I’m going with the flow. If the store requires it I wear it, if they say you don’t have to if you are fully vaccinated I don’t. I’m eating out more, indoors and out. I want to shop more but have only done a little. We are going to our first get together in months at a friend’s Sat night. Everyone is vaccinated and they are a huggy group. I’m so glad to be able to get together with them as we used to! It is a little frustrating to not be sure until you get to the door if a store is requiring masks or not. When I shop with my dd and her 1 year old we only want to go to places that still require masks for his sake. I don’t trust people to wear masks if they are unvaccinated. Around here I know too many people who say they aren’t wearing them and they don’t care. I even had one “friend” tell me she didn’t care if she infected a child because that was the parents fault for taking them out. I asked her about a single Mom who had to go to the doctor or the pharmacy or the store for an emergency item. She said she didn’t care. We are not friends anymore.
Several weeks ago, while in our local grocery store, the clerk thanked me for wearing my mask. She said she’s scared because so many people were not, and expressed concern. She went on to share that her older mother just recently caught Covid, and now had pneumonia.
That was the longest discussion I ever had with a grocery clerk! But it reinforces that I’ll just keep wearing for awhile even though there’s nearly no chance personally of catching (both vaccinated and had it). Whether or not it is necessary, it just seems the nicer thing to do.
A really good point. We can be in a grocery store and masked or unmasked still keep distance from people, not interact with anyone, limit our human contact. That register check out person has to see person after person at a short distance, handling their money sometimes, taking coupons or whatever - person after person for all the hours of their shift.
All it takes is one person you know/love to have a Covid struggle to change your tune.
Yesterday in NJ most everywhere I went people were masked. Overnight apparently some mask rule was lifted because today most everywhere I went, except small boutiques, not many were masked.
My D is only half vaccinated so I wore my mask so she didn’t feel so alone. I was frustrated a couple of places by seeing moms with kids in the 6-7 year old range and no one was masked. Those kids are too young to be vaxxed so I just assumed that none of them were since the mom didn’t even bother to mask up her kids.
Went to indoor lunch with a friend today. It’s a place that likely does most of its business during happy hour, dinner and after.
We were the only customers in the restaurant. Worker wore a mask to serve us (he was actually the only front of house worker). Since we were eating, we didn’t. But No one else was there.
As someone said, we will know the pandemic is officially over when Costco brings their food sampling back. Guess what? The samples are baaaaack! 
Or so the store says.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28/business/costco-food-sampling-coming-back/index.html
No…we will know when BJs brings their samples back…and there is no sign that is going to be happening.
I’ll believe it’s over when I let my 8 year old hit the above mentioned samples…
Still concerned about variants. Time will tell.
A study in Qatar found that the Pfizer - BioNTech vaccine in the real world was about 89.5% effective against B.1.1.7 and 75.0% effective against B.1.351, after two doses plus 14 days (one dose effectiveness was much worse, at 29.5% and 16.9%). No one in the study group had severe, critical, or fatal disease from either variant after two doses plus 14 days.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2104974
B.1.1.7 appears to be becoming the dominant variant in the US.
Our Costco has been having samples but I haven’t been tempted and haven’t seen anyone partake yet. Absolutely no interest on my part!
I just went to Target maskless for the first time. Our governor dropped most all restrictions now - except mass transit, medical facilities and K12 schools. Sign said that masks were strongly encouraged for non-vaccinated people. I was going to report that I didn’t see a single non employee with a mask, but a few people right at the end had them. Definitely <10%.
And while our infection rate is pretty good (8-10 a day per 100K), we can’t seem to ever get our percent positivity <5%. The whole pandemic we’ve bounced between 5-10% with peak periods between 10-25%. I wish we could get that under control, though I’d prefer a higher vaccination rate!
I get various reports every day via email. Very inconsistent info on the Indian variant but that is the one that concerns me most. There is a new monoclonal antibody which is good news since Eli Lilly’s one is no longer being used. Back to original topic: I will wear a mask out of courtesy to frontline workers.
B.1.617 variants supposedly have “reduced neutralization” from vaccines, though vaccines still have some effect. The vaccines in use where B.1.617 is common are Covaxin (an inactivated virus vaccine) and Covishield (same as the Oxford - AstraZeneca vaccine using an adenovirus vector ChAdOx1).
According to Regeneron COVID-19 Dashboard , it is not among the top variants in the US, although it has a minor presence in California. B.1.1.7 is by far the biggest variant in the US, but some states may vary (or have small sample sizes).
I’ll try to find the study, that involved mRNA vaccines and B.1.617. The original virus wasn’t common here either two years ago.
If vaccines aren’t as effective against a variant, and there remain a sizeable number of unvaccinated as well, I think it is reasonable to have some fear about future surges with B.1.517, since global travel is going to resume.
For now, I feel safe, but this may be a period of reprieve. I hope not.
Perhaps you mean the preprints referenced at the bottom of this page: COVID vaccines can block variant hitting Asia, lab study finds ?
I’m just going to wear my mask. I look younger.
Me too! Besides, I already have masks…so sunk costs… but no additional costs because no need to spend on makeup! 
I haven’t worn the mask for over a week now. I have it with me but everywhere I went had dropped the requirement. To me, wearing the mask after getting vaccinated feels like wearing a raincoat in the sun. If anyone wants to wear it, by all means. Not me.
I agree. Being fully vaccinated and going without the mask when it’s not required is like a reward. I feel like I can breath so much better even if it wasn’t that much of an impediment. I enjoy seeing people’s full expressions. I like others seeing my smile. It’s fine if others choose to still wear one but I am done unless actually required and then I might just go elsewhere if possible.