COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[NYSforKennedy2024]

I hope that a mask mandate does not return to my workplace or to Colorado. I would be sorely disappointed if I had to wear one again, as I've been fully vaccinated for over two months now.

You did your job and it's still not good enough, peasant! Put it on!

[NYSforKennedy2024]

I am fully vaccinated and still wearing an N-95 mask. Every door shut on a potential infection no matter how unlikely moves us away from Covid faster. Why can't people still not understand this?

Why can't I just put the star on my chest?

I can understand being angry at mask mandates but the Holocaust comparison is infantile. Please do not use that, it makes you look terrible.

I don't care anymore. I could've died getting that vaccine (shellfish allergy, Guillian-Barre in family genes), I did my job. The impacts of reversing a policy like this are going to be an absolute mess and result in more death and hospitalizations. They might as well just start the bulls*** InfoWars stuff now if it's really in the plans.

[KaiserDave]

Anti Vaxxers polluting this thread with garbage

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Yeah, no, I'm not complying with any recommendations or mandates any longer.  I'm vaccinated and I'm done with it.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Yeah, no, I'm not complying with any recommendations or mandates any longer.  I'm vaccinated and I'm done with it.

Chad. You and THG some of my favorite new people on here I've been seeing.

[politicallefty]

Well, I certainly feel vindicated after what I've been saying for over two months. I did go out to eat a couple days ago without a mask. It was literally the first time I've been in a non-residential place without a mask since early last year. It was a risk/reward balance and I went with the latter for once. But I went to the grocery store after and put my mask on. I support mitigation efforts, which include masks and basic social distancing. I do not support going back to lockdowns (unless this mutates into something far more virulent).

I'm not surprised to hear so many say they're done. It's all about them. Don't consider the possibility of the virus mutating into something worse. We really are the stupid country and we're going to end up paying the price.

[The Free North]

I don't follow the logic here at all.

[pbrower2a]

Redundant precautions prevent calamities.

There was no redundancy at Chernobyl.

[politicallefty]

Kentucky and Ohio have announced they will not be requiring masks in schools this year. I'm sure Indiana is the same way.

I know my local district did not enforce it 100% last year, because there was always somebody on Facebook complaining about the lack of enforcement.

Are you actually celebrating that? There are no vaccines mandates anywhere of that sort. Those under 12 probably cannot even get the opportunity for the vaccine until possibly January. What does that accomplish? You're beating masks? I would be afraid to send a <12 year old to school without a mask mandate. Our enemy is still the virus, despite what so many have forgotten.

[here2view]

As I said in the megathread:

I literally don't care. I live in a county where 70% of those eligible (12+) are already fully vaccinated. My fiancee and I had COVID in January and both of us are fully vaccinated now (Moderna for me and Pfizer for her.) We've gone to malls, baseball games, visited friends out of state, etc. since May.

I could not care less about the CDC recommending this for people in high transmission rates. I don't live in Alabama.

(And I'm the furthest thing from an anti-masker considering I'm a teacher who taught in-person this past year.)

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Are you actually celebrating that?

Yes. I am. Like millions of other people.

[HAnnA MArin County]

Shout out to my fellow fully vaccinateds who have still been wearing a mask and socially distancing while in public.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Shout out to my fellow fully vaccinateds who have still been wearing a mask and socially distancing while in public.

Would you be following every order if it was Red Team telling you to do so?

[Donerail]

Redundant precautions prevent calamities.

There was no redundancy at Chernobyl.

Do you think the consequences of a vaccinated person choosing not to wear a mask could in any way be comparable to a nuclear meltdown?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I don't know what the exact recommendation will be, but I'm not going to start wearing a mask due to a virus I'm vaccinated against.  Tennessee has banned mask mandates, so there's no chance we will have a mandate here, anyway.

[politicallefty]

Are you actually celebrating that?

Yes. I am. Like millions of other people.

