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Covid Protocols 2023


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It’s Gotten Awkward to Wear a Mask

 

 

Last week, just a couple of hours into a house-sitting stint in Massachusetts for my cousin and his wife, I received from them a flummoxed text: “Dude,” it read. “We are the only people in masks.” Upon arriving at the airport, and then boarding their flight, they’d been shocked to find themselves virtually alone in wearing masks of any kind. On another trip they’d taken to Hawaii in July, they told me, long after coverings became optional on planes, some 80 percent of people on their flight had been masking up. This time, though? “We are like the odd man out.”

 

Being outside of the current norm “does not bother us,” my cousin’s wife said in another text, despite stares from some of the other passengers. But the about-face my cousin and his wife identified does mark a new phase of the pandemic, even if it’s one that has long been playing out in fits and starts. Months after the vanishing of most masking mandates, mask wearing has been relegated to a sharply shrinking sector of society. It has become, once again, a peculiar thing to do.

 

“If you notice, no one’s wearing masks,” President Joe Biden declared last month on 60 Minutes. That’s an overstatement, but not by much: According to the COVID States Project, a large-scale national survey on pandemic-mitigation behaviors, the masking rate among Americans bounced between around 50 and 80 percent over the first two years of the pandemic. But since this past winter, it’s been in a slide; the project’s most recent data, collected in September, found that just 29 percent have been wearing masks outside the home. This trend may be long-standing on the population level, but for individuals—and particularly for those who still wear masks, such as my cousin and his wife—it can lead to moments of abrupt self-consciousness. “It feels like it’s something that now needs an explanation,” Fiona Lowenstein, a journalist and COVID long-hauler based in Los Angeles, told me. “It’s like showing up in a weird hat, and you have to explain why you’re wearing it.”

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/10/americans-no-longer-wear-masks-covid/671797/

Edited by Big Blitz
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7 minutes ago, RiotAct said:

I’d say about 2-5% of the people at my workplace (office setting) are wearing masks.  I say, who cares.  Live and let live.

 

Yeah, who is it really bothering except the person wearing it, if even?

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11 hours ago, RiotAct said:

I’d say about 2-5% of the people at my workplace (office setting) are wearing masks.  I say, who cares.  Live and let live.

I’m curious…I live in extremely diverse California and I’d say the overwhelming number of people still wearing masks are Asian. Are you seeing the same thing? 

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13 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

I’m curious…I live in extremely diverse California and I’d say the overwhelming number of people still wearing masks are Asian. Are you seeing the same thing? 

At my work, I’d say half the people wearing masks are White and the other half are Indian or Chinese.  (I work in downtown Buffalo - tech job)

 

Around UB North campus (while driving down Maple Rd) I see a TON of UB students wearing masks outside.

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1 minute ago, RiotAct said:

At my work, I’d say half the people wearing masks are White and the other half are Indian or Chinese.  (I work in downtown Buffalo - tech job)

 

Around UB North campus (while driving down Maple Rd) I see a TON of UB students wearing masks outside.

 

Why do you care?

 

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1 minute ago, RiotAct said:

At my work, I’d say half the people wearing masks are White and the other half are Indian or Chinese.  (I work in downtown Buffalo - tech job)

 

Around UB North campus (while driving down Maple Rd) I see a TON of UB students wearing masks outside.

Thanks! I’m genuinely interested to hear who’s still buying into the mask narrative. It’s an odd phenomenon for sure. 

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Our Third COVID Winter Is Coming. America Isn't Ready.

 

Our third American COVID winter is at hand. In the months ahead—with students back in school, temperatures dropping, social life moving indoors, and holiday travel commencing—not to mention the emergence of new and increasingly immune-evasive variants—we can count on another seasonal surge of infections and deaths.

 

With the experience of last year’s record-breaking Omicron wave, American leaders should now—at least, in theory—be very well equipped to deal with what’s ahead. Health agencies should be preparing clear, actionable messages on COVID measures for the holiday season. Masks, COVID tests, and treatments should be plentiful and accessible to all Americans. And indoor air quality should be improved by upgraded ventilation in schools, workplaces, and other public settings.

