ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
there's also a study from Denmark that is being cited as showing wearing a mask doesn't protect the wearer but what it actually shows is it does protect the wearer, just not by more than 50%, which is the threshold they were testing for (and they cite a number of flaws in their own study which they determine makes the results somewhat inconclusive)
I understand the concerns but I also haven't worn a mask in weeks because:
A. I would literally be the only motherfucker in town doing it, maybe the whole state
B. It's for their protection, not mine, and they don't seem to give a shit, so fuck it
C. It kinda marks me as a liberal in a red state full of folks with guns and stupidity and boy oh boy does that shit make me nervous.
I would feel much differently if I lived anywhere but here.
I can see that, and that sucks. Most stores I go to the employees are still masked up, but none of the customers save a spare couple are.
Fuck it, maybe I'll just make jokes about it or something from now on when someone asks me. "It's cause I'm butt ugly" or "ate a bunch of garlic for lunch" or "it's cheaper than breath mints".
Fucking stupid that I (or anyone) should feel the compulsion to even jokingly justify wearing one, though. Or that anyone feels that it's a question worth asking someone else in the first place.
36 hours later the side-effects from AZ have abated and I feel fine.
+33
Options
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
So at my job management decided that all employees who are fully vaccinated can forgo wearing masks, but we're still requiring any outsiders who come onto our private property to wear a mask, even if they tell us they're vaccinated or whatever other excuse. The problem is when people enter the building and see everyone without a mask, they take off their mask if they're wearing one, and become indignant if asked to put one back on.
My boss also watches the lobby on the cameras in his office, and times how long people are maskless while talking to me. After a certain time he calls me on the phone to yell at me for not doing my diligence. This might seem like micromanagement, but I know for a fact that my boss's boss does the same thing to them, so it's really just transference. Which still sucks, but the people at the top of the ivory tower don't have to interact with people, just bark orders down the chain.
I am SO FUCKING TIRED of being the mask police and being in constant conflict with every person I interact with for 8 hours.
So at my job management decided that all employees who are fully vaccinated can forgo wearing masks, but we're still requiring any outsiders who come onto our private property to wear a mask, even if they tell us they're vaccinated or whatever other excuse. The problem is when people enter the building and see everyone without a mask, they take off their mask if they're wearing one, and become indignant if asked to put one back on.
My boss also watches the lobby on the cameras in his office, and times how long people are maskless while talking to me. After a certain time he calls me on the phone to yell at me for not doing my diligence. This might seem like micromanagement, but I know for a fact that my boss's boss does the same thing to them, so it's really just transference. Which still sucks, but the people at the top of the ivory tower don't have to interact with people, just bark orders down the chain.
I am SO FUCKING TIRED of being the mask police and being in constant conflict with every person I interact with for 8 hours.
Hey, you at least have your bosses backing you up about mask compliance.
I'm at the gatehouse of my site for truck deliveries, and a week ago, had my second interaction with a "medically exempt claimant" (including the lawsuits for even asking about the exemption, ie, bullshit), this one getting quite hostile. Sought clarification from site management, as previously during lockdown, we were told to send any non-compliants away....
Instructions are...
1) Ask them to wear a mask.
2) Ask them to wear a face shield (promised, but none provided, a week later)
3) Allow them on site.
The problem is, to allow them on site, I need them to sign in on a book that requires me to open the window of the gatehouse, and speak to them to get shipping details before entry to the site.
Also, NOONE else on site has to deal with them. The delivery drivers don't see any other staff member, unless there is a problem with an unload (<5% of deliveries have problems).
So, it's clear where I rank in terms of potentially getting this fucking virus. Thankfully infection rates in my part of Australia are minimal, but it feels very much a Lord Farquaad situation.
Got my second jab today, which is nice.
Driving home I pass my local bus stop, and someone's added some new graffiti:
COVID VACCINE KILLS KIDS
DON'T TAKE PART IN GENOCIDE
Which is less nice, and has put me in a Mood.
I'd be sorely tempted to go and add [citation needed] to that, but knowing my luck I'd get caught and blamed for the whole thing.
I doubt it'll stick around for long, anyway. My council's pretty hot on clearing graffiti. The pothole in the middle of the road has been there for a year now, but when someone painted BLM on the road, it was gone in 2 days.
we basically shouldn't ever 100% go back to normal
Why not? Vaccination works. I was completely willing to mask and isolate during a pandemic. I am not willing to do so once it becomes irrational.
