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Look, I'm immunocompromised, so yes, I turn down invitations and appointments all the time. When I set up a business lunch, I have them in the office and have food delivered, and two to four people will sit at a conference table meant for 24, with a good distance between us. I don't insist that you turn down appointments and such, but please try to keep your distance from people who are taking extra care because they may well have very good reasons.
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Totally agree. If I know someone is ill or they desire me to wear a mask, I'm happy to do so. If everyone in a building is wearing masks, I'll do what they're doing as it seems polite as well.
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I mask up. Who gives a shit what the crowd is doing, it helps and is no big deal. I also avoid people who don't mask and places where they don't mask, which makes moving around difficult not because there are people who don't give a shit (I can manage them) but because there are a lot of people who are really into being complete assholes to anyone wearing a mask and getting in their face.
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It's not following a crowd because I blindly follow. If anything is known of my personality at this point it's that I'm allergic to herd behavior. But in this case, if the herd isn't masking, there isn't a whole lotta point in my bucking the trend. I am not worried about getting my spouse sick or getting sick myself. Ty's cost/benefit doesn't apply.
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A hint: if anyone wants to go to a musical event safely, try opera. The sizable gay community participation means everyone who is into opera, straight or gay, has awful aids stories about people they loved. Masking is at 95% and testing is higher. If you want to go to a restaurant, find a neighborhood full of doctors to go in. Again, much safer than others, which are starting to add back tables they took out for social distancing purposes. My oncologist has shared a bunch of tips with me, he's really limited what he does since the masks came off, given that he spends his whole life with immunocompromised people. Just a complete hero.
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This is simply not realistic for me or most people. Everywhere I go, most people are walking around sans masks. And I can't be so selective in where I go. I have a meeting with 10 people next week. The conference room will be crowded. But I can't punt on this one. And there's no point in masking where I know I'll be alone. I have to keep the lights on, and this is not a meeting I can skip.
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But you're just being an idiot if you think a surgical mask is less useful than a gater.
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I don't think either is terribly useful.
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And when you say COVID is "controlling" someone what is that about? Ever watched someone walk on ice? Should they just run, because otherwise the ice is controlling them? How dare people use snow tires! They are giving in to the ice.
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I knew I should not have used that term. As it becomes endemic, and it is (unless China births some mutant variant at this late stage because of their moronic Zero Covid policy), it is or soon will be time to start looking at Covid like we look at other viruses. The reaction needs to meet the risk. If the variants continue to weaken, vigilance can be appropriately relaxed.
Yes, they may be more widely transmitted and this creates what looks like a significant uptick in deaths. But it's actually just the virus doing what it inevitably will do - cycle through almost every living thing. And as it does, as it has, it will turn into what viruses that survive must - a thing that does not kill its host. We'll live with it. And I think the first step toward living with it is recognizing the steep drop in risk accruing from Covid.
It's not heresy to shrug at Omicron. I had it and it was nothing. I can say that, factually. It's not heresy to claim that we're coming through the other side of this thing, that the finish line is very close.
