Back to mask wearing...AGAIN...(good thing I didn't throw them out)...

[CTyankee]

Now the medical folks are on local TV saying the Delta Variant is upon us (they do not stress undue alarm). But I am getting that deja vu and it isn't fun. I am beginning to think that mask wearing will become as prevalent as seat belts in a car. We just get used to using them because we know what can happen in an accident when you don't wear them.

Anyone else have this feeling?

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Yep.

[TraceNC]

2. Yes. Zero plans to stop wearing my mask

in public. I haven’t had so much as a slight cold in about a year and a half and honestly, that’s good enough reason for me, even if we weren’t still in a pandemic, which we are. I don’t mind the mask at all.

[Pacifist Patriot]

23. That's my take on it. I think the last cold I had was in late 2018. I'm good with...

masks in public forever.

[ZonkerHarris]

33. same

[TheBlackAdder]

53. THIS! 👍

[secondwind]

3. Better to be safe than sorry, that's for sure.

[Glorfindel]

4. Yes. Maybe wearing masks will have some beneficial unanticipated consequences

[LisaL]

15. It has beneficial intended consequences-you are less likely

to catch infectious diseases like covid or flu.

[lagomorph777]

81. It blocks, dust, pollen, influenza,

...and saves a ton of money on lipstick.

[Solomon]

5. Always thought masks were here to stay once the pandemic hit.

When I went to Japan before the pandemic, I saw how many people wear masks in the absence of a pandemic. It struck me as odd because at that time people here weren't wearing masks but I could see the wearing of masks was quite normal to them.

Masks are here to stay I think.

[PatSeg]

77. When we first moved to California

twenty years ago, we were often surprised at how many older Asian people wore masks when they were in public, a habit they seem to have possibly brought from their home country. At the time, I thought it was more pollution related, which it likely could have been. It seemed odd to us back then, but now it is starting to make sense.

[sarcasmo]

79. No flu bugs since I started wearing a mask.

[LisaL]

6. I haven't stopped wearing masks.

Delta is upon us, then delta plus, and then who knows what else. By the way they are cheap right now, if one wants to buy.

[TraceNC]

18. Yep. Now is the time to stock up

on the disposable masks for fall and winter. I have some multi-layered cloth ones but I’ve come to prefer the disposables. I was double-masking in the winter and spring, and will likely start again in the fall. Anyway, at the store on Friday I just bought two boxes of 75 masks in each and for a little under $18 total. So about $0.12 per mask.

[Pobeka]

7. The past week has shown an uptick in new cases.

Last edited Sun Jun 27, 2021, 10:59 AM - Edit history (2)

Republican run states, once again are not testing as hard as democratic run states.

States with the largest increases in new cases per day per capita in the past week:

#1 Nevada
#2 Missouri
#3 Wyoming
#4 Idaho
#5 Utah
#6 Virginia

These 6 states (and 14 more) show increasing, not decreasing daily new cases for the past week vs two weeks ago

Delta may be starting to surge amongst the unvaccinated. People really, really don't understand the seriousness of it.


(On edit, corrected state list and saw that 20 total states have increasing new cases)

[LisaL]

10. And just take a look at the UK.

Delta is spreading there and their cases are going up by quite a bit. And their vaccination rates are good, unlike most Europe.

"The United Kingdom recorded 18,270 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, the highest daily rise since Feb. 5, and 23 deaths, official data showed."

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-records-18270-new-coronavirus-cases-highest-since-feb-5-2021-06-26/

[CTyankee]

12. CT is probably pretty low on that list but I guess that we can expect people NOT to comply with mask

mandates, that is SOME people. Yesterday I went to the supermarket w/o a mask and it felt a little weird.
I am conscious of people who don't. Particularly people who are touching fresh produce. I remember the earlydays of Covid when we were wiping down all our groceries...

