From the Associated Press: CDC: Many healthy Americans can take a break from masks
Most Americans live in places where healthy people, including students in schools, can safely take a break from wearing masks under new U.S. guidelines released Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the new set of measures for communities where COVID-19 is easing its grip, with less of a focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening at hospitals.
The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC’s risk map and puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Those are the people who can stop wearing masks, the agency said.
“Break” is an interesting word.Report
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The Governor earlier in the day announced that the statewide school mask mandate would be lifted on Wednesday, March 2nd, though local leaders retained the authority to make their own rules. It was expected that NYC would follow suit shortly after.
NJ had previously announced they were going mask-optional (with the same local authority option) on March 7 and released those rules early last week. I believe CT was also on the same timeframe.
For a while, the tri-state Metro area was trying to stay on the same page since so many people go back-and-forth between them. That coordination dissolved over time but I think they’re trying to get it back now.Report
I imagine that we will adopt a “seasonality” attitude toward masking and it will be regional.
Mask in NYC in the winter, mask in Arizona in the summer.
It won’t be a national set of rules (which will be confusing to some).Report
I doubt that. I think folks will just accept Covid “is what it is”.Report
It’s gonna end up like Mono, where every so often some school Gets It and everybody has to wear masks and there’s no gym class for like a whole semester, and (like somebody getting meningitis) it happens often enough that it exists in Schoolkid Lore but not so often that anyone would be expecting it to happen to them.Report
Yea, I agree that it’ll be hyperlocalized… as you say, like building-to-building. “Oh, that office had an outbreak? Okay, close it for a week.”Report
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If pop culture contains any indicators, some might say that there are some here.
(The hidden assumption is that SNL is “pop culture” when, really, it hasn’t been watchable since Joe Piscopo played Frank Sinatra.)
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I can’t say “I told you so”, because I would have expected this a dozen times in the past two years. But the data has shown us that we could have done this a month ago, and better now than in another month (or another two years). I don’t mean this flippantly, but the war of aggression against Ukraine is solid evidence that the Covid journey is nearly over. It needs to be stressed, though, that the people who were demanding increasing power in the past month or so are either history’s laughingstocks or its villains.Report
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Eh remote work needs to persist even if it isn’t 100% of the time. It’s actually been a big win for a lot of people.
Speaking personally the fact that I’ve spent 2 years taking bike rides with my son in the early evening instead of fighting gridlock is way more important than catering to the delicate sensibilities of aging boomers in the C suite. The smart ones have adapted, the stupid ones will suffer brain drain. I’ve already decided I’ll never accept a job that requires me to be full time in an office ever again. I don’t think I’m alone.Report
Like many things, I think it will vary by industry, business, and person. I know folks desperate to return to the office, as they feel disconnected, cooped up, and/or unproductive at home. And I know folks who feel similar to you. Ideally, there will be options that work for everyone.Report
Yea, I’m fine with flexibility. My company thankfully has been very forward thinking, getting rid of some office space, converting some to more of a hub.
But my wife and I still look at each other and ask how we used to do it. Every morning was a crazy foot race to get everyone out the door by 6:45. Every evening was a mad dash to get to my son’s bed time while doing prep work for the next day then passing out in exhaustion. Not to mention I still often have off hours calls and crisis to work in. The amount of living we have gotten back is incredible, and none of it has been at the expense of getting my job done.Report
Granted, this was last Friday and a lot has happened since then, but I think that a new message of “there is a silver lining to the last two years of lockdown… many of us have been lucky enough to be able to work from home. Even though my administration has defeated Covid-19 and gotten us to a place where the CDC has advised that masks are optional in 80% of the country (check the CDC website to see if your county is green!), I call upon our businesses that have allowed work-from-home to continue to allow work-from-home until we get past this present crisis. This will take some of the pressure off.”
Then blame high gas prices on selfish businesses refusing to let people work from home.Report
Hnnnnm Biden wants me to get out there and spend 400 dollars a month for a gas vs half that 6 months ago to commute back to work NOW? Screw that. He can do me a solid first and re-start those pipelines he cancelled.Report
While out and about on Friday (went to work, paid the mortgage, got some groceries), I looked at the weather report and saw that I had half a tank of gas and thought “well, they say it’s only going to get but so cold but maybe it’ll be *REALLY* cold…” and so I figured that while I was there I may as well fill up the tank.
In my head, I feel like it should cost somewhere around $20 or maybe $25 to fill up the tank. I suppose that that’s not logical but there’s a little feeling of satisfaction that I get when it costs that to fill’er up when I’m sitting on E. Probably dates back to my young adulthood.
Well, filling up half the tank cost about $22. “I should drive less”, I thought.Report
Everywhere I’m seeing out this way is over $4 a gallon for regular and $5 for premium. We have a hybrid sedan and a big gas guzzling SUV. While I normally try to manage mileage distribution to account for maximum trade in value I have a feeling we are about to be leaning hard on the hybrid.Report
I got my New York Times morning email.
Here’s the subject header: The Morning: Do Covid precautions work?
(Man, don’t google Betteridge’s Law of Headlines.)
The email goes on to point out that vaccines are EXCEPTIONALLY effective at preventing severe illness and urges skeptics to get the vaccine and the booster.
This isn’t Tucker Carlson saying this. This is the New York Times morning email.Report