 

Yet these essential steps are not in place. The CDC has issued no updated guidelines to the public.....

 

https://time.com/6223311/our-third-covid-winter-is-coming-america-isnt-ready/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cracking Up Lol GIF

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15 hours ago, Big Blitz said:

 

This is a clever attempt by the vaccine manufacturers to escape liability once the emergency declaration expires, if it ever will.  I suspect they've been told that it expires sometime next year, or with a Republican held Congress, they end it.  I also suspect the VICP isn't going to cover COVID shots.  Money talks - if the government isn't going to put the shots in that fund, you have to think real long and hard about putting that product into a child's body.

 

I don't think states will bite though because if you mandate it and something goes wrong, there's no federal fund to handle the lawsuits like there is for the other vaccine shots and parents turn to the mandating body for compensation. 

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22 hours ago, SoCal Deek said:

Thanks! I’m genuinely interested to hear who’s still buying into the mask narrative. It’s an odd phenomenon for sure. 


I was interested in this day one. I wanted to know the psychology/emotional difference.   The gyms were closed so we’d hike every night after work and I wondered what types of people wore masks outdoors on the hiking trails.  We had a woman literally walk into the bushes to avoid us because we were not wearing masks. 

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1 minute ago, Chef Jim said:


I was interested in this day one. I wanted to know the psychology/emotional difference.   The gyms were closed so we’d hike every night after work and I wondered what types of people wore masks outdoors on the hiking trails.  We had a woman literally walk into the bushes to avoid us because we were not wearing masks. 

It’s an interesting study in human and cultural nature for sure. If you’re not going to observe it now, when the pandemic has obviously waned, then when will you ever get the chance? Hopefully never. I don’t believe anyone is wearing one as fashion statement. So it’s a great study in psychological control. We went to an outdoor professional sporting event last weekend; a mother and her two elementary aged school kids sat in front of us. They were the only three people out of the 20,000 that I observed wearing masks. I had to wonder what the kids thought about that. 

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5 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

It’s an interesting study in human and cultural nature for sure. If you’re not going to observe it now, when the pandemic has obviously waned, then when will you ever get the chance? Hopefully never. I don’t believe anyone is wearing one as fashion statement. So it’s a great study in psychological control. We went to an outdoor professional sporting event last weekend; a mother and her two elementary aged school kids sat in front of us. They were the only three people out of the 20,000 that I observed wearing masks. I had to wonder what the kids thought about that. 


No good point. In the early stages there was a lot of understandable fear.  So why are people still fearful today?  Me personally?  I was never afraid.  I only wore a mask because I had to and only got vaccinated because it was the only way I could conveniently travel or attend events.  And as far as I know I’ve been Covid free. 

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2 minutes ago, Chef Jim said:


No good point. In the early stages there was a lot of understandable fear.  So why are people still fearful today?  Me personally?  I was never afraid.  I only wore a mask because I had to and only got vaccinated because it was the only way I could conveniently travel or attend events.  And as far as I know I’ve been Covid free. 

It’s definitely gone through stages. At first everyone was rightly concerned. Then it became ‘required’ just to function in society. Now there’s virtually  no place where it’s required. So, I’m going to say it…..why do so many of Asian descent still wear them? Are they for some reason more inclined to a collective societal response? Or open to government direction? I find it hard to believe that the vast majority of them are not multi generation Americans?  I find it fascinating. 

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5 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

It’s definitely gone through stages. At first everyone was rightly concerned. Then it became ‘required’ just to function in society. Now there’s virtually  no place where it’s required. So, I’m going to say it…..why do so many of Asian descent still wear them? Are they for some reason more inclined to a collective societal response? Or open to government direction? I find it hard to believe that the vast majority of them are not multi generation Americans?  I find it fascinating. 


They’ve been wearing masks in Asian countries for a long time. It’s almost part of their culture 

 

I’m wondering why so many young people still wear them.  Is it because they are considerate and wear it to protect others and not themselves?  Knowing today’s self absorbed youth I find that hard to believe.  🤷🏻‍♂️

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