What role does the threat of variants play in your decision as to how long you’ll mask, everyone? I was listening to Dr. Fauci rebut Rand Paul’s claim that once someone has either had COVID-19 or been vaccinated, they don’t need to wear masks any longer because they’re fully protected. It’s a video, and the first two minutes or so are Paul spouting off, so I transcribed the relevant bits:
If I vaccinate you or me against the wild type, you get a certain level of antibody that’s specific for a particular viral strain. If there’s a circulating variant, you don’t necessarily have it [the level of antibody]. You have some spillover, to be sure, but you diminish anywhere from two-to eightfold the protection…We’re not dealing with a static situation of the same virus.
It seems to me most of us are talking and thinking as if we’re only dealing with one virus, the “wild” type. I know I have. Does the huge drop in immunity against the variants affect your answer?
you guys are much more hard core than me. I don’t clean masks after every use (in fact, rarely) I don’t have any interest in wearing them “forever” on airplanes. I’ll do what I have to do to get through the next few months. After that, i hope to return to 2019 behavior.
I’m concerned about that possibility; but I’m also aware that Fauci, the CDC, and at least some of my state people are also concerned about it. So I’m keeping a close eye out for changes in advice. If when I’m just about to say ‘whew’ and start letting the neighbors (one household at a given visit) come into my house possibly unmasked (three weeks to go now!), one or more of those sources withdraws a chunk of the current advice and tells me not to because of newer information, then I’ll follow the newer information.
Well, either the case numbers are low or they’re not. Most of the vaccines have some decent effect on the top 3 variants. The existence or dominance of one or another probably won’t change my behavior much. Still not sold on these being scarier.
It’s not necessarily enough to wear the most comfortable mask; being indoors all day, potentially near an office room full of others projecting their voices (and projecting air droplets), requires masking that’s effective. I wear an N-95 plus a mask over that one to make sure that my there’s a good fit around my face. I was wearing a K-94 mask but that didn’t fit too well. It does get tiring after a few hours, especially if you have to talk.
Regardless, I will wear them even after I get the second Moderna shot, which will hopefully be a done deal in another two weeks. The most important factor in whether to mask or not is not vaccination – you can still get COVID even after being vaccinated. It seems like a low risk, but that risk exists. What matters is disease incidence, new cases. When those go down and stay down, then the mask comes off.
It factors ‘bigly’, which is why I point to the number of new cases being my key metric. I have always looked at vaccination is another layer of protection; it’s more chainmail and a thicker chest plate, but it’s not a bulletproof shell.
Not to dig up an old argument but this is one reason why I’m willing to wait a few more weeks to get my second round of Moderna (by itself effective in lab studies after about 4 weeks), if that means that more people - especially those who are either really vulnerable due to old age or underlying health, or people who have to work and who regularly come into contact with the public, can get vaccinated. We can only hope that those who get vaccinated behave responsibly once they get their shots.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think we have enough data to support that statement in the real world. No question, there’s growing certainty that it sharply reduces the risk of going to the hospital and dying, but variants make the situation more fluid than what’s been reported to date.
I didn’t say the vaccines aren’t good protection; I said that they’re not completely bulletproof. I’m middle-aged and I have pulmonary issues, so I feel confident that a vaccine is a great layer of protection, but I’m not in a position to roll dice. If you’re young, female, and have no underlying conditions, what the hell…maybe take off the mask once in a while.
Yeah, I feel like “I’m going to wear masks forever” is either one of those opinions that is way more popular on the Internet than in real life, or it’s an example of how people are terrible at predicting how their beliefs and behavior will change in the future. Or possibly both.
Personally, I’ll be wearing one as long as there is either a rule or significant social pressure to do so, which I expect will be different in different contexts, but I’d be really surprised if it goes on past the end of the year outside of specific venues like airplanes.
Well, it sure sounds like you’re overstating the risk or maybe you just have a very low tolerance for this specific risk. The vaccine will reduce my chances of going to the hospital by 95% and my chance of going to the hospital was never very high in the first place. If a guy with covid coughs directly into your open fully vaccinated mouth, what do you figure the chances are you’ll end up in the hospital?
I don’t believe I’m overstating the risk; I think the variants from South Africa and Brazil have made the vaccine efficacy a known unknown at this point. I think they are still effective, but they may - and I stress may - not be quite as effective as once thought with these new variants. IIRC, Israel’s variants are mostly the original COVID, the UK strain, and whatever has emerged within its own population.
The AZ, Pfizer, J&J, and Moderna all seem to have the same effectiveness against the UK variant. The South African one seems to be the main one for concern about lowering effectiveness.
Right, and there are similar variants that are popping up all over the world; the virus seems to make a jump in the number of critical mutations whenever it gets ‘stressed’ - yes, I’m parroting what I’ve heard other experts say on this one. Squawk! squawk!
“Similar” variants have probably been popping up for 8-9 months. As I’ve said elsewhere, the current main line of the virus is one that swung into dominance last June or thereabouts.
It’s because I’ve had both the virus and the vaccine. I’ll play along with the state’s rules, but I’m not worried about getting or receiving this virus. The second they say I don’t have to, it’s coming off.
I don’t live in some podunk town where I’ll starve to death from lack of options. I know for a fact that there are many local businesses very keen to get back to normal.
Once again, a perfectly reasonable response . No one likes being tracked when they’re incarcerated - it’s nobody’s business if they prefer hanging out on the left side of their cell vs. the right side. Whatever happened to the expectation of privacy in our nation’s prisons!
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