Covid Vaccination Poll Update

[jcam_44]

It seems that this may end up being the literal hill anti-vaccine people die on. 

[jazzbo]

I'm bringing my masks back out and into the washing machine. . . they'll be in use again soon.

[mjazzg]

55 minutes ago, jcam_44 said:

It seems that this may end up being the literal hill anti-vaccine people die on. 

Shame is it may also be the hill that medically vulnerable people, who are vaccinated, also die on due to the selfishness of others 

 

[Rooster_Ties]

Masking is still relatively high in Washington DC proper, using “inside stores” as my observation-based gauge. Even now, inside the grocery store and Target very close to where I live, about 70% of people still mask — even though I’m fairly sure a good 70% of the people in our zip code have been vaccinated.

Mask mandates were lifted, and the signage at these store simply say masks are strongly recommended for unvaccinated people.

And yet, mask-usage is still pretty high.

The situation in the suburbs here could be quite different — I really don’t know. My wife and I live about 3 miles north of the White House, in the most population-dense zip-code within the entire District.

Most stores and museums require all their employees to still wear masks (as does the Museum I work for), so I’m masked up every day I’m at work. And about half our Museum patrons still wear masks.

[jazzbo]

Here in my county of Geauga only half the people are vaccinated, but almost no one wears masks. So there's a lot of lying dogs out there as only those who are fully vaccinated are supposed to be maskless according to the state. (I have in-laws who deny the seriousness of the situation and are anti-vaxers as well as believers in so many ridiculous conspiracy theories that I don't want to be around them--they are unvaccinated and not wearing maks).

[jcam_44]

I really never stopped wearing a mask in public more out of respect for restaurant workers and grocery store workers. The only place I stopped was at work with the 3 other people I work with, only because we are all vaccinated, though I always have a mask on me even then. 

[rostasi]

Our Finnegans Wake reading group decided to go back to meeting together
in the back of a restaurant that we used to meet at monthly. I said, "Nope."
I'm not sitting in a restaurant (or any public place, actually) again until, maybe,
late October when we are planning on our first short trip in two years.

Edited July 28, 2021 by rostasi

[Rooster_Ties]

15 minutes ago, jcam_44 said:

I really never stopped wearing a mask in public more out of respect for restaurant workers and grocery store workers. The only place I stopped was at work with the 3 other people I work with, only because we are all vaccinated, though I always have a mask on me even then. 

I try to never go anywhere without a mask. And I still mask-up close to 100% when I go in grocery and retail stores, and when I pick up food in restaurants (we’ve only eaten out “inside” a restaurant 3x since March 2020, and that’s just been in the last 2 months).

And anytime I’m indoors and seeing more than half the people masked up, I will too — or if I’m getting on an elevator where I’m with (or likely to be with) someone who’s wearing a mask.

I’ll skip the mask with all my (few) coworkers behind the scenes (who are all vaccinated), but we all mask up when dealing with the public, 100%.

[sgcim]

I just finished six paid rehearsals/shows of "Legally Blonde" in Nassau County of Lawnguyland, and everyone claimed to be vaccinated, so almost nobody wore masks. I was maskless for the first rehearsal, because there was proper ventilation, but the rest of the paid rehearsal/performances were in an auditorium with poor ventilation, so I was the only one who wore a mask.

The audiences only had a few people with masks. It's been five days since the final show, and I'm symptom-free. I don't know about everybody else.

[Rooster_Ties]

I read all these stories about should Pfizer and Moderna vaccine recipients get a 3rd booster shot?? — but absolutely NOTHING about us poor “one and done” Johnson & Johnson recipients.

I’m not losing any sleep over it, because I’m in Washington DC where the spread has been and still is very low — but I would definitely like to know more about (for instance) how the J&J holds up against the Delta variant.

[Niko]

I learned a lot about the US recently when I tracked how pianist Jane Getz birth year had shifted over the years in official records (she looks great for the age she claims and even better for the age she actually has, and she did keep her birthday)... once you're inside the US there seems to be zero accountability - and the societal benefits of that feel dubious at best... I know this is super political for US people [so: sorry]... over here,,, I just gave the same ID at vaccination that I give for paying my taxes etc [even though I am not even a citizen of this country] and my doctor at home knows I am vaccinated  and this "everyone claims they are vaccinated" thing is a mostly a non-issue

[rostasi]

37 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I read all these stories about should Pfizer and Moderna vaccine recipients get a 3rd booster shot?? — but absolutely NOTHING about us poor “one and done” Johnson & Johnson recipients.

