He was an outspoken critic of mandates et al, though no one is reporting whether he was vaccinated himself - or even confirming that he died of Covid, but it is known that he was sick with it and trying to get monoclonal antibodies shipped to him in El Salvador.
At 52 he was still quite young IMO. If he had been vaccinated or died of something else one would think theyād have announced that, but thatās just conjecture. I have no way of knowing.
We have a family friend opposed to covid vaccination on political grounds. Of course, he caught it, was hospitalized for 10 days, then his wife caught itā¦they survived. But on social media, he would not say why he was sick, only that he had āhealth issues that hospitalized himā. Meanwhile, my elderly mom was taking groceries to his elderly mom, because he was unable to. People pretend their choices are only theirs ā but thatās just naive.
People who wear a mask if everyone else does? Well, feel free to put one on as an example, instead of waiting for other people to do that.
Yes, when one of my anti vax relatives makes a reference to āhealth issues,ā Iām suspicious. One of them deleted all her posts asking for prayer for her brother when he was very ill with COVID. Her husband, a structural engineer like me, continues to send my dad anti vax crap in emails. Dad says he doesnāt even look at it anymore.
This is the morning Iām not going to my dadās church because of these relatives who also go there. To my surprise, Dad has not once questioned me about it or asked me to go. I think he knows what my response would be, ha.
The funny thing about science is that it doesnāt care if you believe in it or not. Itās like not wearing a coat in a storm because you donāt believe in meteorologists.
I agree there are selfish folks and geographic differences.
I agree with others covid is here to stay, and risk level is going to ebb and flow People choose their risk tolerance for catching and/or spreading. That tolerance falls on a spectrum and varies by activity. We will figure out how to live with it.
The vast majority of those who arenāt vaxed and are taking a stand with their behaviors do so because people have done an evil and masterful job harnessing known weaknesses in human cognition. That manipulation is real and hard to undo once done. And people are dying DYiNG because of their beliefs.
I sincerely believe that most of those āāselfishā people you refer to who are out and about are mostly decent people just trying to get by. They are probably pretty darned kind and generous in other aspects of their lives. People are mixed bags and can be generous, decent and kind, and selfish and fearful all at once.
One can make an argument that the extreme isolators are also motivated by selfishness and self-preservation and fear for their own safety. In the end, how much does labeling motivations as selfish help? The big question to me is how to counteract the deadly manipulation that has already taken hold of so many people. It is probably too late.
FWIW, this is my lived experience with deciding what risks are worth it: my severely disabled husband is blind and dependent on a walker. And he is immune compromised. So am I. Staying home has been devastating for DH, the cruelest isolation. The one thing he had pre-pandemic was going to restaurants. We are vaxed and boosted. You can believe once we could go back to restaurants, we did. We sit outside. But now that it is cold, we were trepadaciously sitting inside at less crowded times, comforted by knowing that in our county at least people have to be vaxed to sit inside. But now there is Omicron, we are back to just outside as of today. It is too cold to go to his favorite breakfast spot where people know him and miss him if he isnāt there. I am furious, disappointed and sad. But Omicron is not the fault of the 20% unvaxed in my county.
Just got word from the former hospital CEO (who now works with large health care provider group with several hospitals including the main teaching hospital for a local medical school). He has postponed the party based upon the advice he is getting from the experts in his organization. Too much risk of indoor eating even if folks are vaccinated/boosted and tested that day.
Dr. Collins was on CBS Sunday Morning today. His wife is also a geneticist. In retirement he is planning on working on progeria and diabetes. A former student of mine died of progeria so this story was of great interest.
Yes, thereās correlation between the two. However, the correlation isnāt nearly 100% and their opposition to masking may not be as strong as their opposition to vaccination. Imposition of any restriction isnāt never going to be popular with everyone. The question is then how best to accomplish the objective (which isnāt to bridge the divide).
