Made my weekly trip to Kroger, early this morning, and saw a lot of people still wearing masks

[Siwsan]

Young and old. I admit I was surprised.

Personally, I'm worried that we are going to see another variant wave so my guard stays up and my mask stays on.

[Ocelot II]

1. Same in my neck of the woods.

Went grocery shopping yesterday, everyone was wearing a mask. I'll keep wearing mine, too, in most indoor places. This isn't over yet.

[niyad]

2. Same here when I was in my King Soopers on Monday, and in a local tourist

attraction yesterday.

[hlthe2b]

3. I don't shop often and right after my county (& state) announced loosening of regs, the masks

pretty much came off. That was last weekend, but maybe 10% were still wearing them, myself included. I'll be interested to see what a quick trip this afternoon or maybe tomorrow will show.

As one who has had to wear surgical masks (and others) my entire career, I just don't get why so many get so freaked out about it. These were probably the same people who would, of course, wear a ski mask on the slopes in subzero weather, a Halloween mask that is far more occlusive for nothing more than a costume purpose, or a scarf pulled over their mouth/nose in heavy wind or smoke.

I try not to give into reflexive contempt, but what weenies so many Americans have become...

[Siwsan]

8. I've never understood the complaints about wearing a mask

In the Winter they are VERY convenient for blocking wind, and in the Summer, the stores are air conditioned (far too chilly for me).

I like that they are a big deterrent from touching my face while I'm shopping and touching so many items. I don't take mine off until I'm in the car and have used hand sanitizer.

And not having had a cold for over 2 years is a REAL benefit.

[LiberalFighter]

34. Agreed. Keeps face warm in winter.

[luvs2sing]

20. I admit to struggling to adjust to a mask.

I almost passed out in stores several times and would have massive headaches after only wearing a mask for a short time. A friend suggested that I was probably hyperventilating when I wore the mask and to try wearing it around the house until I felt comfortable and figured out how to breathe normally while wearing it. She was right. It took about two hours in the calm, relaxed environment of my home to adjust. I’ve had no further problems, even when I switched to N95s.

[brewens]

4. What state? I'm in Idaho and it's looking a little better. Latest was 1400 new cases and 9 deaths.

That's a long way off from our lowest last summer where we saw some days in a row with zero deaths. That was when I allowed myself to go to the bar and drink unmasked, though I still wore the mask everywhere else. That's what it's going to take to get me back out again. I hope in a couple weeks maybe.

[Siwsan]

10. Michigan

They have my county listed as a low transmission area but we are still at just 52% fully vaccinated. To my way of thinking, that classifies FAR too many residents as vulnerable plague carriers for the next variant.

[brewens]

16. One thing is that here in north central Idaho, we have little bit of lag time before the new

variants show up here. If it dwindles down to nothing again, I'll feel safe enough, but would still wear a mask to the store and stuff for awhile. Last summer we were just hearing about delta as cases were down really low and it didn't take long for it to get here.

[nitpicker]

29. Two of my grandmother's cousins died in 1920 on the IA/MO border

Just because a location is remote, it doesn't mean that it's immune...

(quoting Blondie)

One way, or another, I'm gonna find ya
I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya

[Wicked Blue]

5. Not taking mine off until I'm good and ready

Besides, it helps with my tree pollen allergies

[walkingman]

12. Same here for DW and I

[nitpicker]

30. The trouble is

One has to keep the mask on until into the house.

If one is hauling in groceries, that can be missed.

[Chainfire]

6. My experience has been the opposite.

When I bought groceries, last week, almost no one was masked. Perhaps one in ten or twenty people...

[lagomorph777]

7. Most still mask here.

Including me.

[Tadpole Raisin]

9. Same in my neck of the woods - probably 65% although some of

that may be that they haven’t heard about the change.

Most are older and I suspect others are people who experience Covid directly or indirectly and those with health issues.

I’d be surprised if it dropped to 35% any time soon. What I wonder about is how much more aggressive anti maskers will be attacking them.

[Goonch]

11. I'm scheduled for my 4th Moderna (am imunocompromised) at CVS inside a

Target store where only the pharmacy staff wear masks. The Target customers are virtually all maskless so it's kind of like negotiating a covid mine field but I''m always DOUBLE MASKED when I need to venture out.

[viva la]

13. I'm surprised at the power of peer pressure--

I see no one else has a mask on, and I start to take mine off... then I remember that the more are unmasked, actually, the more reason for ME to wear a mask.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. I grocery shopped yesterday at 'da Jewel's' and it was about half & half (both shoppers and staff)

Illinois lifted most of the mask requirements on Monday. Locally, our illustrious mayor has been undermining support for masking regs since back around the holidays.