I get that people have become used to the fight for more diligence, especially in conservative areas where people have been and are irrational about covid19. But the scientific consensus is pretty substantial that masks are not generally needed if you are vaccinated. As much as people complained about that CDC ruling, Canada, the EU, South Korea etc have followed suit.
Just because the costs associated with masks/isolation were clearly less than the benefit or reducing the impact of covid doesn't mean they are trivial.
If we are talking about minor things like normalizing masks when you have a cold or something, sure. But the temporary measures we took to fight the pandemic shouldn't be adopted at the new normal.
Edit And I say that who is still courtesy masking in situations where people can't know whether I'm vaccinated or not. That is just as a social nicety during the transition
we basically shouldn't ever 100% go back to normal
Why not? Vaccination works. I was completely willing to mask and isolate during a pandemic. I am not willing to do so once it becomes irrational.
I get that people have become used to the fight for more diligence, especially in conservative areas where people have been and are irrational about covid19. But the scientific consensus is pretty substantial that masks are not generally needed if you are vaccinated. As much as people complained about that CDC ruling, Canada, the EU, South Korea etc have followed suit.
Just because the costs associated with masks/isolation were clearly less than the benefit or reducing the impact of covid doesn't mean they are trivial.
If we are talking about minor things like normalizing masks when you have a cold or something, sure. But the temporary measures we took to fight the pandemic shouldn't be adopted at the new normal.
Edit And I say that who is still courtesy masking in situations where people can't know whether I'm vaccinated or not. That is just as a social nicety during the transition
Normal was going to work when you were sick or sending your sick kid to school because you don't have access to paid time off. Normal was not having regulations for airborne pathogen spread for healthcare workers . Normal sucked. We need to learn from this and enact changes.
+27
Options
TetraNitroCubaneThe DjinneratorAt the bottom of a bottleRegistered Userregular
we basically shouldn't ever 100% go back to normal
Why not? Vaccination works. I was completely willing to mask and isolate during a pandemic. I am not willing to do so once it becomes irrational.
I get that people have become used to the fight for more diligence, especially in conservative areas where people have been and are irrational about covid19. But the scientific consensus is pretty substantial that masks are not generally needed if you are vaccinated. As much as people complained about that CDC ruling, Canada, the EU, South Korea etc have followed suit.
Just because the costs associated with masks/isolation were clearly less than the benefit or reducing the impact of covid doesn't mean they are trivial.
If we are talking about minor things like normalizing masks when you have a cold or something, sure. But the temporary measures we took to fight the pandemic shouldn't be adopted at the new normal.
Edit And I say that who is still courtesy masking in situations where people can't know whether I'm vaccinated or not. That is just as a social nicety during the transition
Normal was going to work when you were sick or sending your sick kid to school because you don't have access to paid time off. Normal was not having regulations for airborne pathogen spread for healthcare workers . Normal sucked. We need to learn from this and enact changes.
Normal was also "Prevention is haaaaaard so let's just do nothing", when we clearly knew this was going to happen years ago.
I mean new normal is people work from home part time and when they feel like shit instead of taking two or three days off just kinda watch their email and half ass work.
Pandora box is open for remote work at least and gonna fight being fully shoved back forever.
Got my second jab today, which is nice.
Driving home I pass my local bus stop, and someone's added some new graffiti:
COVID VACCINE KILLS KIDS
DON'T TAKE PART IN GENOCIDE
Which is less nice, and has put me in a Mood.
I'd be sorely tempted to go and add [citation needed] to that, but knowing my luck I'd get caught and blamed for the whole thing.
I doubt it'll stick around for long, anyway. My council's pretty hot on clearing graffiti. The pothole in the middle of the road has been there for a year now, but when someone painted BLM on the road, it was gone in 2 days.
Do it with a post it note or something similarly temporary. No way you get in trouble, it’ll make you feel better, and a lot of other people will get a laugh. You’re doing gods work! 😀
My girlfriend and I were out walking the dog when we saw a cluster of people ahead of us with another dog.
Now, this pup is a recent addition to the household, is still sorting out how he feels about other dogs. I’m trying to introduce them occasionally to build up that socialization.
Then one of the women looks back at us, both masked, and yells “you don’t have to wear those outside, let’s see those smiles”.
