Being sick and out of commission or exhausted and not really able to function for a few days is a minor annoyance?? Not something I’m interested in if I can avoid it!!!
Like “regular” COVID, break through COVID seems innocent - until it’s not or until you know someone who has contracted it and is still very much sick for a few days.
The mentality of self protection is not one I can adopt. I don’t want to risk giving anyone - man, woman, child - vaccinated or not - sick.
One more thing.
POST VAX LIFE.
Here we are, supposed “post vax life” . School year Fall 2021 about to start. If you have children in K-12 or college - does it feel like we are “post vax”??? Here we are for a 2nd year with school starting and largely because of adults, the school year will start with uncertainty. Nothing “post” about it. Fearful parents, fearful teachers, fearful kids.
I’m with @Creekland . I wear a mask when it’s required but when I’m in a situation with others who aren’t wearing masks, I trust the vaccine and happily join in. I don’t like wearing masks and won’t do so to try to influence others.
We got back from WDW this past weekend. Mask wearing was required there indoors and not outdoors. Indoor mask wearing was about 2/3 compliant based on whether there was anyone around to “remind” people to do so. Outdoor mask wearing was very low. We are all fully vaxed and never wore masks outside. We also ate indoors every night. We are not worried about getting sick because we have been vaccinated.
I’m with @basket. It’s not distrusting the vaccine to understand that you can get an annoying case of Covid while still vaccinated, and possibly pass it on to others. It’s not very likely, but it’s so easy to make it even less likely, then why not do it? I like the swiss cheese analogy I’ve read–every level of protection has holes, but the more of them you layer up, the less likely something will find a way through.
I am a grad student at a state university in Texas. Our classes will be online the first three weeks. It does not feel very post vax.
If I felt the need to protect myself from others, I’d have to switch to an N95 mask according to medical boy. We have them if we feel the need for them, but right now, we don’t.
I have decided I’m not returning to school right away though. A few minutes in a post office (or grocery store) is one thing. A day in classrooms where diseases always spread in the fall even pre-Covid is another.
According to the NYT, in my county at least 1/10 have already had the virus (tested positive) and 44% are fully vaxed. After the school “rush” we might get up to herd protection after all, esp since several likely had it without testing. I’ll be skipping the school rush.
Here’s the continually updated NYT interactive if people can get it without it being firewalled. Scroll down below the states and charts and insert state or county to get specific info.
Among states, “congrats” to FL for really leading the pack both in overall numbers and per capita (sigh). PA, by comparison, is tied for 6th best in the states (best, not worst) at the moment. My county is only slightly worse than PA’s average and a lot better than “bad” states. We’ll see what happens when school starts. My school isn’t requiring masks at all, and even if they did, there are many vocal parents who have said they will take them to court over it.
Just returned from a trip with D to the DMV. Very crowded. I’m still not comfortable in places with lots of people in a room. On the positive side I’d say 96% masked, with a few maskless holdouts. Too bad PA didn’t continue their DL online renewal for non-Real ID licenses. Was so nice to just order it online and receive it in the mail.
To @abasket ’s point: it doesn’t feel like we’ve made much progress…and in some ways it’s worse because fewer people seem to be taking precautions.
Is it worth trying to protect other adults who have clearly decided that they do not want protection (voluntary refusal to vaccinate, strident opposition to mask wearing and social distancing, etc.) and are often actively hostile to those who do that?
If you have contact with those not able to be vaccinated (children under 12, those medically unable to get vaccinated) or those for whom vaccination is less likely to be effective (immunocompromised), then you obviously need to be concerned about them. But that means that you want to protect yourself from infection in order to avoid bringing it to those whom you want to protect, rather than trying to protect other adults who voluntarily chose to assume the virus risks.
The answer is YES.
In life, a lot of people have risky behavior/choices. About lots of things. I’m not in the market to encourage a negative effect on them regardless.
I’m ok with the answer being no.
We let people do dangerous things all the time. It’s their choice.
In this case, their dangerous choice puts others in danger too. That’s aggravating. If more of them get gravely sick, perhaps others will learn from their experiences. Quite honestly, that’s the only thing changing some people’s minds around here - it seems they have to see it to believe it.
In the end, some get immunity from catching it (with a few getting withdrawn from the pool) and others decide to get vaccinated to avoid it.
It’s what the Control Group has chosen for themselves.
