on coping with C19 lockdown

[Conor Dary]

My county adopted an indoor mask mandate before the state did, and we are keeping that in place for now, despite the state lifting theirs.

A lot of our retail shops are staffed by teens who have not even started their vaccines yet. We live in a very rural location, it took us until now to work out the logistics on getting Pfizer vaccine available here. The age 12+ clinics are happening next week, then you have five weeks until they are fully vaccinated. At a minimum, our county wants to give them a chance to be fully vaccinated before subjecting them to unmasked anti-vaxers breathing in their face.

That makes perfect sense...Lane County is still in the mask period...

My brother who lives in Minnesota said they are completely opening the state up today.

[18.99s]

I wish the CDC had waited another month or so before releasing the no-mask announcement, to give more people a chance to get themselves fully vaccinated before giving the unvaccinated anti-maskers free reign. It's obvious to us, but not to them, that the unvaccinated anti-maskers would use the announcement as a weapon. The CDC needs a PR team to help them flesh out how and when to say things to the public; this is not the first time they've fumbled a public announcement related to COVID.

Delaying the announcement doesn't mean hiding the underlying information; they could have released the raw scientific data now without announcing the layman-level conclusion yet.

But things aren't as bad as I was expecting (yet). I went to the supermarket this morning; normally this supermarket has 98-100% mask wearing since the state mask order began. Out of the 30-35 people I saw during my 20 minutes in there today, I saw 4 without masks, 2 customers and 2 employees.

One of those two customers was a guy of about 50 who reminded me of Mickey Rourke; I'd bet $1000 to your $100 that he wasn't vaccinated. The other was a woman about 60.

The two no-mask employees were a cashier (woman) probably around 70 and a 35-ish guy behind the pharmacy counter.

[NotDutra5]

I went to Sam's Club this morning and was surprised that the patrons were mostly masked...including me. In noticed one or two non maskers and they really stuck out to me.

[Atticus]

The Publix grocery chain here has made masks optional, which was a very odd look to me, since I've been doing this for 14 months. I took mine off after 5 minutes, felt odd, and put it back on.
This whole getting-back-to-normal is going to be weird. When we came home after a two-week driving vacation in Britain, I had the hardest time adjusting to right-side driving again, because I had been so focused on left-side. This may be the same thing.

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile....

They’re Vaccinated and Keeping Their Masks On, Maybe Forever


Whenever Joe Glickman heads out for groceries, he places an N95 mask over his face and tugs a cloth mask on top of it. He then pulls on a pair of goggles.

He has used this safety protocol for the past 14 months. It did not change after he contracted the coronavirus last November. It didn’t budge when, earlier this month, he became fully vaccinated. And even though President Biden said on Thursday that fully vaccinated people do not have to wear a mask, Mr. Glickman said he planned to stay the course.

In fact, he said, he plans to do his grocery run double-masked and goggled for at least the next five years.

Even as a combination of evolving public health recommendations and pandemic fatigue lead more Americans to toss the masks they’ve worn for more than a year, Mr. Glickman is among those who say they plan to keep their faces covered in public indefinitely.

For people like Mr. Glickman, a combination of anxiety, murky information about new virus variants and the emergence of an obdurate and sizable faction of vaccine holdouts means mask-free life is on hold — possibly forever.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/nyregion/vaccinated-masks-cdc.html

[Atticus]

For people like Mr. Glickman, a combination of anxiety . . .

Full stop. That's an OCD-fueled reaction.
It's his over-reaction to make, so if he's happy with it, and it doesn't lead to dysfunctional behaviors, it's all good.

[TN1965]

Covid-19: What went wrong in Singapore and Taiwan? - BBC News

They've been hailed as virus success stories - places that have seen virtually zero or single-digit Covid cases since the start of the year.

"What's happened in Taiwan, Singapore - it's a sign that we should not let our guard down."

[gh]

yesterday was teh first day since March of 2020 that San Francisco General had zero C19 patients

[Conor Dary]

Covid Killed His Father. Then Came $1 Million in Medical Bills.

Insurers and Congress wrote rules to protect coronavirus patients, but the bills came anyway, leaving some mired in debt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/upshot/covid-bills-financial-long-haulers.html#click=https://t.co/20E88QZjPz

[SoCal45]

yesterday was teh first day since March of 2020 that San Francisco General had zero C19 patients

Last week Loma Linda University Hospital in Riverside, CA...one of the biggest in the region and one that was overwhelmed not too long ago...had zero C19 patients.

[SoCal45]

You know things are going well re' C19 pandemic: at the end of their respective rounds the PGAers are shaking hands rather than fist-bumping😀

[wamego relays champ]

This may be a common scene these days, but it struck me as I watched the Pac-12 meet and I saw the finishers of the women's 5000. As each runner crossed the finished line, a meet staff person dutifully handed each runner a surgical mask. While each runner held the mask in one hand they went around and hugged their fellow competitors.

[DrJay]

Lane County still on Higher risk level, needs 10,000 more shots to drop to Lower risk level.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.kezi....ntID=574473151

[18.99s]

Got the 2nd jab of Pfizer last week, and it HURT! Possibly due to the difference in experience and technique, as the first one was done by a woman apparently in her mid- to late 50s, and it was so amazingly painless that I wondered if the needle actually went in, whereas this 2nd one was done by a woman probably not older than 30.

In addition to any difference which may have existed with the injection technique, there was a difference in how they told me to position my arm. Both were done at a drive-through tent; the first woman told me to rest my arm on the armrest of the car door, but the woman last week told me take it off the armrest and let it hang vertically by my side.

With the first painless jab, the shoulder developed soreness a few hours later, but with the second jab it was immediately sore. Apart from that localized soreness, there were no ill effects or fatigue.

[DrJay]

https://katu.com/news/local/new-oregon-covid-rules-could-create-vaccinated-sections-in-lower-risk-counties

Oregon set to allow full capacity at things like sports venues in "Lower Risk" counties, of which Lane County is not at this point, but cannot they extrapolate to what risk category they anticipate by June 18?


"New coronavirus rules in Oregon would allow for businesses, venues, and faith institutions located in counties in the "lower risk" category to have areas specifically for vaccinated people.

According to the governor's office, the Oregon Health Authority plans to make the following updates to it's safety guidance in "lower risk" counties:

• Vaccinated sections with no physical distancing or capacity limits will be allowed for fully vaccinated people ages 16 + who provide verification of their vaccination status."