Oh, so you’re an asshole. And thus the risk of your dog being an asshole is heightened.
So we made a point of avoiding them, but I was annoyed to stumble across someone pulling that bullshit “in the wild”.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
we basically shouldn't ever 100% go back to normal
Why not? Vaccination works. I was completely willing to mask and isolate during a pandemic. I am not willing to do so once it becomes irrational.
I get that people have become used to the fight for more diligence, especially in conservative areas where people have been and are irrational about covid19. But the scientific consensus is pretty substantial that masks are not generally needed if you are vaccinated. As much as people complained about that CDC ruling, Canada, the EU, South Korea etc have followed suit.
Just because the costs associated with masks/isolation were clearly less than the benefit or reducing the impact of covid doesn't mean they are trivial.
If we are talking about minor things like normalizing masks when you have a cold or something, sure. But the temporary measures we took to fight the pandemic shouldn't be adopted at the new normal.
Edit And I say that who is still courtesy masking in situations where people can't know whether I'm vaccinated or not. That is just as a social nicety during the transition
Normal was going to work when you were sick or sending your sick kid to school because you don't have access to paid time off. Normal was not having regulations for airborne pathogen spread for healthcare workers . Normal sucked. We need to learn from this and enact changes.
Normal was also "Prevention is haaaaaard so let's just do nothing", when we clearly knew this was going to happen years ago.
Also, good behaviour is easy to maintain if sustained.
I don't think twice before putting on a seatbelt.
And there's almost no chance that this is the last pandemic we face in living memory.
If everyone was masked up and acting responsible (not isolating, just not being a dickhead) at the start of this pandemic, how less worse would this have been?
we basically shouldn't ever 100% go back to normal
Why not? Vaccination works. I was completely willing to mask and isolate during a pandemic. I am not willing to do so once it becomes irrational.
I get that people have become used to the fight for more diligence, especially in conservative areas where people have been and are irrational about covid19. But the scientific consensus is pretty substantial that masks are not generally needed if you are vaccinated. As much as people complained about that CDC ruling, Canada, the EU, South Korea etc have followed suit.
Just because the costs associated with masks/isolation were clearly less than the benefit or reducing the impact of covid doesn't mean they are trivial.
If we are talking about minor things like normalizing masks when you have a cold or something, sure. But the temporary measures we took to fight the pandemic shouldn't be adopted at the new normal.
Edit And I say that who is still courtesy masking in situations where people can't know whether I'm vaccinated or not. That is just as a social nicety during the transition
Normal was going to work when you were sick or sending your sick kid to school because you don't have access to paid time off. Normal was not having regulations for airborne pathogen spread for healthcare workers . Normal sucked. We need to learn from this and enact changes.
I would suggest that isn't what is being done broadly now, and wasn't abnormal before. Paid sick time is not widely available even now, and is good even if a pandemic was impossible (MA mandated it being available a few years ago). Normal was having rules in case of a pandemic - Trump's gutting of regulations was abnormal.
There are many people who are acting like masking and social distancing permanently is a rational response to this and it isn't. Pandemic protocols are not the new normal, they are a temporary response.
my sister is a nurse. Her hospital flat out stopped testing their staff because they couldn't afford to deal with people calling out sick due to a positive result.
My girlfriend and I were out walking the dog when we saw a cluster of people ahead of us with another dog.
Now, this pup is a recent addition to the household, is still sorting out how he feels about other dogs. I’m trying to introduce them occasionally to build up that socialization.
Then one of the women looks back at us, both masked, and yells “you don’t have to wear those outside, let’s see those smiles”.
Oh, so you’re an asshole. And thus the risk of your dog being an asshole is heightened.
So we made a point of avoiding them, but I was annoyed to stumble across someone pulling that bullshit “in the wild”.
Eh, depending on the circumstances, she's probably right. As far as I'm aware, the danger outside, unmasked, with a good bit of distance between you is vanishingly small. If they were asking you to do when you were like a foot away, yeah, screw em.
Since we started going for walks again, kids and I have gone maskless (masks in pockets, just in case), though we usually cross to the other side of the street if we see someone else.
0
Options
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Whats the latest with the Delta Variant and being able to spread it while vaccinated? It seems like a good idea to still go masked if a large percentage of vaccinated people can get Delta and potentially spread it around.
My girlfriend and I were out walking the dog when we saw a cluster of people ahead of us with another dog.
