I wonder if there is significant regional variation in the U.S. – around here (New Orleans area), masks are, indeed, as easy to find as underwear and socks. Most retailers (of all types) carry some, and large retailers have lots of selection. Aftermarket sources (e.g. Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Stage, Ross, etc.) are a great place to buy a bunch of masks cheaply.
I know you’ve been finally vaccinated. But just out of curiosity (and only if you feel like responding 
) how are the vaccination protocols working out at your place of employment? Are they going individually by the normal age/personal health risk priorities or by group due to the elevated risk from population concentration? Are a substantial number now vaccinated?
Inmates are considered high risk in and of themselves, given the general inability for them to isolate themselves, so are targetted for vaccination when the rest of the state population that’s considered high risk is also offered vaccines. We should start vaccinating them next week, with an eye to getting to the highest risk among them first.
Our 65 and over population got offered the vaccine at the same time our non-incarcerated 65 and over statewide residents were offered it, and we finished them about 2 weeks ago.
We’re getting lots of inmates refusing the upcoming vaccination. We are asking them to sign a consent ahead of time, or to sign a refusal. We get a lot of excuses written on the refusal, they tend to run along the lines of “don’t trust the vaccine”, “don’t trust the man”, “don’t need/want it”, “don’t want to be experimented on”, “vaccines are a scam”, “covid isn’t real”, “already had covid”, and the most novel one so far: “I’m sleepy”. 
We will continue to discuss the vaccine with our refusers. Some will relent, but I predict most won’t unless we have another mass outbreak.
Hey, points to that guy - clearly unreasonable if you were going to try and vaccinate before 10 a.m. 
.
Really unfortunate. Usually the milder variety of whackadoos either amuse or just slightly annoy me, but with anti-vaxxers it’s a comb of sad (for the unfortunate but no doubt mostly real paranoia) and a little mad (for the knock-on effects on the rest of the population).
I suppose the most modest of silver linings is that it already seems to have spread like wildfire through your facility, so maybe natural immunity will have some efficacy.
But in bats we (they actually) trust:
Yeah, they should be locked up.
Ideally I could rely on the government. But I’m in a state where the governor is in a rush to remove the mask mandates, after being slow to even allow them. Arkansas is not as bad as Texas or Mississippi, and 1-C is starting a bit early (i.e. right now), but it’s still scheduled to be rescinded before people with preexisting conditions will have their fullest immunity.
Thank God for Biden winning, as it means I can at least trust the CDC and Fauci. Without that, I’d probably wait until the sane states started rescinding their requirements.
As for wearing one when I feel sick–the allergy situation makes that a bit harder. For some reason, the pandemic has seen a rise in my allergy symptoms. I envy everyone saying they’ve gotten fewer “colds” and such since wearing masks.
I wouldn’t put much stock in that. Adults get 3 or 4 colds a year. How many fewer are they getting?
Also, apparently climate change is making pollen allergies worse every year.
Are you saying Trump was some how forcing the CDC and Fauci to lie all the time?
Not Fauci, but he certainly had the CDC put out false information. They’ve since removed the bullshit from their website.
I couldn’t believe it when I heard there were vaccine refusers in the military. When I was in the military, they lined us up for vaccines. They didn’t ask our opinions.
People don’t believe it when I say this, but before 2001, I got a minimum of 4 colds a year, and they were BAD. They lasted at least 10 days, and I was miserable. My ears stopped up for 3 or 4 days, I couldn’t breath without tons of OTC medicine. I was achy, and tired, and grumpy. My head was hot, and my hands and feet were freezing. I would run temperatures as high as 102.5°F, but never tested positive for the flu.
In 2001, I had my tonsils and adenoids out. Since then, I have had maybe, 5 bad (BAD) sinus infections (one took a 6-week antibiotic course), one case of strep I got from my son, a case of laryngitis precipitated by allergies, and something last February that may or may not have been COVID. Also, a case of painful pinkeye, and a few stomach viruses when I first started working with children, but I built up immunities.
No colds. I have days once in a while when I wake up with a scratchy throat, and cough a little, but I hydrate a lot, and they never lasts more than 24 hours. I wash my hands a lot on those days, try not to touch my face, or anyone else, don’t go grocery shopping on those days, just in case, but they have never turned into anything.
I am not making this up. I literally have not had a cold since July of 2001, unless a scratchy throat and mild post-nasal drip for 24 hours counts as a cold.
Go figure.
I used to get colds constantly. mild ones, horrible ones, in between. but after about 20 years in medicine, it seemed I finally got some general immunity to most types of cold viruses. In the past 20 years in medicine I’ve had maybe 6 bad colds. I do NOT miss them.
They’re pretty much saying they didn’t get any. They say they normally get sick many times a year.
I used to would get one a year or so. I’ve had cold/allergy symptoms much more than four times during this pandemic. Takes a couple weeks to clear up. I insisted they couldn’t be allergies, but the doctor says otherwise.
I usually get a couple of colds a year, same as my gf (I guess we share). She’s been working from home for a year, I’ve been masking for a year. Neither of us have had a cold.
As long as the state government mandates it and not a second longer.
So, what will you do about businesses that require masks beyond the state’s mandated time?
There’ll probably be a point where I just won’t be carrying a mask all the time. So I’ll probably skip those businesses unless its all the grocery stores or something.
I was going to ask whether this was because you thought the state mandates were unnecessary but were complying with them anyway, or because you trusted the state to know when they will be no longer necessary.
I’ll stay with the mask until about Feb of 2022. That should carry me through that winter’s cold and flu season. Normally in the winter for the past few years I get a cough that lasts around three weeks. As for air travel, airports, and trains, it might be forever for me.
One thing I’ve realized since reading the responses in this thread is that for me, at least, the mask is kind of a secondary concern. It all comes down to, when will I be able to participate in activities involving voluntarily gathering with strangers in a secondary location that’s not necessarily well ventilated? As long as I can do that, I don’t really care if I have to do it with a mask on or not.
As an aside, it also occurred to me that after vaccination, we won’t have to be as meticulous about cleaning masks after every single use and all that, right? After all, it’s to keep you from contacting virus traces on the surface of the mask, and if you’re still wearing a mask regularly anyway, that keeps anything you might pick up from transmitting, right?