Very sad and I’m so sorry for your loss. Many I know who said they had Covid last winter were never tested, they just insist they had it. Not saying this is the case with your friend, just saying I know several in that category.
A friend of my sister, her daughter got the vaccine and has not been the same since. Muscular problems and has not been able to walk since. My sister had Covid and seeing this has made her terrified to get the vaccine. Anecdotal of course just as your story is anecdotal. However, both are real life events that when affected personally guide our decisions. Both stories are very sad.
How can we say “masks didn’t work” when the infected individual admitted she removed her mask at times? Someone actively infected and symptomatic removing her mask opened the door to transmission. Seems to me we could only say “masks didn’t work” if mask compliance was 100%.
That seems like such a lapse in judgement at the very least. Did the school have a standard system for reporting symptoms? Fatigue and runny nose were on the CDC list before the start of the prior school year. There would likely be a big question of whether school protocols were violated.
The World Series of Poker has announced that it will require proof of vaccination for all players. I am THRILLED. My husband is a professional poker player in addition to managing my college counseling practice, and he plays the WSOP every year.
If airline bookings drop because the unvaxxed can fly and the vaccinated feel uncomfortable, then they will impose vax requirements.
I don’t see the issue with logistics, stadiums like the US Open tennis tournament will have vax requirements. If they can do it, surely the TSA or a check in system by the airline could also do it.
I read in one article that 4,000 flight attendants have tested positive. Now they may not have gotten it on the flights true. If the unvaccinated teacher in Marin County spread Covid to her class by taking off her mask for a few minutes, it is plausible that one person could make a flight a superspreader event.
I’d be OK for all of those. I do think that that it would be easier to implement at airports as part of the existing TSA screen. Not sure if Amtrak has anything similar. I think fed rules would be limited to interstate travel, but local governments could implement as they choose.
Busses and trains are regulated by the Dept. of Transportation and of course Amtrak goes interstate, even for commutes (Philly to NYC, for instance). Biden has already implemented a mask mandate for all these modes of transportation. You are saying you believe he should implement a vax requirement as well?
Right now the federal mask rule (required) applies to all mass transportation - buses, trolleys, trains, light rail, school buses. It doesn’t apply to passenger vehicles like Lyft, cabs, Uber (but they can have their own rules). The bus drivers aren’t checking vax ID’s, but everyone is wearing masks.
There are going to be a lot of fraud ID cards. So what? Those same people will be unvaxxed anyway. Maybe a few will find it easier to just get vaccinated than to bother with the fake ID.
Yesterday I took my mother for a booster and there was a young guy there getting vaccinated. I said ‘tell your friends how easy this was’ and he replied that most of his friends were already vaxxed, that he was late because he was worried but needed the ID card to return to college campus in person classes.
The negative consequences are working. He also got a gift card for getting the vax, so a positive reward too.
As a practical matter, many people can avoid busses and trains. But for long distances, airline travel is essential. So yes, I do wish that domestic air travel had a vax requirement. Canada does.
Sure, employers like United could and probably should mandate vaccines for its employees. But that is MUCH different than mandating it for customers.
Other than public health folks, few [should] care about open air stadiums. Again, where’s “the science” that stadiums are spreaders?
As an aside, isn’t NYC being hypocritical in requiring vaccines for an outdoor event (attended by mostly high income earners which by definition are already highly vaccinated) but NOT indoor subways, many with poor/broken air circulation? (If you want to impact the unvaccinated, ya gotta go to where they are, and it ain’t Flushing Meadow in September.)
The number of people who need to use busses and trains every single day outnumbers the number of people who need to fly even once a month by at least three orders of magnitude.
Local buses can spread the virus, but only locally. The number of trains are miniscule compared to the number of flights every day. Air transportion is what help the virus spread to every region, in waves after waves.
My husband is vaccinated, had Pfizer. He feels great, feels he can do anything.
But he has two autoimmune diseases. Is he protected? Not sure.
Just because you say you are and just because you want it to be true, doesn’t make it true.
And that’s the thing about some of these studies. It’s hard for us lay people to figure out what is the best approach and what is going to work the best. And that why, imperfect as it is, I’m relying on the CDC to help me wade through all of this.
Start with the easiest to implement - airports via the TSA screeners. If Amtrak has similar screening, then that next. Local train and busses would be good too but I don’t think they have existing infrastructure for screening.
I don’t know how long it’s been since you were on a NYC subway (if ever), but the fleet is well-ventilated and air conditioned, as are the buses. And people of all income levels take the subway because it is usually the fastest way to travel.