Now, this pup is a recent addition to the household, is still sorting out how he feels about other dogs. I’m trying to introduce them occasionally to build up that socialization.
Then one of the women looks back at us, both masked, and yells “you don’t have to wear those outside, let’s see those smiles”.
Oh, so you’re an asshole. And thus the risk of your dog being an asshole is heightened.
So we made a point of avoiding them, but I was annoyed to stumble across someone pulling that bullshit “in the wild”.
Eh, depending on the circumstances, she's probably right. As far as I'm aware, the danger outside, unmasked, with a good bit of distance between you is vanishingly small. If they were asking you to do when you were like a foot away, yeah, screw em.
Since we started going for walks again, kids and I have gone maskless (masks in pockets, just in case), though we usually cross to the other side of the street if we see someone else.
It’s so fucking condescending for someone to tell you “Let’s see those smiles”, though. I mean, Christ. “You should smile more!” is exactly the kind of patriarchal shit that women hate.
I'm probably going to keep wearing masks in public for basically my whole life at this point. I'm pretty anxious around people I don't know and the extra anonymity of a mask just feels good. I'll take my glasses fogging up and the general discomfort in exchange for that bit of comfort.
And if wearing a mask makes me people leas likely to approach and/or talk to me, if they're worried about me being sick or whatever, I'm all for it.
My girlfriend and I were out walking the dog when we saw a cluster of people ahead of us with another dog.
Now, this pup is a recent addition to the household, is still sorting out how he feels about other dogs. I’m trying to introduce them occasionally to build up that socialization.
Then one of the women looks back at us, both masked, and yells “you don’t have to wear those outside, let’s see those smiles”.
Oh, so you’re an asshole. And thus the risk of your dog being an asshole is heightened.
So we made a point of avoiding them, but I was annoyed to stumble across someone pulling that bullshit “in the wild”.
Eh, depending on the circumstances, she's probably right. As far as I'm aware, the danger outside, unmasked, with a good bit of distance between you is vanishingly small. If they were asking you to do when you were like a foot away, yeah, screw em.
Since we started going for walks again, kids and I have gone maskless (masks in pockets, just in case), though we usually cross to the other side of the street if we see someone else.
We were walking on the street in the middle of a major city’s downtown core. I’m not going to keep putting the mask on and taking it off again repeatedly as people pass us or are in the vicinity, and we’ve seen that the delta variant is apparently capable of being infectious in passing, if the contact traced reports I’ve seen are accurate.
If we were in the suburbs and could walk for blocks without passing many, or able to go around/into the street without issue it might be another thing.
I am aware that outdoors activities with some distance are generally considered safe (or have acceptably minimal risk barring extenuating circumstances).
But it’s not anyone else’s business to interject on my choices that reflect being overly cautious. Someone else acting in a way that increases risk can be tangibly harmful to others, calling out people for being “too safe” is needlessly picking a confrontation.
We’re also 3 days from getting our second shots, so yeah, I’m showing a little extra caution for a few more weeks.
I accept that some day the masks will probably end up in a closet (unless some other bullshit erupts or I’m feeling under the weather), but today is not that day, and some random woman on the street isn’t going to change my mind.
Cases in my city are low, cases across Canada are plummeting, and I don’t think showing a little extra caution for a few more weeks is unreasonable.
Especially since getting a dog this week means I’ve gone from leaving home a few times a month for groceries or other necessities to 3+ times a day.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Honestly the start of the pandemic was a very cold reminder of how sometimes things move faster than science's ability to study them. What we were able to study at the time pointed to this looking like A Bad Flu Season, and no matter how much people want to create this narrative of the WHO being bought off by China or whatever this was being studied in a lot of places and only a few were playing the role of the prophet Cassandra. The unspoken caveat to all science is "this is based on our current knowledge".
The virus is still plentiful in most places in the world (and worst case predictions see the poorest countries not getting vaccines til 2023), and we simply have not seen the last variant we're going to see. There's a lot of good news about the long-term protections from the vaccines, and there shouldn't be any sort of apocalyptic scenario in the future from any current or unknown future variants. But I still intend to wear a mask for some time because it's a very minor inconvenience for me that creates a lot of very nice buffer room in my community. I mean hell, my best friend's wife is immunocompromised! How could I not do that extra little bit for people like her?