[LisaL]

13. I just keep on wearing mask.

It's pretty obvious to me that many people who are un-vaccinated are not wearing masks (based on vaccination rates in my state half the people should be wearing masks).
And delta is starting to spread. UK's vaccination rates are good, but their cases are rising rapidly because of delta.
We are usually a month or so behind UK.

[I-Scream]

46. 1 important factor I don't see addressed is age

Many of the states in the lower tier of vaccination rates, beside being R, may also have lower mean per ca-pita ages. The population's younger members have been slower and later when it comes to qualification / availability. This factor alone can skew the perceived overall gross population vaccination rates.

I haven't seen a post that indicates a vaccination rate breakdown of: Over 70, 50 to 70, 35 to 50, 18 to 35 and under 18. To me, this kind of info would be more meaningful.

[Pobeka]

48. A couple of months ago you'd have a good point

I have heard nothing other than we have more supply in all states than there are people lining up for the jab. This is nearly 100% caused by refusing to get the jab.

It is not a problem with being qualified due to age restrictions.

Look at the vaccination %'s for some of those states. We needed 70% or more with the UK strain. With delta I suspect it's going to be more like 85% ( just guessing )

[I-Scream]

49. In Utah 25% of the population is under 18 years old.

I don't think they are deemed safe vaccination recipients yet. Some states may be in the same boat. It would still provide more clarity to understand vax rates by age group.

[SheltieLover]

50. Pfizer has been approved for ages 12+

Not sure about Moderna & J&J.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/adolescents.html

[I-Scream]

51. That maybe so. But...

It takes time for those demographic's resources to be provided, be recorded and catch up. High ratios of young will still cause perceived skews in overall vaccination rates in various populations. Some aspect of this issue may also play a part w/ POC. Just guessing.

[Pobeka]

52. If you can get that data for all states it would be useful .

But I'll make a bet states are more similar than they are different wrt age demographics.

% of population < 18 years old would be the metric of interest

[I-Scream]

54. I can't see an easy list of

Without spending a ton of time i got this:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/median-age-by-state

Youngest U.S. States
The ten states with the youngest median ages are:

Utah (31.2)
District (34.3)
Alaska (35)
Texas (35.1
North Dakota (35.5)
Nebraska (36.8)
Idaho (36.9)
Oklahoma (37)
California (37)
Colorado (37.1)
Utah has the youngest median age of 31.2 years, up slightly from 30.5 years in 2018. Approximately 29.0% of Utah's population is under 18, contributing to the lower median age. Additionally, only 11.4% of Utah's popualation is 65 or older, compared to the country's 16.5%.

Oldest U.S. State
The ten states with the oldest median ages are:

Maine (45.1)
New Hampshire (43)
West Virginia (42.9)
Vermont (42.8)
Florida (42.4)
Delaware (41.4)
Connecticut (41.2)
Pennsylvania (40.8)
Montana (40.5)
New Jersey (40.2)

[Pobeka]

74. Here it is

Data (% > 18 yr old) from census bureau July 2019.

Plotted vaccination rates by %pop > 18, by governor's party.

So for DEM governors, there is a strong trend of vaccination rate vs % pop > 18. This is what you were getting at, and the relationship is pretty strong.

GOP states is another story.

Utah has a much higher than expected vaccination rate (Utah is the left most point on the graph)

Those three best GOP states on the top right are Maryland, Massachutses and New Hampshire. Those governors have pretty high populations of democrats, and I know the Maryland governor in particular did not follow the GOP playbook for covid.

So what we see is a cap in vaccination rates in GOP states that is not driven by age distribution, but most likely by politics of the population.

I'll be headed back to my tablet because of the heat we're having (my laptop generates too much heat). Tablet is not a good tool for anything but simple browsing.

[SheltieLover]

56. Under age 12, no?

Pfizer is approved for ages 12+. 👍

[Pobeka]

62. not at the moment now .

I don't think 12 year olds can be fully 2 was after 2nd dose right now .