You donāt wear masks always when indoors in public places? That is what the CDC recommends. Your stance makes sense to me for Delta, but not for Omicron.
I see my use of the word āselfishā has struck a nerve here. So now the opposite term is āliving in a cave.ā We all have different risk tolerances ā the thread where people were asked to assign themselves a number was very interesting. I am obviously more risk-averse than many. (But guess what ā I donāt ālive in a caveā!)
I donāt want to get covid. Iāve tried very hard so far not to. Until we know for sure that it will be mild in the vaxxed & boosted (we donāt) AND that there is little chance of long covid in those vaxxed & boosted (we also donāt), Iām treating covid as something to avoid.
People over 65, those immunosuppressed/immunoccompromised, and those with underlying medical conditions are vulnerable, even if vaxxed & boosted. That is a lot of the U.S.!
Especially when they want things to buy and be delivered to them. Who is supposed to be making and delivering these things (food, gifts, whatever)?
Itās impossible for everyone to isolate.
Each of us has to assess our own situation and decide what we feel is worth the risk now.
Our (Creeklandersā) decisions post vaccine and booster are different than those pre-vaccine.
Around here, those who are anti-vax have never had differences in their decisions. At least most of them havenāt. Thereās probably an anomaly somewhere.
No, we donāt. We live in an area where few wear masks. They donāt care about protecting me and I no longer care about protecting them.
When we travel we come across areas where everyone wears masks. There folks care, so I will care about them.
Some businesses have signs on their doors requesting people mask. They care, so I will even if other customers donāt. Other businesses donāt ask and their staff is usually unmasked too. I donāt need to protect them.
Over the pandemic, esp as vaccines have become available for all, my attitude about masking has changed because I see no need to care about those who donāt want it.
We are trusting vaccines. At our age and health status, being completely vaxxed with recent boosters, the chances of us having a bad case are extremely low. Iāve heard from multiple people working in hospitals with Covid patients.
Masks also protect you, even if they protect other people more. If I lived where no one wore masks indoors, Iād wear a mask indoors - especially with Omicron. I now wear my N-95 when I go to the grocery store.
Itās so different in various parts of the country and various parts of communities. We still have a state indoor mask mandate. We only had a couple of months off last summer so itās second nature by now. I see 90%+ compliance in stores And 90% of those not wearing masks properly are older white men. Seriously. Iāve counted. But when I picked up a pizza last night there was a string of unmasked folks elbow to elbow along the bar. I was super glad I had my KN95 mask on!
I do think we are all going to get it in the end. But Iām in no hurry. And yes, Iām privileged to be able to work at home and order deliveries if I want to. Iām also trying to protect (and be allowed to see) a 3 year old. I try to keep in mind my ācovid budgetā when making decisions about what to do. When I arrived at my hair salon of 10 years to see all the clients unmasked (in violation of the state mandate), I turned around and left. Not worth it. But when a good friend who is also boosted invited me to lunch at her home, I went and enjoyed it.
I feel like I finally figured out Delta and what I was comfortable with. And here comes Omicron and Iām back to not knowing what is really safe enough.
Walensky said āhey, you can take your mask off!ā in June, and all of science turned around and said, āUh, that seems like a bad idea!ā I get it, CDC did it in hopes of persuading the unvaxxed that there was a prize, but it was still stupid and there was a very loud scientific chorus saying so at the time. And it didnāt work, either: large portions of the eligible population remained unvaxxed.
By late August, no one was saying āgo around unmaskedā, because delta had arrived.
I donāt really understand what sort of campaign you have against vaccines, but youāre handing out plate after plate of misinformation, and I suspect youāre doing zero homework to check the statements youāre hearing before repeating them. While masking, distancing, etc. is definitely something everyone should be doing ā N95s, not cloth ā three doses of Pfizer/Moderna has a tests-so-far success rate thatās equivalent to quite a successful flu shot. That is not information thatās difficult to find.