There are people who would like to describe this as some sort of irrational action, that I'm needlessly paranoid and ignoring the science. But that just seems like mocking people who stocked up on food after the great depression. They went through a worst case scenario situation, and a minor effort on their part provides a buffer for the worst case scenario in the future. It's really grody that there's a pushback against that kind of thought process. It might very well do nothing at all. I might never again be near someone who was exposed to the virus and become part of the daisy chain of passing it on. But it's easy to do, it doesn't affect me negatively, and it creates insurance.
+12
Options
lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
We are essentially mask less society here.
They're still mandated on public transit, but the driver will still let you on.
You will still see folks out and about wearing them and they usually have a cold or a cough and are being cautious.
I had a cold earlier this year and wore a mask to do school drop off.
But that's almost how it was before, at least in certain populations, particularly immigrant populations from South East Asia.
Honestly the start of the pandemic was a very cold reminder of how sometimes things move faster than science's ability to study them. What we were able to study at the time pointed to this looking like A Bad Flu Season, and no matter how much people want to create this narrative of the WHO being bought off by China or whatever this was being studied in a lot of places and only a few were playing the role of the prophet Cassandra. The unspoken caveat to all science is "this is based on our current knowledge".
The virus is still plentiful in most places in the world (and worst case predictions see the poorest countries not getting vaccines til 2023), and we simply have not seen the last variant we're going to see. There's a lot of good news about the long-term protections from the vaccines, and there shouldn't be any sort of apocalyptic scenario in the future from any current or unknown future variants. But I still intend to wear a mask for some time because it's a very minor inconvenience for me that creates a lot of very nice buffer room in my community. I mean hell, my best friend's wife is immunocompromised! How could I not do that extra little bit for people like her?
There are people who would like to describe this as some sort of irrational action, that I'm needlessly paranoid and ignoring the science. But that just seems like mocking people who stocked up on food after the great depression. They went through a worst case scenario situation, and a minor effort on their part provides a buffer for the worst case scenario in the future. It's really grody that there's a pushback against that kind of thought process. It might very well do nothing at all. I might never again be near someone who was exposed to the virus and become part of the daisy chain of passing it on. But it's easy to do, it doesn't affect me negatively, and it creates insurance.
Also quite frankly, we saw how much these measures also impacted other infectious illnesses like the flu, which killed significantly less people worldwide this year than usual
I can certainly see myself wearing a mask in public spaces during flu season, or especially at the airport where there's a lot more global crossover of people, because I'd rather not get sick or pass on illness to other people after a year of nothing worse than allergies, y'know?
there are so many flu ghosts watching us going "you could have just done this the whole fucking time?"
it's not exactly been a mystery that we could have greatly reduced flu deaths all along if we had been willing to accept the slightest of inconveniences
there are so many flu ghosts watching us going "you could have just done this the whole fucking time?"
it's not exactly been a mystery that we could have greatly reduced flu deaths all along if we had been willing to accept the slightest of inconveniences
there are so many flu ghosts watching us going "you could have just done this the whole fucking time?"
it's not exactly been a mystery that we could have greatly reduced flu deaths all along if we had been willing to accept the slightest of inconveniences
Fuckin sick days, take em for the sniffles
I really, really hope that remote working is kept for positions where it's feasible when people have 'the sniffles' but still feel okay enough to work. Colds and flus can last days and days while still being potentially contagious, but workers feel a lot of pressure to never be out more than 2-3 days tops. If it was more culturally acceptable to go on remote work while possibly contagious, it'd go a long way in preventing the spread of common illnesses.
+19
Options
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
there are so many flu ghosts watching us going "you could have just done this the whole fucking time?"
it's not exactly been a mystery that we could have greatly reduced flu deaths all along if we had been willing to accept the slightest of inconveniences
Fuckin sick days, take em for the sniffles
I really, really hope that remote working is kept for positions where it's feasible when people have 'the sniffles' but still feel okay enough to work. Colds and flus can last days and days while still being potentially contagious, but workers feel a lot of pressure to never be out more than 2-3 days tops. If it was more culturally acceptable to go on remote work while possibly contagious, it'd go a long way in preventing the spread of common illnesses.