[Ms. Toad]

57. Roughly 1/3 of those who are not vaccinated

are ineligible to be vaccinated. So no, it is not "nearly 100% caused by refusing to get the jab"

(That's assuming a 50+% non-vaccination rate - coupled with 15% of the population (roughly) being under 12.)

[gopiscrap]

63. welcome to DU

[Tarc]

8. I'm done with em until/unless the CDC says otherwise

If their guidance was good enough to follow during the crisis, it is good enough now.

[LisaL]

9. As I recall, in the beginning of pandemic they claimed we didn't need masks.

I didn't believe them then, why should I do so now?

[TraceNC]

14. You're absolutely correct.

[CTyankee]

17. I only listen to people who are qualified to make such statements. Our local TV outlets are having

health providers (most of them from Yale-New Haven Hospital) who are our local experts. They are worried about breakouts in our most economically fraught communities. My husband and I are more at risk because we are elderly, but we live in our own house, not in packed apartment arrangements.

[Quakerfriend]

19. Yes, I so agree

In the hospital, they first told us that we were not ALLOWED to wear a mask because 1) It was not really necessary and 2) It might scare the patients.

On the first day of screening of all employees when they arrived to work
administration assigned the security guard to do Temp checks. I told him that should really be wearing a mask. He said he was not allowed.

I am very willing to speak out 😆 and finally yelled “ We are so far beyond this” at one of the managers.

[Treefrog]

22. This.

I’ve lost all confidence in them.

[Voltaire2]

27. At the time they had no evidence of effectiveness.

And there was a real shortage of medical grade masks.

[LisaL]

30. No evidence of effectiveness-were they born yesterday?

As for shortage of medical grade mask, it doesn't seem a good enough reason to lie to the public and claim that masks are not effective.

[Voltaire2]

34. No, they are data driven.

Early on there was no evidence of mask effectiveness against a covid-like virus. As the data changed the recommendations changed. It’s how medical science works.

[LisaL]

38. What data changed?

It's common sense. Covid is an airborne virus, therefore masks should protect against it.
What other data do you need, and how could it change?

[uponit7771]

67. World wide rate of infection was established. Once that was made mask were promoted

[LisaL]

69. One would think masks needed to be promoted before infections spread far and wide.

To prevent the spread from being far and wide.

[uponit7771]

72. I agree, it seem like it was the cheap easy way to stop spread and virologist advocating masks

... didn't need a ton of data to say they were needed as a minimum.

There really wasn't a good reason for the CDC not to advocate mask wearing at first.

One reason I think they didn't advocate masks at first was Putin's Whore sent 18 tons of NPI supplies to China in Jan and we didn't have a ready supply at first for medical staff after that.

[Ms. Toad]

39. Nonsense.

My early masking decision was based on peer-reviewed, and other, research documenting as early as March 2020 that masks were effective.

While you are correct as to how medical science works, it is not how the CDC has worked as to many aspects of this pandemic.

[uponit7771]

68. Was Redfield wrong when he said CDC is looking at mask data? (Link)

https://www.aaha.org/publications/newstat/articles/2020-03/cdc-an-about-face-on-face-masks/

But in an interview with NPR on Monday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said that the agency is taking another look at the data around mask use by the general public

[Ms. Toad]

76. And when did they finally concede that masks were effective at all?

When did they finally concede that masks were not only effective for those around the wearer, but also for the wearer?

My point is they were significantly trailing the evidence - AND - as to masks were actively discouraging wearing masks at a time when there was clear data that wearing them was effective. (That data was available by early March.) And then, once they finally woke up and smelled the roses, they had to try to talk the public back into wearing masks, after actively (irresponsibly) discouraging them.

Just as now they may have to backtrack on their irresponsible recommendation to ditch the masks.

[Ms. Toad]

36. Save your breath -

Those touting "CDC = science" apparently have very short memories on a whole lot of things the CDC said which turned out not to be true.

