Covid 19-31 The Mutants Are Coming

[JGP]

Both my daughters just got their first Pfizer jab [sigh of relief]

[DireWolfSpirit]

Covid seems to be wilting on the vine here in the U.S.

I'm afraid to get too optimistic yet as we've only innoculafed half the population. It does seem the vac shots have been wildly successful in stemming the spread currently.

[Kalbear]

The same fucking thing happened last summer. People are outside more.

We have 50% vaccination on adults. That is not remotely enough. It'll be much better, but if we keep at this pace next Winter is going to be pretty rough. 

[IheartIheartTesla]

Work has relaxed mask restrictions for those who are fully vaccinated, and they are pretty conservative in terms of protocols by nature, so it feels that a corner has been turned. Everyone vaccinated is still taking baby steps going maskless for sure, though (me included).

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

But the question then becomes are they verifying that people are getting vaccinated or is it just the honor system? Going with the latter seems like such a bad idea given the people most likely to lie are probably also those refusing to get vaccinated.

[IheartIheartTesla]

You have to remember we arent the general population, but a highly educated subset (R&D etc., so while it sounds snooty, its true). Only our medical staff can ask about vaccination status, so I am definitely not going to ask about it (but have a photo of my card on my phone for easy access).

I suspect our vaccine uptake is pretty high, much higher than 50%.

[Fez]

1 hour ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Covid seems to be wilting on the vine here in the U.S.

I'm afraid to get too optimistic yet as we've only innoculafed half the population. It does seem the vac shots have been wildly successful in stemming the spread currently.

Yep. In my county (pop=236,000) we've had -5 positive cases over the past 4 days. It's negative because of data-cleaning apparently, but also that means we don't know if there have actually been 0 new cases or if there's been a very low number that is just being cancelled out because of the cleaning. Regardless though, it's the lowest its been since March 2020.

Apparently our adult vaccination rate is 63% and the county hopes to hit 70% soon. A survey found that 96% of adults in the county want the vaccine, which seems high. But we are the most educated county in the country (and Biden got 81% of the vote) so I wouldn't be surprised if the true number is around 90%.

[Zorral]

50 minutes ago, Kalebear said:

The same fucking thing happened last summer. People are outside more.

We have 50% vaccination on adults. That is not remotely enough. It'll be much better, but if we keep at this pace next Winter is going to be pretty rough. 

I am very anxious about this as well, and have been all along.

And now it's Memorial Day Weekend, almost. New Jersey and New York are now maskless pretty much everywhere for everything inside -- if one is vaccinated.  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Nevertheless, today I walked for over two hours in the sun.  Without wearing a mask.  I did put them on though, when I went into libraries to pick-up materials (whatever the mayor or gov may say, the university's not relaxing mandates inside everywhere, but I would have anyway), and inside the store where I got a passel of t-shirts, and then the wine store.

I did notice there was a lot less mask wearing outdoors today even than on Saturday.

This is the first time I've been maskless like this, just walking, and it felt criminal.  I still seem to believe I must be masked inside our building.

 

 

[Altherion]

1 hour ago, Kalebear said:

The same fucking thing happened last summer. People are outside more.

We have 50% vaccination on adults. That is not remotely enough. It'll be much better, but if we keep at this pace next Winter is going to be pretty rough. 

That 50% for adults is for both doses. The number who are still waiting for their second dose is not small; according to the NPR tracker, it's around 13% of adults the vast majority of which will join the fully vaccinated in within a month or so.

It also varies pretty dramatically by region. On the one hand, there is Vermont with 53.1% of the total population fully vaccinated (so 64.3% of adults) and 69.9% of the total population (so 84.6% of adults) with one dose. On the other, there is Mississippi where only 33.6% of the population has at least one dose -- that's less than half the corresponding percentage for Vermont!

[Zorral]

The weather, the temperature, the season, the drastically dropped numbers of new cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and the even lower numbers in our area here, with ever rising numbers of vaccinations -- I felt nearly compelled to go w/o a mask for the first time.  Which is a very weird thing, while also feeling, well naked and exposed.  But it also felt very nice -- lighter!  But seeing my face in shop windows and so on, was actually startling.

