Mask guidance

Intended for constructive conversations. Exhibits of polarizing tribalism will be deleted.
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NewBlood
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Mask guidance

Post by NewBlood »

How is everybody here feeling about the new CDC guidance on masks? (for non-US people, as of late last week, fully vaccinated people do not need to be wearing a mask outdoors or indoors).

I don’t have a problem with this for outdoor settings, except in very crowded situations.
But when it comes to indoors (offices, grocery stores, movie theaters, GYMS, ... obviously people were already not wearing a mask the whole time they were dining indoors), it makes me very nervous. Masks were our first line of defense against everything we still don’t know about this virus.

What will happen if a new variant comes along that evades vaccine immunity?
What about breakthrough infections? I understand these have been very rare so far, but that was in a context where most mask mandates were still in place. Same for vaccine efficacy. That was tested when we still had mask mandates and social distance guidance in place. Should we expect those numbers to change when less than 40% of the population is fully vaccinated and most people aren’t wearing masks anymore?

I hope this thread won’t veer into politics. While I do expect some unvaccinated people to either stop wearing masks or continue to not wear a mask, I’m not interested in debating the political leanings/implications.

Just wondering how you all are adapting to this new guidance and what risk analysis you go through.

Mostly, I feel this new guidance is awfully short-sighted since masks are a very effective yet benign way to reduce the risk of a lot of unknowns. I only see potential upsides to continuing to wear a mask. Whereas not wearing a mask seems to have mostly potential downsides.

Now that I'm fully vaccinated, I was finally going to try the great indoor climbing gym nearby. Where people had to wear masks and the capacity was reduced to 50%. Of course, as of this week, no more mask mandate, and they can operate at full capacity. Which is great for the business. But now I don't know if I want to risk it...

Am I just being the super paranoid hypochondriac I naturally tend to be (and that I *usually* try to tame)? What am I missing?

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