It's a slippery slope with your employer though. I do this myself, but it's gotten to the point where if I call in sick it's just expected that I'm working remotely without even offering, even if I can't even manage to get out of bed. I need to tell my bosses very plainly 'no I'm not working today'.
there are so many flu ghosts watching us going "you could have just done this the whole fucking time?"
it's not exactly been a mystery that we could have greatly reduced flu deaths all along if we had been willing to accept the slightest of inconveniences
Fuckin sick days, take em for the sniffles
I really, really hope that remote working is kept for positions where it's feasible when people have 'the sniffles' but still feel okay enough to work. Colds and flus can last days and days while still being potentially contagious, but workers feel a lot of pressure to never be out more than 2-3 days tops. If it was more culturally acceptable to go on remote work while possibly contagious, it'd go a long way in preventing the spread of common illnesses.
It's a slippery slope with your employer though. I do this myself, but it's gotten to the point where if I call in sick it's just expected that I'm working remotely without even offering, even if I can't even manage to get out of bed. I need to tell my bosses very plainly 'no I'm not working today'.
While bad, that remains a preferable equilibrium point than what existed previously. (And still mostly exists in shitty jobs)
+1
Options
ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
since i have pooled PTO i'd honestly rather just work from home when i can't get out of bed than take a vacation day
it's annoying that the US sucks so much in this regard but it's also the reality i live in
I mean I just start getting graphic when I explain why I'm not working and wait for them to stop me from describing the mucus and food poisoning
+5
Options
HonkHonk is this poster.Registered User, __BANNED USERSregular
Pooled PTO is evil.
We get comped here but it’s like 80% for the sick day. It’s better than nothing but I also work from home rather than take sick days, the income drop is noticeable immediately. Anything less than full pay for sick days will lead to people working, and if they can’t do it from home they will come in and spread whatever it is they got.
PSN: Honkalot
+7
Options
TetraNitroCubaneThe DjinneratorAt the bottom of a bottleRegistered Userregular
The protection conferred by Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine against mild forms of Covid-19 appeared to wane after a few weeks in data garnered in Israel as the delta variant took hold, although the shot continued to shield users against severe illness.
The vaccine developed with BioNTech SE protected 64% of receivers against the illness between June 6 and early July as the government lifted restrictions, down from 94% between May 2 and June 5, the Ynet news website reported, citing Health Ministry numbers.
Whichever variant emerges from Delta is likely to bring that efficacy down further.
The protection conferred by Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine against mild forms of Covid-19 appeared to wane after a few weeks in data garnered in Israel as the delta variant took hold, although the shot continued to shield users against severe illness.
The vaccine developed with BioNTech SE protected 64% of receivers against the illness between June 6 and early July as the government lifted restrictions, down from 94% between May 2 and June 5, the Ynet news website reported, citing Health Ministry numbers.
Whichever variant emerges from Delta is likely to bring that efficacy down further.
Well, fuck. Hopefully I can just get a booster shot. Or double up with Moderna.
Posts
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817
I can see that, and that sucks. Most stores I go to the employees are still masked up, but none of the customers save a spare couple are.
Fuck it, maybe I'll just make jokes about it or something from now on when someone asks me. "It's cause I'm butt ugly" or "ate a bunch of garlic for lunch" or "it's cheaper than breath mints".
Fucking stupid that I (or anyone) should feel the compulsion to even jokingly justify wearing one, though. Or that anyone feels that it's a question worth asking someone else in the first place.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
My boss also watches the lobby on the cameras in his office, and times how long people are maskless while talking to me. After a certain time he calls me on the phone to yell at me for not doing my diligence. This might seem like micromanagement, but I know for a fact that my boss's boss does the same thing to them, so it's really just transference. Which still sucks, but the people at the top of the ivory tower don't have to interact with people, just bark orders down the chain.
I am SO FUCKING TIRED of being the mask police and being in constant conflict with every person I interact with for 8 hours.
whenever I'm not certain about what a place wants I look at what their employees are doing. If they're being forced to wear masks I'll put one on.
Hey, you at least have your bosses backing you up about mask compliance.
I'm at the gatehouse of my site for truck deliveries, and a week ago, had my second interaction with a "medically exempt claimant" (including the lawsuits for even asking about the exemption, ie, bullshit), this one getting quite hostile. Sought clarification from site management, as previously during lockdown, we were told to send any non-compliants away....
Instructions are...
1) Ask them to wear a mask.
2) Ask them to wear a face shield (promised, but none provided, a week later)
3) Allow them on site.