I’m not losing any sleep over it, because I’m in Washington DC where the spread has been and still is very low — but I would definitely like to know more about (for instance) how the J&J holds up against the Delta variant.

The J&J isn't an mRNA vac, is it? I thought it was a viral vector type.
If that's the case, it may make sense that a booster isn't needed,
but I guess that was decided before the latest variants, so who knows now.

33 minutes ago, Niko said:

I learned a lot about the US recently when I tracked how pianist Jane Getz birth year had shifted over the years in official records (she looks great for the age she claims and even better for the age she actually has, and she did keep her birthday)... once you're inside the US there seems to be zero accountability - and the societal benefits of that feel dubious at best... I know this is super political for US people [so: sorry]... over here,,, I just gave the same ID at vaccination that I give for paying my taxes etc [even though I am not even a citizen of this country] and my doctor at home knows I am vaccinated  and this "everyone claims they are vaccinated" thing is a mostly a non-issue

Developed countries don't have an issue with your situation.

Edited July 28, 2021 by rostasi

[Pim]

Got my second Pfizer today 💪whole family is now vaccinated except my pregnant wife. For the reason she is pregnant but also because she already had Covid.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Pim

[Niko]

6 minutes ago, Pim said:

Got my second Pfizer today 💪whole family is now vaccinated except my pregnant wife. For the reason she is pregnant but also because she already had Covid.

living as a foreigner in the same country, I must say that I am really happy with how vaccinations went here... yes, the start was a bit slow, but I kept telling my friends that we will catch up because our healthcare system (with all its well-known faults) is designed to do a great job at something like this - and I'd argue that this is what we saw over the past few months... got my certificate of being two weeks past the second shot today, it's all in the same official app for everyone and if you need a pdf to print that's two minutes of extra work...

and this idea of letting youngsters go clubbing or on holidays right after their first vaccine shot (of Johnson&Johnson, so only one shot needed "dansen met Jansen")... had its drawbacks (as seen in the current infection numbers) but I am guardedly optimistic that it did motivate quite a few 19 year olds to get that shot as quickly as possible ... so when I will be back to teaching in September it will hopefully be to a class of vaccinated kids or even young adults... [my friend tells this story of how his kid who'd been mildly skeptic of all the policies got the shot just so he could walk around the house saying "you can't tell me anything, I am vaccinated"... in the end, it's not the reasons that count][home in Germany, I am slightly worried that they lost the chance to get the 19 year olds on track for unrestricted, vaccinated summer holidays - which still seems to be the best motivation for this demographic]

[Kevin Bresnahan]

It looks like my workplace is going to put their mask mandate back in effect. So now I am going to have to mask up again because those few who have refused to get vaccinated have put us in this situation.

I wish my work would just say, "Get vaccinated or find another job". It's working in the medical field.

Covid? No Covid here.

[BillF]

2 hours ago, bresna said:

 

I wish my work would just say, "Get vaccinated or find another job". 

 

 

 

Was being discussed here a few days ago. Saw a headline: NO JAB NO JOB.

Unlikely to become a policy as open to legal challenge (UK position. Don't know about US).

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by BillF

[Kevin Bresnahan]

34 minutes ago, BillF said:

Was being discussed here a few days ago. Saw a headline: NO JAB NO JOB.

Unlikely to become a policy as open to legal challenge.

It was legally challenged and held up a permissible. A company can say "No jab, no job". https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-150-fired-resign-over-covid-vaccine-requirement-houston-hospital-n1272071

More than 150 fired, resign over Covid vaccine requirement at Houston hospital

[jlhoots]

10 minutes ago, bresna said:

It was legally challenged and held up a permissible. A company can say "No jab, no job". https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-150-fired-resign-over-covid-vaccine-requirement-houston-hospital-n1272071

More than 150 fired, resign over Covid vaccine requirement at Houston hospital

IMHO, those health care workers refusing to get vaccinated are nuts.

