So what do you feel comfortable doing under what circumstances these days? Travel? Restaurants? Social gatherings? Masked/unmasked? Indoors/out? Maximum numbers?
I’m not sure if I’m falling victim of fatigue, but I have definitely let my guard down somewhat recently combined to the past 1.5 years. I was never as restrictive as some folk. For example, all along I played music indoors reasonably distanced with small groups of reasonably careful people. But I was fine with not going to restaurants/theaters.
But I’ve recently been invited to a couple of gatherings where I’m not sure very single person has been vaxxed, Theo the vast majority have been vexed/boostered. And I’ve played music in coffee houses where patrons unmask - and in a retirement home where some were masked and some weren’t. They said all residents were vexed, and told us we did not need to wear masks. It was a large, well ventilated room - but felt weird.
And a niece and a friend of my wife’s just came down w/ Covid, despite being vaxxed/bostered. Neither of these were rowdy, moshpit sorta folk.
I’m exhausted at having had to make these decisions for so long, and really frustrated at the idiots who have refused to get vexed. So as before, I’m trying to figure out what precuations/risks I feel necessary/prudent/responsible…
I have a ticket to a Dec 6th concert that I was really looking forward to and last week, after intensely mulling for a couple of weeks, I’ve made the decision to not go.
It really sucks, especially as there are more shows coming down the pipe but, my wife and I are in our early 60s and she’s immunocompromised. I just can’t justify the risk.
I’m fully vaxxed (and just got my booster earlier this week), and I’m still being pretty darned conservative.
I ate indoors at restaurants a couple of times last summer (after I got vaccinated, but before Delta really came on strong), but I haven’t been back in a restaurant since.
I’ve been going into stores all along, but always with a mask on.
I go to get my hair cut once a month, but again, with a mask on (and the salon where I go has strong masking and hand-washing requirements)
I get together with a small number of friends in their homes, but all of us are fully vaccinated.
I go up to Wisconsin to visit my parents every few months (they are vaccinated), and stay in their house, but we don’t do things like go out for dinner.
I went to a gaming convention in early October, where masking was required (and where compliance was very good), but I was definitely nervous about it. That also represented the only time I’ve been in a hotel room since COVID.
I have not yet gone back into my office (which re-opened, on an optional basis, in July).
I still haven’t gone back to movie theaters, concerts, sports events, etc.
I may be being more conservative than I strictly need to be, but I do have a pre-existing condition. I do seriously miss things like going to restaurants and concerts, but I guess I don’t feel that the risk is worth it.
I was starting to feel more comfortable, and even told my husband I want to go to a restaurant for my birthday next week. You know, where you actually eat your food off china and you didn’t have to reheat it in the microwave and the friendly bartender mixes your drink.
But now there’s that troubling new Covid strain from South Africa, so I don’t know…
I just last week accepted an invitation for a regularly-scheduled Solstice celebration luncheon with friends at an indoor venue. We didn’t meet last year due to COVID. I’m moving planets to get a booster vax before the event. Now, with the new COVID strain from Africa, I may rescind my RSVP.
I’m triple vaxxed but still on the front lines, with occasional covid positive folks amongst my patient population. My state rate for infections is around 63.5 positive cases/100K population per day. Most folks in my area ignore mask recommendations/mandates. My daughter is gravely high risk due to underlying lung disease, and she’s triple vaxxed. I get tested at least twice a week, sometimes once a week. I am not comfortable at all.
Just got back from xmas tree shopping at a couple of stores including HomeDepot. Probably 20% of customers were maskless, and another 20% (and many employees) had their noses out.
And out local grocery store has been undergoing renovation, and the construction workers are mostly unmasked, calling back and forth…
Just so fatiguing, Dunno if I’m becoming fatalistic or what…
I don’t care any longer. I’ll wear a mask everywhere since that’s what people do here (Canada) and I’ll get my booster when it is my turn early next year. Otherwise, I don’t follow the daily numbers. I mostly don’t think about. Whatever will happen will happen.
In such a situation, does the group ask/require that everyone be vaxxed/boostered? My wife’s friend getting it kinda shook us up, as she was fully vaxxed, and a member of my wife’s book group.
You’re in suburban Chicago, if I remember correctly? I am, as well, and at least at the stores I go to, masking is pretty good (probably 90+%), with exposed noses being uncommon.
But, when I go up to Wisconsin (as I did last weekend), and have to go into a grocery store or gas station, the unmasked are definitely in the majority.