I’m hearing of more cases of vaccinated people coming down with Covid. Most don’t know they have it until tested for work or surgery. My county has a mask mandate which I’m glad to comply with. I’m seeing 100% masks with most wearing them correctly. I’m even seeing more double masking.
I’m rethinking going maskless inside with friends and family. My sister and I had started to have our visits indoors without masks since we are both vaccinated. Today I’m going to visit and I’ll wear my mask inside and mainly visit outdoors. She is on an immune suppressant drug so I want to protect her.
I’m somewhere in between. How often I wear a mask depends on factors such as: the area’s numbers (daily case rate, percent positivity), the size of the facility (especially the airspace volume), the condition of the facility, how long will I be in the facility, what I’ll be doing in the facility, and of course, the area’s mandates.
Life seemed normal here for most of the summer. If you didn’t read the news, you’d never know there was a pandemic. Our daily case rate was < 5 (per 100K) but our fully vax rate is ~35-40%. But it’s been jumping since mid-July. I was OK maintaining status quo until it hit 20 with % positivity inching toward 10%.
I didn’t modify any behavior until the last week or so, and I’m starting with baby steps. Our numbers are around 35 and 15%. And even now, I’m just starting to wear masks in stores, along with roughly 20-30% of others. I did bring in my air purifier to work. It’s easy enough to run. I haven’t seen an employee wear a mask in the building in months. I won’t wear one in my office where we are (almost? we have a new guy) all vaccinated. But I try to bow out of crowded meetings (we have no limits anymore). I will mask up if I must attend. I have cut back my gym time a fair amount. I still don’t wear a mask, but I go during uncrowded times. The weekends are ~5 people per 30K building, Weekdays were hitting 40-50 at it’s peak over the summer. It’s shrunk considerably in the last month. I’d guess 15-25 people in the 30K building most days.
We still have been going to movies unmasked, but still during off hours. We saw the Jungle Cruise the Sunday night before school started back. There were 4 others in there with us. That’s been typical for us. We also eat indoors once/week for 30-45 min. at a time. We aren’t social people, so no card nights or dinners with friends for us.
I’m OK with this regime for now. If the numbers get really bad (75-100+), I’ll adjust my routine further. But in general, no I don’t worry about all of those who won’t get vaccinated or didn’t take precautions. I’ve had to listen to so much (blank) about how people like me are taking this way too seriously, etc. I’m doing what feels right for me at that moment in time.
Post-vax is now looking a lot like pre-vax, unfortunately. Lots of fully vaxxed being diagnosed in my area (67% ages 12+ are vaxxed). Two that I know were brought back from the brink of death. One still struggling.
The vaccine effectiveness against infection is now garbage. Whatever number is being used now (30%? 60%?) doesn’t mean anything. Social gathering of fully vaxxed in a house with a stealth carrier? You’re getting it. LOL
But I am still strongly pro-vax and pro-mask. Some numbers showing how protective the vax is against hospitalization are also bogus because they are pre-Delta. But the conclusion that it does help significantly is still valid, IMO.
Masking wherever I go, and avoiding any indoor area where people are not masked.
I wear the best mask I can when I go places I may encounter unvaxed, unmasked folks indoors and try to keep encounters as short as possible. I try to be outdoors whenever possible when around others.
I bought new masks that were tested by Aaron Collins to be very protective and easy to breathe with. The two I am currently wearing are Savewo disposable kf94 and Airgami reusable masks. When not wearing masks, I put them in individual paper bags. I will microwave the Airgami and reuse (following directions).
I also have cotton cloth masks and disposable surgical masks, which I will sometimes wear because they are handy.
Do you have solid numbers? I just saw some from Tidelands Health south of Myrtle Beach (their FB site if anyone wants to google it).
Here is the data for the entire state of WA:
47 hospitalizations from the 55% not-fully-vaccinated population in Myrtle Beach metro versus 5 hospitalizations from the 45% fully-vaccinated population → fully-vaccinated are 7.7 times less likely to be hospitalized or 87% vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization.
With no fully-vaccinated people in the ICU or on ventilators, vaccine effectiveness is 100% against needing that.
I am a positive person. To a fault some might say.
Here is what post vax life feels like to me right now.
Post Vax Life? Right now we have jumped 6
Months back.
Ohio has about half of the overall population fully vaccinated. Assuming that most cases and hospitalizations are in the unvaccinated (based on recent data from other places), the situation is much worse than in February for the unvaccinated, but nowhere near as bad as February for the fully vaccinated.