Edited August 2, 2021 by jlhoots

[BillF]

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/aug/08/bosses-battle-over-rights-and-wrongs-of-no-covid-jab-no-job

[jcam_44]

Traveling through middle America it’s shocking how few masks we’ve seen. 

[Teasing the Korean]

23 minutes ago, jcam_44 said:

Traveling through middle America it’s shocking how few masks we’ve seen. 

I live in a place with a lot of unvaccinated, unmasked yahoos, and very high hospitalization rates.  At work, since we went back in late July, mask wearers have been 50/50.  No vax mandate. I have been wearing a mask and insisting that everyone wear one if they expect me to be in the same room with them.  They just announced mandatory masks yesterday.  I suspect that many of us will go back to a remote work situation soon, given the hospitalization rates.  

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Last Thursday, 8/5, we had an unvaccinated employee test positive for Covid. Because that employee was unvaccinated, he was supposed to mask up while in the building but there has been little to no enforcement here. That employee had "close contact" with 7 other employees, 4 of whom were also unvaccinated. So now we're extremely shorthanded as all 8 employees are in quarantine.

My sister-in-law's daughter got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine several months ago. Her son took a summer job at a local amusement park. He came down with a mild case of Covid and transmitted it to his mother. She is very sick - going on two weeks now. This Delta variant can bust through your vaccine's protections.

My work just announced a full mask mandate - all employees must mask up in the building. We're back to temperature checks to enter the building, answering 3 health questions, no vendor visits, no groups in the cafeteria - seating limited to one person per table, no meetings in conference rooms and "non-essential" employees who can work from home can do so until September 30th. Basically everything that was in place during the peak days is back in effect.

This sucks.

[jazzbo]

Does suck indeed. My wife's work place has become a masked, distanced one again and she's not happy. . . but I am as it will keep her safer. We are Pfizer fully vaccinated, but this variant is a powerful one.

[medjuck]

On 7/28/2021 at 0:21 PM, rostasi said:

Our Finnegans Wake reading group 

Seriously, I'm impressed. 

[Guy Berger]

On 7/28/2021 at 0:21 PM, rostasi said:

Our Finnegans Wake reading group decided to go back to meeting together
in the back of a restaurant that we used to meet at monthly. I said, "Nope."
I'm not sitting in a restaurant (or any public place, actually) again until, maybe,
late October when we are planning on our first short trip in two years.

My sense is depending on where you are, late October could either be a very good time to meet indoors or a very bad time - the Delta wave has seasonal patterns in different locations, and seems to have a short life cycle (of course, it hospitalizes and kills a lot of unvaccinated people during this short life cycle).

It's already peaked in some of the earliest epicenters (in Missouri, Arkansas) and is in the process of peaking in Florida.  But if I was in the northern US, especially in a low- or mid-vaccinated state (of which there are a lot up north) then I'd be at least somewhat concerned about late fall and winter.  For unvaccinated people it's going to be really dangerous.

On 8/10/2021 at 4:01 AM, jcam_44 said:

Traveling through middle America it’s shocking how few masks we’ve seen. 

It's more shocking how few vaccinated people you're probably seeing.

While I'm in 100% favor of a temporary return of indoor masking mandates when and where cases are high and/or rising, I'm troubled by how reluctant governments and businesses have been to impose and enforce vaccination mandates.  I'm happy to see this turning around at least somewhat.  Masking helps; vaccination helps a lot more.

On 7/28/2021 at 1:10 PM, Rooster_Ties said:

I read all these stories about should Pfizer and Moderna vaccine recipients get a 3rd booster shot?? — but absolutely NOTHING about us poor “one and done” Johnson & Johnson recipients.

I’m not losing any sleep over it, because I’m in Washington DC where the spread has been and still is very low — but I would definitely like to know more about (for instance) how the J&J holds up against the Delta variant.

Here in San Francisco people there's a specific initiative to give J&J vacinees booster shots.

I think official announcements on booster shots to vulnerable people and health care workers are coming soon, and will probably be open to the public sometime during fall.

I also hope that vaccination for under-11 kids is authorized soon, and that it's coupled with mandates for students (students over the age of 12 need to be put under a vaccine mandate too).