Mask mandates are going away soon worldwide. Regardless of what you think of the wisdom of this, eventually everyone’s going to have to decide whether, when, and how to resume interacting with other human beings on the level we did pre-pandemic.
I was just wondering how y’all are going to make that determination, and what precautions you’ll continue taking and for how long. What people outside your life (the CDC, your governor, the CEO of your workplace) will have an influence, and how much? How does that balance against “special” factors in your life that may not be shared by a majority of the public (immunodeficiency, very young children, caretaking for elderly relatives, etc)?
Life for all of us has been back to somewhat normal as of spring last year. We follow whatever the current guidance is in regards to masks, but otherwise our lives have been more or less how they’ve been pre-pandemic.
Depends what you mean. I’m not ready to start going on cruises yet, but I’ve been flying for nine months now and have five plane trips scheduled over the next few months (all domestic US.). Also, I started going to large concerts again in September. I’ve gone to 11 medium to large events since then and am scheduled to attend about a dozen more over the next half year.
I follow all the rules, and I’m fully vaccinated, including booster, but I’m going to enjoy life.
Ontario has so far resisted going the way of Saskatchewan and Alberta, which are ending mask mandates and vaccine passport requirements, but the Premier is apparently considering speeding up our re-opening. We were supposed to go to the next stage on Feb. 21 then more or less back to normal three weeks after that if the trends were okay. There’s supposed to be an announcement later today. It’s tricky here, we can’t throw things open like the prairie provinces: SK has about a million people in total; three or four times as many live just in my city.
At any rate, I’m going to keep wearing a mask in public for a few more months no matter what the laws say. I still doubt nightclubs will be opening soon, but on the remote chance that they do, I’ll also hold off on those for a while to see where things land re: new variants. I have concert tickets for later in the year, but the first one isn’t until August. Maybe I’ll be comfortable standing cheek-to-jowl in a club watching Peter Hook tear it up by late summer. I’m also in the beginning stages of planning a much-delayed trip to England and Germany, but I’m holding off committing to anything moneywise until inter-country travel in Europe is streamlined. I don’t want to have to spend half my time there lining up for rapid tests to prepare for my next train ride.
Never been on a cruise, they seemed like floating petri dishes even at the best of times, and I don’t think I’ll start in my lifetime.
Same here. If there is no mask requirement (or request by a store, for example) I will stop wearing one. I’ll work from home when I want to work from home, not because of fear of interactions at the office.
We’ve rejoined. Our whole household is current on vaccinations, and we all got Covid around New Years anyway (it was mild). We wear masks when required/requested, and the kids are still required to wear masks at school but that will go away in a bit over a month here.
I’ll likely wait a month or two after the general population has stopped masking and such, to see if it blows up in their faces. I’ve had ongoing lung problems that would be exacerbated by COVID, so have tended to be more conservative in how I approach these issues.
Aside from working from home (which I have no plans to change), my life is more-or-less the same as it was pre-pandemic (aside from big changes in marital/family situations that have nothing to do with the pandemic).
This is nearer to where I am. Indoor mask mandates are going away locally on Feb. 16. But I do wonder if they’re jumping the gun and I may just wait a bit to see if it creates a mini-surge or worse. By which I mean I might still mask in grocery stores and I think I might just stick with takeout or patios only restaurant-wise until perhaps summer. Also as I mentioned in another thread I might just be done with movie theaters forever.
Work is a little different - I interact with a relatively small number of people daily and I know all of their vaccination statuses.
Yeah, context also matters. I’m okay going to my local pub, because I know the regulars there, and they’ve all been pretty sensible this whole time. There’s a few of us there with preexisting health problems, and no one is a big enough jerk to want to cause problems for those people.
But other places, with a more random clientele? I’m much less likely to go there, and if I do go, I would take much greater precautions (check to see how crowded it is, things like that).
In most respects, I prefer the Covid lifestyle. I dislike large parties, have limited interest in eating in restaurants, limited interest in air travel, etc.
I have 3 trips planned thru Aug - all driving up to 14 hrs, and only 1 involves a hotel stay.
I have only missed 2 things:
1 attending music concerts;
2 I am in a band, and I miss playing in retirement homes.
Other than that, I’m pretty much fine just doing what I’ve been doing the past 2 years, and socializing w/ the 15 or so people I have been socializing with.
This describes me as well. Prior to Covid I refused air travel, avoided restaurants, and hadn’t been to a movie theater this millennium (literally – last time was 1999). I went on one cruise in 1981 and absolutely despised every minute of it, so not likely to join one of those floating virus incubation tenements in any conceivable scenario. I spent my “before” time RV camping, lounging around on my boat in lonely coves, or experimenting with recipes at home while watching Netflix.
During Covid I did, well, the same exact things, with the minor change of wearing a mask the few times I entered a business. We concentrated shopping into fewer trips (ie. larger grocery load out, but only once per 2-3 weeks). I’ve visited bars, nightclubs, and shopping centers exactly as often as pre-Covid.
There’s been so little change in my interaction with society that there’s no “rejoining” decision to make. If there’s a sign on the door requesting masks, I’ll put mine on. I’m indifferent to the mask itself, they don’t bother me at all. So I guess I’ll stop when the signs are removed.
I wonder sometimes how I would’ve reacted to the pandemic when I was younger. It would definitely have been a larger interruption in life. I am quite sympathetic toward younger, more outgoing people during this nightmare (to them, anyway).
See, I don’t understand how anybody can consider life normal while international travel is so restricted. It has nothing to do with my own personal sense of safety: Currently I cannot travel to Japan, say, whether I feel comfortable or not. Specifically, I have been planning to go to Singapore for about two years now. Until I can go there without having to quarantine I won’t be back to my normal life.
I don’t plan on any significant changes. Regardless of mask mandates, I’ll be masking up for the foreseeable future. Maybe forever, with some exceptions. Where I live has always been mask-friendly and I wonder if there’s going to be a step change here, with some fraction using masks no matter what.
I’m not going back into the office full-time, either. Maybe in a few months I’ll go in one day a week, but not likely more than that.
My own standards have always been higher than the mandates and other restrictions, so in some sense they don’t matter at all to me. I’m in no hurry for any of them to be lifted.