluntarily unvaccinated). This is likely to happen for the general adult population fairly soon in most areas – even the most vaccine-enthusiastic areas appear to have reached easy vaccine availability by late April or early May, so by mid-to-late June there will be few involuntarily unvaccinated adults other than the very few with medical contraindications (though there is still the question of children under 12 who have higher risk medical conditions).
I am still going to wear my mask for the time being in stores for instance. And I work in a healthcare facility and with doc offices so I will need to wear it when not in my office.
No one says you can’t wear a mask. Stop when it feels right.
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But in VA the normal state law is that it’s illegal to wear one in public places. So after June 30th you technically can’t wear one even if you want to for piece of mind - Unless they change it before then. I imagine they would need to do something.
I heard at 3pm that CDC said if you are fully vaccinated then there is no need to wear a mask indoor or outdoor. Hmmm, no. I wore my mask today while getting a haircut.
I think we all need a bit of common sense here. We don’t know if the vaccines are effective against new variants and we know this virus is airborne. I would go without mask indoor with my family and friends who are 100% vaccinated, but not with people I do not know in an indoor setting.
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I think we have a similar law in NC. You have a much better chance in VA of being able to keep wearing your mask. Today I was with my daughter getting her nails done for Prom. The salon people said to a customer that if they show their vaccine card they don’t have to wear a mask. Sounded like a great compromise to me! I kept my mask on since we still have an indoor mandate and my nails were wet!
There were situations outlined where mask wearing is still appropriate.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html
What?! This is a thing???
Presuming this is the Virginia law in question?
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter9/section18.2-422/
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Wow. I have had students who wore masks to protect themselves during cold/flu season for years. They were international students who routinely wore masks in their home countries to protect themselves. I can’t imagine telling them that they couldn’t do that.
My husband and I went to dinner at our local Mexican restaurant to eat outside. We had to go inside to the hostess stand to be seated and we both had our masks on. I swear almost ever table turned and looked at us like we had 4 heads!
I will still wear a mask indoors; don’t plan to be in large gatherings indoors or out. While my husband would love to get back to the gym, he will wait on that also.
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I totally agree with you, @oldfort
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The Virginia law does specify “with the intent to conceal his identity” as a condition that makes mask wearing illegal in various situations. However, that can be a judgement call that can lead to selective enforcement based on something other than likelihood of committing a crime, which is presumably why there are “safe harbor” exceptions written into the law.