An annoying propaganda piece promoting infection, but it does resonate a little for me:
https://demo.thisischip.com/?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/06/25/covid-precautions-summer-vaccines-deaths/&o=share
I've seen more #covid cautious folks loosening up in the past few months, more than ever before.
Is it 3+ years taking a toll? Is it low waste water figures that give confidence? Is it some ventilation that makes things feel safe? Do people truly long for unmasked companions?
Sometimes it has made me feel somewhat lonely & made me worry that the covid movement will slowly dissolve.
I've seen quite a few "you can't expect anyone to be perfect" / "we need to think about mental health" / "you can't go zero risk forever" / "you need to be reasonable, low risks are fine" and I get that others feel like that.
I'm not doing anything with other people around for fun. I just go to necessary appointments and abandoned places out in nature.
I don't want to take the risk & honestly I just also don't want people anymore. Sometimes I feel a little alone in that isolating sentiment.
Thanks for posting your thoughts. I'm finding it a particularly strange time to still be COVID cautious. Even the few people I knew who were still holding on as late as this past winter now openly wonder if my wife and I have gone mad. The same people who understood that we weren't going to attend holiday celebrations and didn't push it are now demanding that we give it up and join their BBQs and other events and talk about how we must be the only people left in the world who haven't thrown away our masks.
I posted this elsewhere, but on the one hand I get it. Our county quit testing and reporting at the end of last summer and it's been 10 months since there's been a single "official" COVID case at all here. The emergency declaration ended. There's no wastewater testing here. You couldn't buy a test or a mask in a store if you tried. It's really all testing the theory that if you can't see it, does it really exist?
Of course it does, but, you have to be actively looking for it, reading the scientific literature, and no one else is. You're not going to get that info without seeking it out, and obviously that's by design.
Personally, we're still hanging on, but, I admit to wondering whether the world will allow it for much longer or if we'll be forced to give it up before there's better vaccines and treatments. It seems to be trending that way recently and I find it pretty disheartening.
@BE @begrudging_recluse You are by no means “the only people who haven’t thrown away masks”. My spouse and I are still wearing N95s inside anywhere that’s not home, only socializing / eating with others outside well spaced, and only traveling (masked) when absolutely necessary. We’re lucky to live in a university town and see a few others masking too, and some of our friends are like us. I don’t care what other people think, I’m going to cut risk as much as I can.
I absolutely know we're not, but within our county of 200,000 people, we actually might be. Other than a single chin diaper last year I haven't seen a mask on another person in at least 18 months. I at least get where they're coming from, even if they're severely wrong.
We have taken some road trips to get out of this rural bubble, but I bet very few others have.
@BE @begrudging_recluse “Chin diaper” 🤭 lol! I really wonder what it’s going to take to make people realize why it’s sensible to wear high quality masks in situations where they will be breathing in large quantities of what other ppl breathe out. I used to think that if virus was visible everyone would mask, but then we had thick wildfire smoke and loads of ppl were still outside unmasked 🤷. Maybe celebrities could make it fashionable… 🙇