[maarsen]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

But the question then becomes are they verifying that people are getting vaccinated or is it just the honor system? Going with the latter seems like such a bad idea given the people most likely to lie are probably also those refusing to get vaccinated.

But..but doesn't the 5G chip make verification easy?

Just as an aside, would you hold up your phone close to an anti-vaxxer and complain about the weak signal coming from them?

[S John]

My work also rolled back mask requirements for the vaccinated. I spent about 2 days still in the mask but I’m now mostly going without it. I don’t spend a lot of time in close proximity to others at work anyway, especially with meetings and such still being largely virtual. I still bring one with me and wear it in stores because like @IheartIheartTesla I trust that my maskless coworkers really have been vaccinated far further than I trust the general public to be honest. I’ve been fully vaxxed for about 3 weeks so it’ll maybe take a little more time before I disregard it altogether. But I’m definitely not wearing it more and more. 

[A True Kaniggit]

13 minutes ago, S John said:

My work also rolled back mask requirements for the vaccinated. I spent about 2 days still in the mask but I’m now mostly going without it. I don’t spend a lot of time in close proximity to others at work anyway, especially with meetings and such still being largely virtual. I still bring one with me and wear it in stores because like @IheartIheartTesla I trust that my maskless coworkers really have been vaccinated far further than I trust the general public to be honest. I’ve been fully vaxxed for about 3 weeks so it’ll maybe take a little more time before I disregard it altogether. But I’m definitely not wearing it more and more. 

I started going to work without the mask at the end of last week. (Yes, I'm fully vaccinated)

Funnily enough, this is the first time in 8 months (since I started working here) that my coworkers have actually ever seen my face below the eyes.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

I’ve started going into the office a couple of days a week.  We even had a group reception (outdoors) last night.  Everyone who attended was (or claimed to be, but I trust my coworkers) vaccinated.  It felt amazing.  

[S John]

16 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

I started going to work without the mask at the end of last week. (Yes, I'm fully vaccinated)

Funnily enough, this is the first time in 8 months (since I started working here) that my coworkers have actually ever seen my face below the eyes.

I’m in the same boat since I started during Covid. I hope that the maskless version of my face doesn’t represent an aesthetic downgrade. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

The rumor is our workplace will be dropping their mask requirement within a week. Not official yet, but I'm hoping for this asap.

Another summer of these damn things would be unbearable.......fingers crossed!!!

[Luzifer's right hand]

37 minutes ago, Leap said:

While I'm looking forward to not needing to wear a mask anymore, I do think this will have a negative impact on how often I have to shave (i..e more). This is arguably one of the lesser ills of Covid but all the same, it's going to be weird going back to normal.

Edit: Plus vaccinations are still powering forwards here fortunately. We've had a really strong last 10 days so hopefully that's indicative of supply going up. At this rate I might be eligible in June, which would be nice. I have the questionable bonus of ageing into the next group up (assuming they keep doing it year-by-year/2 year slots), so that's also good.

Hah the only thing that bothers me about masks is that you can't really grow a proper beard if you want the best possible protection. I'm looking forward to growing a full beard again. 

[RhaenysBee]

Got my first vaccine this morning, aside from arm pain, I have no side effects - as of now. I am also tired but I suspect that has to do with waking up at 4:30 and not really getting enough sleep after that. 

[ljkeane]

I had my first jab today too (Pfizer). No reactions so far.

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

A balanced article (IMO) about the man-made origin theory of COVID-19: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/27/did-covid-come-from-a-wuhan-lab-what-we-know-so-far

Quote

Biden’s comments, launching the review, are revealing – not least when he said that the US intelligence community does “not believe there is sufficient information” to fully understand the likelihood of different scenarios for explaining the origin of the virus that causes Covid-19.

Biden also revealed that two of the 18 US intelligence agencies lean towards the theory it jumped from an animal species to humans and “one leans more toward” the lab theory, suggesting a striking lack of clarity.

tl; dr still not enough clarity, the Chinese government needs to be more open, might be years before we know for sure (for instance, identifying the intermediate animal host that caused the jump to humans could be one way)