I want to live where everyone else is living. Currently sitting in the dermatologist’s office. Neither of the admin staff nor the three other people in here are waiting have a mask. I’m the only one!!! And we have over a 30% positivity rate and a health clinc shut down because they were too full. In 27 years I’ve never heard of that.
Another admin walked in. No mask!!!
In CT (at least my area) I rarely see someone unmasked. We have high vaxx rates. Still, 1 in 4 are positive.
As we’ve traveled, even with our relatively short jaunts to medical lad’s place in NY or FIL’s place in VA, the amount of mask wearing in the public varies greatly. In both of our other destinations it’s far more than where I live.
Guess it depends where you go in CT. We were at the Mohegan Sun casino over the weekend and I would estimate only a quarter of people were masked.
Wow, our mask mandate was lifted a while ago (but reinstated last week) but even then, all schools, medical facilities and government offices still required masks.
I live in a highly vaxxed area, so for a while during the summer and prior to Thanksgiving, there were a lot (majority) of unmasked people in stores, etc. Prior to the mandate being reinstated, I ran into a regional mall to exchange two Christmas gifts. 95% of people were wearing masks - I think surging covid cases jolted people back into masks. I’ve been wearing mine all along, but was happy to see almost all people wearing them again.
One certainly can’t make mask judgments based upon state borders. Every state I know differs wildly based upon where one is within the state.
The new governor is expected to drop the mask mandate in schools when he’s inaugurated in a couple of weeks. I wish he’d have the sense to at least delay it until this wave as passed, but I’m not hopeful. I know most of the school systems around us will drop it immediately. They were kicking and screaming trying to defy it when it passed. But I am hoping H’s school system keeps it in place awhile longer. Last I heard, less than 25% of students were vax’d.
And the girl who brought me to the dermatologist’s exam room was very hoarse and sniffling with no mask. Sigh. The nurse who took my info in here was masked as least as were the 3 patients who left while I was replying. I am now double masked. I hope I don’t have to wait much longer.
Any doctor’s office not complying with masking is being disrespectful of their profession. DIsrespectful of other medical providers, the research behind masks, and disrespect for patients as well.
While our COMMUNITY is not great at masking I walk into health care facilities daily for my job and there is nearly 100% staff compliance with masking from the parking garage in the morning until the parking garage at the end of the day. I would say for the most part during COVID I have felt most comfortable at work because medical providers wear a mask routinely as shoes on their feet and the same is required of anyone entering a facility as patient or visitor.
I know our reasons for being in a doctor’s office were likely different, but I had decided ahead of time if I didn’t feel safe at any point there, I was going to just walk out and reschedule for a “less Covid” time. I know I need some things looked into, but I’m not willing to catch Covid right now - selfish reasons, of course. I want to be able to go to USVI if it’s still possible. If I need to deal with medical problems later, I want the mental and physical break first.
Are there no sanctions for getting paid to signing exemption forms without actually examining patients?
I wouldn’t have gone in your case, but I’m mental enough about doctors’ appointments that I needed to get it over with. I was only there an hour - a miracle by our standards - and fortunately all is fine
I’m glad you kept your dermatologist appointment. And glad to hear that everything is fine.
This is only my opinion. If you go to a practice owned by a corporation, they probably have firm rules set up for Covid protocols. If it’s an independent private practice, then it’s up to each physician to set and enforce their protocols.
My husband has a specialist who doesn’t always follow the rules he should. We are aware that it shouldn’t be that way but since he’s a very good practitioner, my husband is willing to put up with his irregularities. He’s had doctors who aren’t as well versed in his problems and that’s a greater problem than how the doctor follows the rules.
Not good at all, but at least casinos have good ventilation systems. 
@shawbridge - She was already dented for that; I believe her license was restricted in some way.
I live in southeastern Michigan. All of my doctor/dental offices require masks and social distancing, although they seem to have abandoned routine temperature checks since the vaccine has been readily available. I feel very comfortable in these situations. In terms of masking among the general public, it depends on the area. I live in an area where people tend to question the reality of Covid risks. I am often alone or one of few in wearing a mask in a store. My D lives in an area where most people mask up, so I tend to do my errands near her house. I get my hair cut in a gentrifying area in Detroit, and the people in that area all mask up. Even so, the owner told me that 3 of his stylists - all young, vaxed, and boosted - are quite sick with Covid right now. He also has clients in NYC, and he is flying there in the near future. He contacted his clients to discuss his Covid protection requests, and one client told him that while she will do whatever he asks … he should be aware that it’s pretty much impossible to avoid getting Covid in NYC right now. Yikes! What strange times we live in now.
I was just reading an article about Big Daddy Weave’s Jay Weaver dying from Covid complications at age 42. He had diabetes and other issues, so catching Covid could have been a death sentence regardless of being vaxxed or not - which no news report addresses.
Many of the comments are horrendous though, saying he didn’t die of Covid, it had to have been from the “clot shot” (or similar) or “something else.”
It’s really, really sad seeing the level some humans will go to on what should have just been an RIP comment section. Humanity depresses me a lot lately. Why can’t people just be nice to each other in everyday life?
I just can’t read Facebook anymore as it’s full of these kind of comments. I think the normal people are not commenting and the deniers are all in.
It’s just not healthy to my mental health.
I’ve never been on FB. It’s probably good for my health.
H is on and lets me know if anyone posts anything I’d be interested in. When I looked at his account once I ended up changing significant charity donations based upon some posts I saw written by one of the board members of a group we had supported for years… I chose an organization to get the funds that supports what he was railing out against. I’ve been told many in the organization don’t agree with him - yet he remains on the board, so my decision remains.
Sometimes I wonder what else I would change if I delved into things like that. Other times I’m glad I don’t know.
You have to curate facebook. I belong to one group page for our community that is full of vaccine deniers. (They also hate our mayor.) I go there to see what they are thinking and to some extent to get local news. But everywhere else it’s really only my real friends.
My Instagram feed includes some of my facebook friends and a lot of artists. I only want to see pictures of art and food. I unfollow anyone who posts too much political stuff.
Well yeah, likely a lot of those folks were from out of state.