I’m cautious, but fortunately the businesses I frequent are behaving responsibly and their practices ease my mind somewhat. For the record I’m fully vaxxed, I’ve also had the flu shot, and while I’m not sure how soon I’ll be eligible for a booster shot, I’ll offer up my arm as soon as it’s offered to me.
I’ve eaten at several sit-down restaurants since they’ve opened; all of them have asked for my provincial proof of vaccine certifiate, and they compare the name to my driver’s licence. This even happens at food courts here; I’ve done the ridiculous dance of putting away my phone, balancing the tray and fishing the licence out of my wallet just to eat Arby’s at the mall. Pretty much every store I go into is counting customers at the door to monitor occupancy; my favorite used CD store still maintains a line outside to limit the number of shoppers, and make you sanitize your hands at the entrance. They’ve loosened up occupancy restrictions at movie theatres and I’m still going. By and large audiences are remaining masked unless they’re eating, and the same stringent checks are happening at the doors (also, unless I’ve missed it, I haven’t seen a single news report about cinemas being a focus for spread here).
Concerts have started up again but I haven’t attended anything. I have tickets for Peter Hook & The Light next summer, and I can only assume things will be even more under control by then. Dance clubs still aren’t open. I miss my 80s new wave retro nights a lot, but I imagine I’ll be holding off for a while once those come back, to get the lay of the land. I’ve been to one backyard gathering, at the house of a friend who insisted that only fully-vaxxed people attend. No indoor parties yet.
Long story longer, while I do wish we were in a better stage of the pandemic in terms of transmissibility, I’m okay with where we are and I’m not limiting myself from too much that I want to do, but I’m on guard.
As much as possible, we do. I’m the outlier for this upcoming gathering because I haven’t been boosted yet. I have a heavy workload at this time of year and am not able to afford the down time for an adverse reaction. I anticipate it’s going to be another 3 days of rough going in the middle of this busy period, so careful planning is crucial.
I understand the boosters takes only 48 hours to become provide full protection, so that’s good. But it’s still unknown if the new African variant is resistant to the existing vaccines. That’s what’s got me nervous.
Home Depot on 22d in Oakbrook Terrace at noon today. To tell the truth, I’m not even sure what the current rules/proclamations/suggestions are. It just seems wearing masks indoors is prudent and respectful.
Did you have a really bad reaction to the vax? I haven’t heard of anyone really being knocked out of action by the booster. Feeling a little punky for a couple days, but nothing to prevent most work - unless you are a brain surgeon or air traffic controller or something. And - for everyone I’ve spoken with - the feeling of security FAR outweighs ay discomfort.
And, FYI, Illinois has been under a mask mandate for all indoor public spaces since August, for everyone over age 5, regardless of vaccination status (for a few months, the mask mandate had been lifted for vaccinated people). We’re apparently one of the few states which still has a statewide mandate.
It was pretty bad for the second shot (Pfizer). Two days of chills and fever, together with another day with sore joints and muscles, headache and general malaise. I didn’t expect it, since I had only a sore arm from the first shot.
Planning Moderna for the boost. Even with a bad reaction, the vaccine is totally worth the unpleasantness.
That was worse than I had w/ my 1 shot JJ - tho I was pretty bad that 1st night.
If you haven’t you might want to check around about Moderna boosters. See how common severe reactions are. Moderna is what I had and like I said, just a couple of days of, “Am I not quite feeling right?”, but nothing that prevented me from doing anything.
Yeah, that was pretty much my assumption. But I’ve gone to a couple of restaurants where the diners just take their masks off as soon as they are seated. And folk seem WAY more casual about indoor parties and such.
We mask up for everything - grocery stores, hardware stores and pharmacies - and keep a social distance. But we do go to indoor restaurants once or twice a week. We tend to choose small mom and pop places, and we go early so that we’re done and gone before most diners show up.
We’ve traveled a couple of times since the pandemic started, but we stay at house rentals which claim they disinfect between visits and apportion 72 hours between guest stays. We flew once, about which I was uncomfortable, but it turned out okay. Everyone was masked both in the airport and on the plane.
We don’t go to movies, music venues, churches, or bars.
So - folk asking about vax status before attending any family get-togethers?
I think I perceived that the past year and a half were - um - allowing me to be even MORE antisocial than I usually am. And after 1.5 years, I think I was re-assessing that.