Yes, and they are called anti-vaxxers. I suppose it's fun that you get some strange satisfaction when you don't have any children of your own that are under 12. I always hesitate to use the ignore button, but it's clear you're a lunatic only concerned about yourself.

[soundchaser]

It’s well past time to mandate the vaccine for everyone over 12 nationwide. We cannot keep entertaining the notion that being anti-vax is reasonable, and we cannot keep those of us who did the right thing from living our lives.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

It’s well past time to mandate the vaccine for everyone over 12 nationwide. We cannot keep entertaining the notion that being anti-vax is reasonable, and we cannot keep those of us who did the right thing from living our lives.

Insanely authoritarian mindset.

[Real Texan Politics]

I don't know what the exact recommendation will be, but I'm not going to start wearing a mask due to a virus I'm vaccinated against.  Tennessee has banned mask mandates, so there's no chance we will have a mandate here, anyway.

Most red states will most likely not be bringing back statewide mask mandates. I do, however, see many big businesses (Walmart, Target, Walgreens, etc.) bringing back mask mandates regardless of vaccination status. These will probably stick around for a very long time, or until the guidelines change again.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Yes, and they are called anti-vaxxers.

No they are not. That is not what the word means.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

I don't know what the exact recommendation will be, but I'm not going to start wearing a mask due to a virus I'm vaccinated against.  Tennessee has banned mask mandates, so there's no chance we will have a mandate here, anyway.

Most red states will most likely not be bringing back statewide mask mandates. I do, however, see many big businesses (Walmart, Target, Walgreens, etc.) bringing back mask mandates regardless of vaccination status. These will probably stick around for a very long time, or until the guidelines change again.

Fully prepared to be arrested for trespassing if this is the case.

[soundchaser]

It’s well past time to mandate the vaccine for everyone over 12 nationwide. We cannot keep entertaining the notion that being anti-vax is reasonable, and we cannot keep those of us who did the right thing from living our lives.

Insanely authoritarian mindset.

Oh, please. I want our individual freedoms back — and if the government is going to use these half-measures like mask recommendations (that really only serve as a stop gap) when we have a way out of this, they need to just rip off the damn Band-Aid.

[politicallefty]

Yeah, I think I'm done with this topic. This is legitimately the stupid country and there will be a price to pay for that. It's clear that some on the so-called left are just as bad as those on the right. Wearing a f-cking mask in a grocery store isn't harming anyone. Vaccines and masks together have the potential to crush this virus, but so many want to relinquish some of our best tools. What's going to start happening is that a significant part of the population is going to start staying home again because they're legitimately freaked out. It may be that the Delta variant isn't enough to send vaccinated people to the hospital for the most part, but allowing this virus to run rampant across the population is both reckless and dangerous.

[Horus]

Shout out to my fellow fully vaccinateds who have still been wearing a mask and socially distancing while in public.

When do you plan to stop wearing a mask and socially distancing?

As I live in a county with a high vaccination rate, I will not be following any of these recommendations and will only, unenthusiastically, don a mask if the building I am entering requires it. Even that is getting tepid, if cases continue to decline I may throw the masks out completely.

[GeneralMacArthur]

I personally think we should make anti-vaxxers pay the hospital bills of the vaccinated.

If you're vaccinated and you come down with COVID, your coverage for COVID, as well as any long-term side effects, is free for life.  Create a new fund for this, and pay for it by raising taxes on the unvaccinated.

At the end of every year, calculate how much was spent on those bills, calculate the tax rate required of the unvaccinated population in order to pay that off, add that as a new tax, but add an equivalent tax break if you can prove that you are vaccinated.  The Supreme Court already said this is legal based on the individual mandate precedent.

If you do get vaccinated, then you leave the pool.  That makes the pool smaller, so in future cycles, the holdouts will have to pay more.

You want freedom to harm your fellow Americans?  This is the price of it.

Honestly wish we could charge anti-vaxxers with manslaughter as well, every time someone who's vaccinated gets the virus and dies, but the contact tracing is too hard to prove.