[TraceNC]

55. Yes! And beyond that...

Even if a mask only provided, say, 1% extra protection, why in the world wouldn’t we take that? I never understood that.

[Tarc]

58. As the virus was able to be studied more, they evolved their guidelines

That's kinda...how science works.

[ZonkerHarris]

37. WHO says we still need to wear masks because of the Delta Variant

WHO urges fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks as delta Covid variant spreads

The WHO urged fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks and practice other Covid-19 pandemic safety measures as the highly contagious delta variant spreads rapidly across the globe.

“People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves,” WHO official Dr. Mariangela Simao told reporters.

more at link...
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/delta-who-urges-fully-vaccinated-people-to-continue-to-wear-masks-as-variant-spreads.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard

[Happy Hoosier]

59. I don't wear one regularly now

I sometimes wear one of I will indoors in close proximity to others. I don‘t lime wearing ine, but will if I must.

[liberal_mama]

60. I was still wearing my mask before the WHO announcement, but now I know I made the right decision

I consider the WHO to be a reliable source of scientific information. Plus it's not bad or hard to wear a mask. I'm used to wearing them now and I'd rather be safe than sorry. I prefer not to get infected with Covid at all, not even a mild case that can result in long haul Covid.

[ZonkerHarris]

61. i agree on all fronts and have been doing the same.

[Mossfern]

42. That's my reasoning as well

I'm fully vaccinated, and when out in public, still keep my distance from other people. I still wear a mask for my training, but it's no fun. I rip it off my face as soon as I get out of the facility. I haven't been sick for at least 15 years (knock on wood).

I do have to say that the first time I went to the supermarket not wearing one felt very strange.

[babylonsister]

47. Do you trust the WHO?

WHO urges fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks as delta Covid variant spreads

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/delta-who-urges-fully-vaccinated-people-to-continue-to-wear-masks-as-variant-spreads.htm

[Duncanpup]

11. Yup

Here we go again

[Arkansas Granny]

16. Back? I never stopped.

I don't wear a mask around family and friends who are fully vaccinated, but the rest of my routine will stay the same.

[Skittles]

44. thank you

the CDC really dropped the ball on this one

[hlthe2b]

20. WHO recommended late last week that masks continue to be worn, despite vaccination status.

I concur for indoor spaces.

It will be difficult given the politicization and need to backtrack for CDC to echo the advice, but it is likely to be necessary in the near future.

[spinbaby]

21. I still wear a mask in indoor public spaces

Now, if only other people would wear them, too. I get pissed at the thought that I’m protecting them, but they’re not protecting me.

[SheltieLover]

24. I've not changed my pandfmic protocols at all

Not likely to anytime soon. Masking is a slight inconvenience with great benefits! 👍

[former9thward]

25. Masks are not coming back.

The vaccine is working.

[sarcasmo]

26. Keeping my same Covid routine.

[Voltaire2]

28. Unless you've had the J&J vac your

not at risk. Hopefully the CDC will soon approve mRNA booster shots for those people who’ve had the J&J.

The data, particularly in the blue state regions with 70+ vac rates, is all trending in the right direction.

Wear a mask if that makes you more comfortable out in public. But understand the real risks.

[LisaL]

31. What is not clear about delta covid spreading in US?

It's here and will be spreading exponentially. It's not called "covid on steroids" for nothing.

[Voltaire2]

32. Actually "covid on steroids" is alarmist bullshit.

Clearly it is not “on steroids”. The data is clear regarding the delta variants and mRNA vacs: if you are fully vaccinated your risk is very low.

[LisaL]

40. Maybe your risk is very low, but not mine.

NT

[Happy Hoosier]

71. If you are wearing a mask fpr protection

Make sure it‘s an N95.

The cloth and surgical mask are to protect others.

[LisaL]

73. Of course it is an N95.

And now I can wear valved ones.

