Just ran into this New Yorker cartoon from June and thought it belonged in this thread.
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Agree with cartoon that a heck of a lot of travel seems connected with getting covid.
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Absolutely. I know people who think they are being so careful, but then when I hear (or read) their travel plans, it doesn’t seem like they are being careful. The definition of “learning to live with covid” really means many different things to different people, doesn’t it?
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Living with Covid does mean different things to different people. I have flown or driven 14,000+ miles in the last 3 weeks and been in cities on both the East and West Coast and In Europe and I have seen that most have stopped taking masking precautions. Some of the cities that I have visited have been know for taking more stringent precautions, but most people in all of my travels have stopped masking.
I have seen some cultural and age differences within our society. I have seen much higher masking percentages when visiting African American enclaves where I live and in my hometown, especially amongst older African Americans. In my wife’s high school classroom, about 2-4 students per class (avg. class size 27) are masking. We are all just living how we see fit.
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In our school I’ve seen all of two individual kids with masks. I’m not sure why they were masked and didn’t ask. I just saw them walking in the hallways between classes. Around me very few mask anywhere now. Life has just resumed back to pre-covid days.
Yes and no—people are mostly not masking but Covid is still around and circulating, causing illness, hospitalizations and death. Many people are just choosing not to wear masks. 
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And making it easier for more variants to arise, with the great potential to further evade vaccines.
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Yes, Covid is still here. But we have reached a point where the serious risks of Covid have been seen, experienced by people we know, and explained ad-nauseam and most have still decided to live without masks and would opt to live with less restrictions. Those who disagree have the option to take precautions to protect themselves how they see fit.
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We just came back from our second cruise this summer. First one was a 12 day British Isles cruise in July and this latest one was a 7 day Boston-Quebec cruise. So far we have managed to avoid catching Covid. We wore masks onboard when indoors unless eating or drinking and wore masks while on buses for shore excursions. I think we’ve been a combination of careful and lucky. Our Canada cruise had nice weather so we were able to eat outdoors a lot, and also the ship was only at 65% capacity so it was uncrowded. We were traveling with 2 other couples and 3 out of the 4 people had Covid a month prior, so our meetups with them for drinks and dinner were probably lower risk.
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People who have both vaccination and recent infections with the current variant are probably the safest people be around, since they have hybrid immunity from both vaccination and infection with the current variant, as well as residual high antibodies from the infection.
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That’s what we figured too. The other couples were vaxxed and boosted (earlier boosters, not the new one) but had still managed to get Covid. Their loss was probably our gain because as you said it made them safer for us to be around.
We’re in Spain now, we had to wear masks on airplane and for public transportation.
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Went to Spain last week. We were told masks were required on the plane and it was not enforced at all. Not in the airport either. No one bothered wearing them except cabin crew. Europe is completely over Covid as far as I can tell (based on spending time in Spain, UK and France).
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Interesting, I believe everybody had mask on their face on my plane. I flew Iberia and not British Airways. I was told to put face mask on the bus also, so I did.
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BIL and SIL went on a European cruise. SIL felt sick, tested, and was positive for covid. She had to isolate in another cabin, with room service. Missed the sights. Apparently the cruise line is giving her credit, so they will be taking a Caribbean cruise next spring.
BIL has had covid (“just a cold!”).
Just got back from three weeks in Europe. Flew back from Dublin via Aer Lingus, plane was only half full. A couple of people coughing (yikes). About 5 people total wearing masks ( which surprised me as we were flying to Boston).
While in Europe there was almost no one masked. The only folks I saw with masks were a tour group in the hotel lobby Rick Steves group and some people we spoke to from San Fran. Seems like everyone in the line at the airport going to LA was masked as well. Whenever I saw someone with a mask, I immediately thought US/and probably CA.
We spent a lot of time going to various hotels, restaurants etc. My husband who flew home 10 days ago got a very very bad case of Covid. He hadn’t had it to date. He’s very fit, so honestly, I was a little surprised. He thinks it was a different strain than what we got back in Jan and was far worse than what my oldest got 6 weeks ago. Both my husband and oldest got recent cases and hadn’t had it prior.
The only upside is that my husband enjoyed his vacation.
I knew that going I was not going to be able to control close contact. If someone is worried, they might want to rethink things as most events and places are very crowded right now. The Europeans have gotten out and are traveling again and the US dollar is the highest it’s been in 20 years so lots of Americans traveling ( more older than younger I noticed).
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On our 12 day British Isles cruise there was a whole section on the port side of one deck for quarantine cabins. You could tell where those cabins were because the fire doors were closed off to those cabins and the fire doors were marked No Entry. But on our 7 day Canada cruise we never noticed anything similar. I’m not sure what happened to people on that cruise who got Covid, but I suspect that on a 7 day cruise a lot of people don’t realize they have it until they’ve disembarked and headed home.
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Don’t really know the timetable. My husband felt sick about two days after coming home. He thinks he caught something in the Dublin airport. BTW, he wore a mask on the plane as he has on his last few European trips.
I also got Covid after having an N95 mask on and with open windows (other passenger had been exposed) back in Jan. I’m not convinced the masks work but I’m not trying to convince anyone otherwise. I think in some cases, like planes they make people feel better. Unless they are able to got without drinking or going to the plane bathroom, they might lessen the case you get but if someone is sick nearby, you are likely to be exposed.
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Are you really sure of what or who was behind the door? But I digress.
Europe-yikes! On top of long security lines (thinking of Amsterdam), there is the issue of strikes. Yesterday France was a cluster….
Meanwhile I am waiting on plane in Paris due to maintenance delay. With another strike possible tomorrow, praying we take off.
Smaller airports though seem fine. Aka Geneva.
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