[SheltieLover]

15. Went to a Walmart for food yesterday (only "choice")

Nobody else had masks on.

Meanwhile, BA.2 is ramping up.

Stay safe, All!

😷

[dawg]

17. The 7day moving average death rate here in Georgia is almost as high ...

as the highest point reached in all of 2020.

Less than 50% of the people in my county are vaccinated.

I understand why people want this to be over. But I'm not innumerate.

I will continue to wear my mask in public places.

If anyone doesn't like it, they'll be told to mind their own damned business.

[fescuerescue]

18. Nobody wants to see a variant.

But have any variants originated within the US?

Seems like since they always come from outside, we will have lots of warning to put on the masks again.

Personally I'm good with following the CDC guidance and science which currently recommends no mask inside.

[Siwsan]

19. The last time they eased mask regulations was a total disaster

So, I'm going to follow my gut instinct. It's just no big deal for me to mask up while in a store. Besides, all it takes is coming into contact with one person arriving with a new variant. Paranoid? Perhaps, but wearing a mask also does a lot to keep my anxiety issues at a tolerable level.

[Seinan Sensei]

21. I wear my mask so no one will think I'm a Republican

[Totally Tunsie]

26. +1

[smirkymonkey]

36. Heh heh!

[luvs2sing]

22. I didn't see too much difference yesterday here in Columbus.

Our mask mandate ends next week. I shopped at five stores yesterday. As always, Kroger had the most unmasked customers and employees. Probably about 25% of people I saw yesterday were without masks.

I will keep wearing mine when I’m in stores for the foreseeable future, however, I did step down from the N95 to the blue surgical mask this week. Things are slowly moving in the right direction here..so far..

[Johnny2X2X]

23. No idea what the future holds with Covid

But Omicron burned its way through the country rapidly, there's no telling how many people really had it because home tests don't require reporting. There are still almost 1500 people a day dying from Covid in the US, and almost all of those people are unvaccinated.

If you're fully vaccinated, you've done what you've needed to do. If you are still wearing a mask, you're still showing a good example. But with cases plunging quickly, the removal of mask mandates is a good thing many places. People here, we're always going to be considerate of others and wear masks until the risk is gone, but there's a portion of our country who need to see that these mandates weren't permanent, they were always in response to the science and the facts on the ground.

Some other variant could emerge and put us back into another wave, but it also might not. We've got 80%+ of the country with some level of immunity from Covid now, most of the people at most risk are unvaccinated Trumpers, I'm out of shits to give about them. I do think we have a chance to move past Covid this Summer as a pandemic, it will remain as endemic, but won't even be a big story come Fall.

And Biden did a lot right to get us to this point. We had to protect against Delta as best we could because it was extremely deadly. We had to get shots in arms like crazy and we did. And with Omicron, smart and considerate people protected themselves and others, but it still washed over the country and killed a mess of Right Wingers. The restrictions with Omicron were less, because it was considered not as deadly, and also I believe because at that point 99% of the dying were unvaccinated idiots, so they made their choice. And it almost worked out really favorably with Omicron infecting so many people and giving them some immunity.

If the original version of Covid had been as transmissible as Omicron and as deadly as Delta, the world as we knew it would have changed dramatically for decades.

I for one am looking forward to perhaps a Summer where no one worries much about Covid. I do think there's a segment on the left that's really going to struggle to accept it when Covid is not really an issue anymore.

[Siwsan]

24. I've also come to appreciate the other things masks have prevented

I haven't had a cold - even a simple head cold - it over 2 years. I used to get 2 or 3 a year and some of them would be pretty harsh. I've never had flu, or at least I've never been symptomatic, but during flu season if higher risk people wear a mask while in public buildings, along with getting the vaccine, could make a huge dent in that health problem.

[Johnny2X2X]

25. I caught Covid twice while being extremely careful

First time was before vaccines were out, I never left the house, my wife was running her small business and must have brought it home although she never tested positive. Second time I think I must have caught it at the grocery store while masked, or maybe my wife brought it home again and she just never got sick. 2nd time I was fully vaxxed and boosted and it was awful, I'm convinced being vaccinated kept me out of the hospital. So here I am, fully vaccinated and boosted, and having had 2 different variants of Covid, I am probably as immune as anyone can get right now.

What we don't really know is how this immunity/resistance plays out years from now. We know immunity wanes somewhat, but we don't know if 2 years from now if I'm exposed to Covid if my body will have some memory of how to fight it effectively like immune systems do with colds and flu. That's the hope, that 80% of the country and climbing have some lasting ability to fight off future Covid outbreaks. I think Covid is going to be like the flu going forward, some years more severe, some years not as big of a deal, and it will be less seasonal than the flu.