[Happy Hoosier]

75. Awesome! Stay healthy!! NT

[Ms. Toad]

43. That's the same charge that was leveled against me

back in January 2020, when I was raising alarm bells as to how serious COVID was, in March when I started suggesting mask wearing, etc.

Relying on pre-digested information, shaped by the need to serve a public hungry for freedom, by an organization that has been consistently wrong, or late, in its public statements on the severity of COVID and the means of transmission is foolish.

[obamanut2012]

29. I never stopped, and I've been fully vaxxed since the beginning of April

Unless I'm at home, in my closed office at work, playing golf, or riding my bike.

[Ms. Toad]

35. I never stopped.

Vaccination rate in my county is still less than 50%. Mask wearing indoors is about 5%. That means a whole heck of a lot of people who are (or are capable of) spreading COVID 19.

Noting to do with undue alarm - just Dr. Acton's swiss cheese layers of protection. Vaccination is a good, solid layer. But it's not perfect - so when there is a high chance of exposure it makes sense to add another layer. Right now chances of exposure are pretty high ( under 50% vaccinated + highly contagious Delta variant, 15% of the population not yet even eligible for vaccination) - so masks continue to make sense.

I fundamentally don't understand the attitude around here which treats vaccination as if it was an impermeable shield - I especially don't understand the vitriol, and accusations of being anti-science, which have been directed at those of us who have been encouraging continued indoor mask wearing and (at a bare minimum) the need to implement something other than the honor system for ensuring that the unvaccinated will wear masks when indoors.

[LisaL]

41. Yep. Half of the people should be wearing masks. They aren't.

Which mean un-vaxxed are going maskless (totally predictable, and did CDC really think otherwise?). Nobody is checking vaccination status.
Which is ridiculous, since more contagious variant is starting to spread.

[Ms. Toad]

45. Agreed -

AND - the fact that the unmasked are not following the CDC guidance makes it riskier for those of us who are vaccinated. Our chances of becoming ill rise in direct proportion to the number of COVID-causing exposures. More unmasked carrying COVID; the Delta variant - all of those increase the number of exposures that we encounter, and when those exposures increase so will the number of breakthrough cases.

I'm not willing to be one of them.

[smirkymonkey]

64. I am pretty much just isolating.

I find that to be the easiest and most effective way to protect myself. I go down to the mailboxes, Amazon lockers, lobby, etc, but wear a mask when I do. I don't wear one outside, but I pretty much stay in my neighborhood which is very low risk and has very little foot traffic except for the main street.

I always have a few masks in my bag just in case I need to put one on in a store. I think it's best to be cautious for the next few months until we find out how bad this Delta variant is.

[ChazII]

70. Isolating is my second form

of protection. The first of course was getting vaccinated and I had Pfizer. My third is the mask. I have several masks that are washable and some have themes. Such as two that have dogs, one with paws, a Dr. Who mask, and several seasonal. I also keep a box of disposable mask inside the entry to my home.

[OhioChick]

65. I don't listen to those on tv, the CDC or anyone else....

I listen to both of my kids who deal with this virus on a daily basis.

Despite all of us being vaccinated, I heed their advice and continue to wear a mask, the CDC really dropped the ball on this one.

We all behave as we have in the beginning and will do so until "they" tell me otherwise.

[Tree Lady]

66. I am still wearing but hubby is not now

And I figure if he catches something I will get it.

Hardly anyone around here is wearing them now so hard to tell him.

[Initech]

78. Nope.

I hate these damn things and I will be destroying mine as soon as they say we don't have to wear them anymore.

People get tired of pandemic safety protocols. It happens every single time, and it will happen with this one too.

[lagomorph777]

80. Never stopped wearing my mask

[RobinA]

82. Couldn't Get The Mask Off

soon enough. I'm vaccinated, and I'm not wearing the mask unless mandated. I trust the vaccine. The first time I walked into the grocery store maskless I was so happy to be able to THINK in the store again. No fogged glasses, no gulping for breath, no hot flashes. Halleluiah! To each his or her own.