The problem is, to allow them on site, I need them to sign in on a book that requires me to open the window of the gatehouse, and speak to them to get shipping details before entry to the site.
Also, NOONE else on site has to deal with them. The delivery drivers don't see any other staff member, unless there is a problem with an unload (<5% of deliveries have problems).
So, it's clear where I rank in terms of potentially getting this fucking virus. Thankfully infection rates in my part of Australia are minimal, but it feels very much a Lord Farquaad situation.
Driving home I pass my local bus stop, and someone's added some new graffiti:
COVID VACCINE KILLS KIDS
DON'T TAKE PART IN GENOCIDE
Which is less nice, and has put me in a Mood.
I'd be sorely tempted to go and add [citation needed] to that, but knowing my luck I'd get caught and blamed for the whole thing.
I doubt it'll stick around for long, anyway. My council's pretty hot on clearing graffiti. The pothole in the middle of the road has been there for a year now, but when someone painted BLM on the road, it was gone in 2 days.
Why not? Vaccination works. I was completely willing to mask and isolate during a pandemic. I am not willing to do so once it becomes irrational.
I get that people have become used to the fight for more diligence, especially in conservative areas where people have been and are irrational about covid19. But the scientific consensus is pretty substantial that masks are not generally needed if you are vaccinated. As much as people complained about that CDC ruling, Canada, the EU, South Korea etc have followed suit.
Just because the costs associated with masks/isolation were clearly less than the benefit or reducing the impact of covid doesn't mean they are trivial.
If we are talking about minor things like normalizing masks when you have a cold or something, sure. But the temporary measures we took to fight the pandemic shouldn't be adopted at the new normal.
Edit And I say that who is still courtesy masking in situations where people can't know whether I'm vaccinated or not. That is just as a social nicety during the transition
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Normal was going to work when you were sick or sending your sick kid to school because you don't have access to paid time off. Normal was not having regulations for airborne pathogen spread for healthcare workers . Normal sucked. We need to learn from this and enact changes.
Normal was also "Prevention is haaaaaard so let's just do nothing", when we clearly knew this was going to happen years ago.
Pandora box is open for remote work at least and gonna fight being fully shoved back forever.
Do it with a post it note or something similarly temporary. No way you get in trouble, it’ll make you feel better, and a lot of other people will get a laugh. You’re doing gods work! 😀
Now, this pup is a recent addition to the household, is still sorting out how he feels about other dogs. I’m trying to introduce them occasionally to build up that socialization.
Then one of the women looks back at us, both masked, and yells “you don’t have to wear those outside, let’s see those smiles”.
Oh, so you’re an asshole. And thus the risk of your dog being an asshole is heightened.
So we made a point of avoiding them, but I was annoyed to stumble across someone pulling that bullshit “in the wild”.
Also, good behaviour is easy to maintain if sustained.
I don't think twice before putting on a seatbelt.
And there's almost no chance that this is the last pandemic we face in living memory.
If everyone was masked up and acting responsible (not isolating, just not being a dickhead) at the start of this pandemic, how less worse would this have been?
I'm thinking lots.
I would suggest that isn't what is being done broadly now, and wasn't abnormal before. Paid sick time is not widely available even now, and is good even if a pandemic was impossible (MA mandated it being available a few years ago). Normal was having rules in case of a pandemic - Trump's gutting of regulations was abnormal.
There are many people who are acting like masking and social distancing permanently is a rational response to this and it isn't. Pandemic protocols are not the new normal, they are a temporary response.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
my sister is a nurse. Her hospital flat out stopped testing their staff because they couldn't afford to deal with people calling out sick due to a positive result.
but also, people are treating the pandemic as over because some people got shots, which is incredibly, indescribably naive
Eh, depending on the circumstances, she's probably right. As far as I'm aware, the danger outside, unmasked, with a good bit of distance between you is vanishingly small. If they were asking you to do when you were like a foot away, yeah, screw em.
Since we started going for walks again, kids and I have gone maskless (masks in pockets, just in case), though we usually cross to the other side of the street if we see someone else.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
It’s so fucking condescending for someone to tell you “Let’s see those smiles”, though. I mean, Christ. “You should smile more!” is exactly the kind of patriarchal shit that women hate.
All last year: "Well of you feel vulnerable protect yourself and let the rest of is be"
This year same idiots "WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING YOURSELF"
And if wearing a mask makes me people leas likely to approach and/or talk to me, if they're worried about me being sick or whatever, I'm all for it.