Politically, I think it dwindling down to close to zero and not coming back in a wave before the 2022 elections is best for Dems.

[Siwsan]

49. I didn't seem to catch it when unknowingly exposed to it by my brother makes me hopeful

Of course, I could have been totally asymptomatic. Fortunately, I went into TOTAL isolation, for about a month.

I've never been symptomatic of flu, either, and I got my first flu vaccination, since my military days, just last year. For years, though, I was very susceptible to bronchial infections. That started in basic training, with two or three nasty bouts, per year, that didn't end until the early 90's. Admittedly, I grew disillusioned with prescription medications and decided to go a more home brewed route. Either the infections had run their course, or dosing with REALLY STRONG garlic/cabbage soup taken to a new level with cayenne peppers, really works.

I just know I now fall into two 'vulnerable' categories so it's just not worth taking the risk of being exposed.

[Goonch]

27. Ditto ;-{)🖖‍

[kimbutgar]

28. Where I live in the SF Bay Area I have seen only a handful of people unmasked

Have been to grocery stores, department stores and the mall. 99.8% masked. A clerk at a sporting goods store who was about 20 years old was the only store clerk I saw unmasked.

[nitpicker]

31. They still believe in masks at the health center

When I was waiting to be X-rayed, a staffer shot out and demanded someone else cover the nose.

[BlackSkimmer]

32. Same here in my red area of NC.

Pleasantly surprised to see so many wearing masks.

I’ll be wearing mine for awhile. No one has ever said a word to me about it, unlike all the stories I’ve seen here.

Seems those stories have stopped. So that’s a good thing.

[helpisontheway]

33. Not many masks in Costco this morning. People were coughing with no mask.nt

[LiberalFighter]

35. I notice that Stephen Colbert show audience still wearing facemask.

[Tree Lady]

38. Same here but we still have mandate

Until March 12. I plan to still wear at least first month to see if more cases come again.

[Siwsan]

39. I do most of my shopping during the earliest hours possible so there's no 'crowds'

But the mask still keeps me from touching my face. I keep hand sanitizer in my car and use it before I take off my mask.

[Tree Lady]

40. I am still doing that to

Wonder how I will be able to go back.

[Meowmee]

41. Idiots here removed the mask mandate, ty cdc idiots

And they are now optional where I teach so I am forced to sit in a room for hours with some unmasked and potentially unvaxed people. I am counting down the weeks until it is over. Still wearing n95 everywhere and I eat in my car at work. Masks work, I sat for hours in hospitals with my father never getting covid once there with c patients down the hall. Of course everyone there had to mask in the rooms etc and most everywhere, but there were slip ups I witnessed. We hope to leave here soon hopefully to where people are overall smarter and more caring. Assuming we don’t all get nuked first. At which point we probably won’t have to worry about it. In stores some were still wearing them but that will stop soon I am sure.

[Siwsan]

42. My brother is a school bus driver. Mask are no longer required. He still wears one.

And he strongly requests that the students use hand sanitizer as they board the bus. After each run, he wipes down all of the seats with a sanitizing spray He's the only one doing this.

He had a hard case of Covid, back in March, 2020. In the previous 5 years, 6 close family members had died. I was terrified I'd be losing another. Then I did lose a very close friend to Covid, in November, 2020.

Before anyone chides someone for still wearing a mask, they might want to consider that there might be strong reasons why they still choose to be cautious.

[Meowmee]

43. I lost my father and I am a lh myself, I also had it at the start from my students

Back when they were lying about masks not protecting you etc.

For my own protection, my brother and everyone else we will keep wearing them. I went through weeks of severe back pain and more with double pneumonia, to er twice and have heart damage now and who knows what else. I still have pain and breathing issues. Hair loss, fatigue. My father and we all went through a living hell. My father’s death was a murder on many levels.

That is good he is doing that, I am glad he survived, tg. I feel bad for him. Sorry you lost your friend.

So many people are so uncaring in this country, when we can we are going to leave.

No one has chided me but if they do, they may get yelled at etc.

[Emile]

44. Even here behind the Hoosier Iron Curtain I still see a few people wearing masks.

Had right winger tell me on Monday in Terre Haute Rural King that I don't need to wear a mask anymore. I replied, yes I know, but I wear mine to make a political point. The look on this man's face was priceless.

[Shrek]

45. Rarely see a mask in my local Kroger's

The customers stopped wearing them a long time ago, and the employees stopped too once it was no longer required by store policy.

[ChazII]

46. Masks are still

being worn at Fry's which is part of Kroger in Arizona.