I found a box of the 3M Aura N95’s with a cool vent - the little thingy that makes breathing easier. Our next flight is in May and it looks like masking requirements will be dropped. We will wear these with the vents…it will be much more comfortable and we will be well protected.
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Not all airlines allow a mask with a vent as it defeats the purpose by allowing unfiltered air to escape. Yes, you would be protected from inbound air, but if you are a germ carrier…
Of course, if the mask requirement is dropped, then the above point is moot.
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Not many masks in Maine, even in Portland, which had a high masking rate up until recently.
[quote=“bluebayou, post:8202, topic:3498062”]
I’m addressing the situation when all mask requirements are dropped.
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I live in an area that has never had high mask compliance. I wear a mask when cases are high but when things are going better I take a break. I’m not sure why there is all this fascination on mask wearing.
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Of course, you could wear an N95 with vent and a surgical-type mask over the vent.
Exactly. The CDC’s message with the new “Community Level” levels is that everyone is on their own if they want to avoid infection; the CDC only cares about whether or not the hospital systems will become overburdened.
I watch the medical experts every Sunday on the news shows. I can’t remember any of them ever saying anything about long covid. Perhaps if they did, people would be more willing to wear masks.
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I think people know about long COVID. But like the choice not to be vaccinated, they think long COVID won’t happen to them.
Unfortunately mitigation efforts are not popular, people want to move on. So that’s what the politicians have decided to do. They have chosen to move on rather than risk losing the majority.
Sometimes doing the right thing comes with a big price. I think the choice is to do what the majority wants to believe.
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I think that it is probably too late to truly worry about Long Covid since it was projected 2 months ago that 57% of the world’s population has had Covid once. So if approximately 4 billion people have already been infected with Covid, we will already have to learn how to treat those who have Long Covid symptoms. And since Covid in some form is here to stay, future mitigation methods will probably involve everyone doing what they think is best to protect themselves and their loved ones.
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We should start worrying about how all the long covid sufferers will be medically treated, since that field appears to be in its infancy.
Not enough people care about long covid, thanks in part to the CDC avoiding the subject. I think I read that one reason it isn’t being emphasized as a reason to not abandon all mitigation measures is because to do so would discourage the unvaccinated from getting vaccinated (If the vaccinated can spread it and get it, why bother to get vaccinated?).
Vaccinated people are less likely to get COVID-19 (2.4-2.8 times less likely recently) and are less likely to have severe cases or long COVID if they do get it. That should be a strong selfish reason to get vaccinated.
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Hong Kong is having serious problems with Omicron BA.2, because it has broken through “zero COVID” policies and the elderly are the most vaccine-reluctant (only 56% of the 80+ population has had any dose of vaccine, compared to 87% of the total population and 91% of the age 12+ population). A policy to hospitalize anyone with COVID-19, regardless of symptoms, has contributed to hospital overloading.
If someone is still unvaccinated (in the US) and not a young child at this point, I have come to the conclusion that they are not getting vaccinated. I believe the “court of public opinion” is directly affecting mitigation protocols and believe that even a large outbreak would not bring back mandatory masking policies in my area.
The problem with Covid is that even places with great mitigation protocols (like Hong Kong) will eventually struggle with large outbreaks over a period of time. I am not saying that we give up trying to protect ourselves, but I am one who believes that a Covid variant will eventually infect almost everyone on earth in the next 3-5 years. So learning to live with this virus may be our only choice.
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My method of doing this is probably different from many, going by what I see, hear, and read. I will be curtailing a lot of things until my community’s transmission reaches the low level and I feel comfortable. I know that in my state that mandates of any kind won’t come back, even if we had a huge spike in cases. We seem to have plenty of hospital beds in my region, so it would take a lot for our Community Level to be anything other than low.
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Had you come through the suburban DC area, you would have seen a lot of masks!
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Yeah, my corner of NE Jersey, definitely still lots of masks. South Jersey, not so much.
Two things. First, the longer you keep from being infected, the better the treatments, and the less likely it is that you will suffer from complications, and second, The virus is now mutating often enough that, without precautions, people are more likely to be infected with multiple variants. The latter is what happens with seasonal flu, but with a disease that is deadlier and, more importantly, has many more complications.
Vaccines have done a lot in substantially reducing the lethality of COVID, so that is covered. Once there are cheap and easily accessible treatments which substantially reduce the chances and duration of “long COVID” and other complications, we probably can treat it the same way we treat seasonal flu - get he most recent vaccine, keep away from people who are obviously sick, and wash your hands more often.
So what I’m saying is, essentially, that, because the Omicron variants cause many breakthrough cases, that what is missing is a good treatment, before we can go back to “normal”.
Of course, if a new variant pops up against which the vaccines are ineffective and which does not respond to treatment, well, back to masking and social distancing.
It may be more likely that another novel virus will pop up by then…
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A vaccine that is targeted to Omicron, or at least a spike protein more similar to Omicron than the ancestral virus, would likely be more effective against Omicron and descendants of Omicron. Boosting with vaccines against the ancestral virus may only give short term protection against infection (when the antibodies make up for mismatch with temporary high volume), although vaccination still protects against worse outcomes (probably due to the second-line T-cell response that declines less with variants).
I agree with your assessment, but I would change it to life vs. economy. Both have valid arguments. I am firmly in the fighting-for-life side, though I do recognize the subsequent significant impact to the economy/mental health/social stress that everyone feels, some more than others. To me, the economy will recover. Masking is short-term, as we have seen. None of these preventative measures is permanent - eventually we learn to live with this virus, accelerated by the availability of therapeutic drugs, which was the whole purpose of this course of action - to delay the burden of disease while we allow science the ability to catch up.
On the other hand, loss of life is permanent. The economy will come back. Life will not. You can take off masks, but can’t rise from the dead. We learn to live with the virus, but without those we’ve loved and lost.
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I am not disagreeing with any of you points, but I do have what I consider to be one question mark. I am still waiting to see the true complications with anyone who is fully vaccinated or fully vaccinated and boosted. Almost all data has included the unvaccinated which has always tainted the numbers to some degree (I would like to see everything separated so you could really see the difference). I have not seen any real consequences among some of our healthier fully vaccinated/fully vaccinated and boosted populations (like college campuses) and would like to truly see what the data looks like across all age groups, gender, and around those with pre-existing health conditions who are vaccinated.
It will not be long before the last group without access to vaccination will be approved and that will be when the “last hurdle” (living with little to no restrictions in my life) will be cleared from my own perspective. Some cleared those “hurdles” a long time ago and some may never clear all of the hurdles, which seems to cause most of the Covid disagreement in our society.
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