Same here-- I haven’t stopped wearing my masks, and I’ve got no intention of stopping until this is under control, even though I’m fully vaxxed. With four new variants on the rise, we’re not anywhere close to that point.
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i stopped for about 2 weeks, but still wore them in the grocery store and other busy, indoor public spaces. then a week or so ago i just started wearing them again in ALL indoor public spaces. and if it’s crowded in an outdoor space, i probably will wear it there, too.
just had someone tell me “We absolutely know all long term effects of COVID. It’s a coronavirus, it behaves like a coronavirus. Long covid doesn’t exist anymore than long flu exists or any other respiratory virus. It is absolutely no deaths no big deal and end of story,” and the sheer mountain of idiocy required for this sort of statement is staggering to me. and now i have an old friend in MO telling me that he’s not going to wear a mask if they reinstate mask mandates because he’s vaccinated and “not going to live in fear.” he’s vaccinated, so there’s that at least.
i started to tell him that it’s not ABOUT him, but then just gave up. i’m exhausted.
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I’m surrounded by people like that, but at a distance, because I live a semi-hermit life. I am NOT living in fear, but I am trying to keep my spit and germs away from others, and I just wish that others would do the same for the rest of us. Frankly, unless I’m trying to get it on with someone, I don’t want ANY contact with their spit.
I was in the DMV and I was the only non-employee wearing a mask, and keeping my distance. We are a current hot spot, like no available COVID hospital beds in hundreds of miles, and it’s just damn disappointing.
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I went to a doctor’s appointment yesterday in a large building. I had a mask on but practically no one else did. There was a sign on the door: “Masks Required Unless You Are Vaccinated.” What with the CDC new guidelines I hope they change it to “Masks Required; No Exceptions.” Not that that will convince folks, and there’s no way to enforce it. Unfortunately my favored solution would spread the virus even more, by the blood and gut splatters. 
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In St. Louis, about 3 weeks after the mask mandate ended, it seemed like not many people were wearing masks, except where specifically required (e.g. my doctor’s office). I have zero doubt that a lot of unvaxxed people were going maskless.
A new local mask mandate (for everyone > age 5, vaxxed or not) began just Monday, because community spread is now higher than it was last summer. Immediately the state AG (Republican of course) said he would sue. Tuesday the county council voted down the mandate and it’s likely going to court; they whined about “authoritarian measures” and “the county executive offered no explanation for the mandate” (as if the reason weren’t obvious). Some of the council members themselves weren’t wearing masks during that meeting.
Tuesday afternoon the landlord of the office plaza announced masks were required in the indoor common areas of the property. And yet as of today maybe 20% of the people I see are wearing them.
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Last month, the Washington Football Team invited the renowned immunologist Kizzmekia S. Corbett to speak with players and address any questions they might have about the coronavirus vaccines. Corbett isn’t just a random expert; she helped create the Moderna vaccine. Despite Corbett’s impeccable credentials and expertise, Washington’s defensive end Montez Sweat remained staunchly opposed to vaccination even after hearing from her. He claimed he needed more information, although Corbett was on hand to answer any questions he might have had. “I probably won’t get vaccinated until I get more facts and that stuff,” Sweat said.
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Reinforcing the dumb-jock stereotype, he is.
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As Asimov wrote, some people seem to think that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
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To hell with Xmas in July, eh? Let’s have Groundhog Day in July!
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It’s Xmas in July for the virus. It just can’t wait to open its packages (i.e., cells with ACE2 receptors).
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About four months ago, I had to see a doctor to get prescriptions renewed. I couldn’t go to my usual doctor and practise, so went to one closer to home. Sure, most staff were wearing masks… around their throats or not pulled up over their noses and/or mouths. Granted, it was before the delta outbreaks and in kind of a lull in cases here in Victoria, Australia - and in between the five lockdowns we’ve had - but come the fuck on. If staff at a medical practise can’t or won’t wear masks properly, how can the general population be expected to do so? Probably needless to say, I won’t be going back there.
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Surely that’s a satire account… Oh. Nope.
Hutchinson said Thursday that he’ll call a special legislative session next week to amend Act 1002, a law he signed in April that prohibits state and local mask mandates. He said he’s “very concerned” about children age 12 and under who aren’t eligible to be vaccinated and schools should be able to decide their own mask policy.
He says it’s a “conservative principle” to use local decision making, so he wants to modify the rule to allow 12-and-under schools to make decisions on masking… but not anyone else. Oh, and he says even just doing that is a “heavy lift” but not impossible. 
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Why not let the kids decide?
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And here I thought the only conservative principle was “fuck you, I got mine”
Oh wait, it’s “local decision making, unless their decisions disagree with ours”
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I remember my father, at least five decades ago, calling it “to hell with you Jack, I’m all right.” I guess he bowdlerized it for us kids.
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We’re supposed to have a team retreat in Branson in a few weeks, and I… um… I wish I could bow out, or that they would cancel, because jibbers crabst, it ain’t good these days, covid-wise. Even if there are no outings, we’re still coming in from 5 states to stay in an AirB&B, where we are to share meals and bedrooms.
We did all get together in January of 2020, but it’s usually a once a year thing, so leadership wants this to happen. If the entire sales and marketing team gets sick, that won’t be good either. I’m the only contractor, so if everyone gets sick, everyone else gets sick pay. I’m vaccinated, so that’s something, but with the delta variant, that could still mean I can spread it to a certain hard-headed individual who isn’t vaxxed, gah!
They have said multiple times “what if it makes me grow a third arm or something” and I have lost patience with that bullshit. BUT, knowing this person, if I actually say they should get the shot, that makes it less likely that they will. We’ve been down this road before on other subjects. It’s not a conspiracy thing, or a political thing, it’s plain old fear mixed with the hubris of a person who “never gets sick” and doesn’t “even take aspirin”.
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Leadership is idiots, IMO. Can’t you zoom? Could you call in sick as an excuse to Zoom, saying “I might have COVID!” and then after claim it was just a cold? I know that’s not very honest, but your health is important.
Or would that be a career-destroying move?
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I don’t think it would be career destroying, but I had planned on talking to the person who approves my invoices about raising my rate, at this thing. That’s basically the only thing in the reasons-to-go column, because I am bad at that sort of thing. In a relaxed enough atmosphere I can float a trial balloon before getting to brass tacks.
The other thing is that this isn’t going to be a work meeting as much as it’s a team building thing, so zoom won’t help. Being a contractor (which I do prefer) I’m the least on-the-team of anyone. That’s generally fine, as the introverted graphic designer supporting a team of extroverted salespeople, I don’t mind being odd-one-out.
In fact, if I told them that I have a sick person in my household that would probably be enough to get me out of it. My overarching problem is, if it is possible to overthink a thing, I am definitely going to.
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