Hi, friends!
Welp, now that the CDC seems to be loosening up the mask rules, St. Louis City and County dropped their mask mandate and all the covid restrictions, leaving it up to businesses if they still want to require masks.
Several businesses are now saying vaccinated people don’t need to wear masks at all indoors. But it’s all on the honor system, and I don’t trust people. My local grocery chain is saying vaccinated customers don’t have to wear masks, but employees still do. What the fuck is the point of that? If your customers can breathe all over everything, let the employees do it, too.
You know as well as I do that all the fucking anti-maskers are just going to be happy as pigs in shit that the local government isn’t requiring it anymore and that businesses aren’t either. Businesses aren’t going to actually ask if folks not wearing masks are vaccinated.
And last I checked, only about a third of adult St. Louis residents are fully vaccinated. I know there are still some access issues for folks with shitty work schedules, kids to manage, no cars, etc. And there are people who have severe allergy issues who haven’t been able to get vaccinated.
I just don’t fucking trust people to not wear masks. I’ll get over it, but I just worry we’re heading back towards a spike when you combine this with vacation season.
If you live in an area where stuff is being relaxed with covid, is there anything you are struggling with?
For fuck’s sake, we had jackwagons hoarding toilet paper last year and then gasoline recently.
Anything with public health like this relying on the honor system is a bad idea.
Also a friend shared this on the facebooks and I thought it was a good read
https://www.vice.com/en/article/93yye8/pandemic-safety-mask-lockdown-cant-quit-grief-trauma-anxiety
No one is going to tell me I can’t wear a mask. That’s tyranny!
I live in a state that recognizes reality–in spite of our Republican governor–so there are still plenty of mask mandates. I simply walk from my car to the door and, if I see a sign that says people need to wear a mask, then I put mine on. It’s seriously not a big deal, but don’t tell the right wingers that.
I get what the CDC is doing, and how they’re doing it, but I do think that they truly have no idea just how fucking stupid half of this country is. So, I’m betting on another case spike in the next month.
Especially when you consider the crowds that get together along the Gulf Coast.
I’m not worried about your behavior, friend. It’s the fucking idiots I’m surrounded by that I’m worried about.
this was dedicated to @myopicprophet but I had a commenting fail moment
I’ll wear a mask even if things calm down. People here were upset when Dumbass Ford announced the lockdown is to be extended (and rightfully so) past the Victoria May Two Four Holiday.
Speaking of CoVID; My sister just tested positive on Fri for CoVID outside of any major symptoms. The last time I saw her was on Sunday at family dinner. I don’t have any symptoms, but I’ve gotta keep an eye on things. My parents are in isolation with her.
I told my supervisor as soon as my sis told me. Work based health services claimed that I am a low risk exposure and let me stay to work. I pretty much stayed away from most people that day. The ones that tried to talk to me, I told them right up front. For some reason they didn’t stay long to talk to me.
I had to cancel a hospital visit to my friend and I’m paranoid about any symptoms.
Well…shit. That really sucks all the way around. I assume you’re getting tested next week?
They told me unless I develop symptoms, I’m not supposed to rush out to be tested (due to the overwhelming numbers of people in the COVID hotspot of Canada where I live.)
If I can book a test, I will. Just for peace of mind.
I don’t know…
There’s a lot of well trained, well educated, smart people in the CDC. I’m sorta hoping this is a sorta-incentive to get the honest people who wear masks, but are vaccine-hesitant, to get vaccinated. The trolls, denialists, assholes, and assorted other plague rats never were wearing masks, and were already lying about health problems, vaccination status, and fucking everything else.
I’ve probably said this before, but I can’t help but compare and contrast to the 80s/90s AIDS crisis, and how the very same political segment, even some of the same individuals, used to advocate for HIV+ registries, and ban those people from holding jobs, existing in public spaces, getting medical care, attend school, etc. You know, actually tyrannical abuses of power.
And now that there is a disease that actually is transmissible through casual contact and proximity, and all of a sudden vague, mysterious “freedoms” are more important than not fucking getting people actually killed.
I haven’t been outside since my vaccine which i think was before they lifted the mandate. IL has a Dem governor but a lot of Republican counties. If left up to businesses, mask usage will evaporate.
Yeah, and apropos of this, I happened to drive down the main drag of your neighborhood, where some of the local restaurants had food booths and there seemed to be a bigger shindig around the Schnucks parking lot. (There was a cover band that I think was doing “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe, for . . . whatever reason.) I hadn’t seen that many people out and in close proximity to each other in . . . well, you know how long it’s been, and in another time, I might have joined them for a bit. But somehow, the feeling that it was still too soon and still too unsafe was palpable, you know. . . ?
I walked down and ate some delicious food since I enjoy Taste of Maplewood. I didn’t sit with people or linger for music though. Maplewood people were good about masking before the county required it, so I’m clinging to thinking we have a high vaccination rate for our community as well.
I am done being afraid. I’ve been vaccinated to the gills and everyone I know has been vaccinated. If a store has a sign that says a mask is required, I’m happy to put one on. I was just at a wedding where everyone had been vaccinated and no masks were worn. The bride and groom are both doctors (one ER doc and one cardiologist) and there were probably another dozen medical professionals at the party. None wore masks. It’s time.
By the time I get back to Virginia, I hope Gov Northam drops the mandates. The university there has already announced classes will be in person in the Fall. I hear the local Walmart and Tractor Supply have both dropped their mask requirements, and I’m pretty sure Food Lion also has. The people in my little corner of rural America were all very good about wearing masks and respectful and my county has a high vax rate. I never saw one person complain, and there are a lot of Republicans around there. I believe it’s high time to relax mask mandates. If we’re going to admonish people for not trusting the CDC, the least we can do is trust the CDC.
…I think maybe this clarified for me what it is about the announcement which bothers me…because I do believe people ought to put some trust in the CDC…but the example you give of your area strikes me as maybe not “typical”…so it’s hard not to see it as the CDC giving an excuse to those who were resistant to the idea of masks even when there was really no excuse to be…if part of the object of the exercise is to continue to try to counter any potential flare-ups of infection then it somewhat stands to reason that rules like “wear a mask” aren’t (& possibly can’t be) a one-size-fits-all kind of a deal
…in some places it may very well be excessive at this point…but in others it probably isn’t…& if there’s some sort of outbreak that threatens to spread some yet-to-be-identified variant in the future it stands to reason that it would be good to be able to get people to go back to being masked in those places…but as ever it’s not the majority of people that cause my misgivings…it’s the ones who are both selfish & willfully ignorant enough to flout requirements like that because they think giving a damn about anyone else to the point of modifying their behavior is somehow an unbearable burden
Exactly. There are more stories about people throwing punches about having to wear a mask than people being peacefully compliant. And we were just recently told America will NEVER reach herd immunity due to vaccine resistance. So color me skeptical.
To quote a friend’s facebook post –
“It’s possible the CDC saw a bunch of us trying to hoard gasoline in old Burger King cups and just gave up.
No worries here..we are partially out of lockdown now…so at least I can get my wd fucking 40
Still not expecting my first jab till about August tho
And as the gubments decided it’s safe to travel to the sun on holiday again which the whole fucking country is planning to do I fully expect to be locked down again by then