We were walking on the street in the middle of a major city’s downtown core. I’m not going to keep putting the mask on and taking it off again repeatedly as people pass us or are in the vicinity, and we’ve seen that the delta variant is apparently capable of being infectious in passing, if the contact traced reports I’ve seen are accurate.
If we were in the suburbs and could walk for blocks without passing many, or able to go around/into the street without issue it might be another thing.
I am aware that outdoors activities with some distance are generally considered safe (or have acceptably minimal risk barring extenuating circumstances).
But it’s not anyone else’s business to interject on my choices that reflect being overly cautious. Someone else acting in a way that increases risk can be tangibly harmful to others, calling out people for being “too safe” is needlessly picking a confrontation.
We’re also 3 days from getting our second shots, so yeah, I’m showing a little extra caution for a few more weeks.
I accept that some day the masks will probably end up in a closet (unless some other bullshit erupts or I’m feeling under the weather), but today is not that day, and some random woman on the street isn’t going to change my mind.
Cases in my city are low, cases across Canada are plummeting, and I don’t think showing a little extra caution for a few more weeks is unreasonable.
Especially since getting a dog this week means I’ve gone from leaving home a few times a month for groceries or other necessities to 3+ times a day.
that's still a dickmove? Other people wearing masks aren't hurting you, chill.
The virus is still plentiful in most places in the world (and worst case predictions see the poorest countries not getting vaccines til 2023), and we simply have not seen the last variant we're going to see. There's a lot of good news about the long-term protections from the vaccines, and there shouldn't be any sort of apocalyptic scenario in the future from any current or unknown future variants. But I still intend to wear a mask for some time because it's a very minor inconvenience for me that creates a lot of very nice buffer room in my community. I mean hell, my best friend's wife is immunocompromised! How could I not do that extra little bit for people like her?
There are people who would like to describe this as some sort of irrational action, that I'm needlessly paranoid and ignoring the science. But that just seems like mocking people who stocked up on food after the great depression. They went through a worst case scenario situation, and a minor effort on their part provides a buffer for the worst case scenario in the future. It's really grody that there's a pushback against that kind of thought process. It might very well do nothing at all. I might never again be near someone who was exposed to the virus and become part of the daisy chain of passing it on. But it's easy to do, it doesn't affect me negatively, and it creates insurance.
They're still mandated on public transit, but the driver will still let you on.
You will still see folks out and about wearing them and they usually have a cold or a cough and are being cautious.
I had a cold earlier this year and wore a mask to do school drop off.
But that's almost how it was before, at least in certain populations, particularly immigrant populations from South East Asia.
It's only not normal in some places
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Also quite frankly, we saw how much these measures also impacted other infectious illnesses like the flu, which killed significantly less people worldwide this year than usual
I can certainly see myself wearing a mask in public spaces during flu season, or especially at the airport where there's a lot more global crossover of people, because I'd rather not get sick or pass on illness to other people after a year of nothing worse than allergies, y'know?
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
it's not exactly been a mystery that we could have greatly reduced flu deaths all along if we had been willing to accept the slightest of inconveniences
Fuckin sick days, take em for the sniffles
I really, really hope that remote working is kept for positions where it's feasible when people have 'the sniffles' but still feel okay enough to work. Colds and flus can last days and days while still being potentially contagious, but workers feel a lot of pressure to never be out more than 2-3 days tops. If it was more culturally acceptable to go on remote work while possibly contagious, it'd go a long way in preventing the spread of common illnesses.
It's a slippery slope with your employer though. I do this myself, but it's gotten to the point where if I call in sick it's just expected that I'm working remotely without even offering, even if I can't even manage to get out of bed. I need to tell my bosses very plainly 'no I'm not working today'.
While bad, that remains a preferable equilibrium point than what existed previously. (And still mostly exists in shitty jobs)
it's annoying that the US sucks so much in this regard but it's also the reality i live in
We get comped here but it’s like 80% for the sick day. It’s better than nothing but I also work from home rather than take sick days, the income drop is noticeable immediately. Anything less than full pay for sick days will lead to people working, and if they can’t do it from home they will come in and spread whatever it is they got.
Whichever variant emerges from Delta is likely to bring that efficacy down further.
Well, fuck. Hopefully I can just get a booster shot. Or double up with Moderna.