I'm also still listening to today's Daily episode on the same topic. Even if not mandated, it appears that even fully vaccinated people should resume wearing masks if they stopped in certain locations, situations, etc.
Ya know what? Fine. A mask is the least disruptive thing to my life. I'm finally back in the office full-time being super productive. I'm seeing my friends and family again. I do not have the mental fortitude to give this up again for an indefinite period of time with shutdowns again. Of course, I say that while not believing mask mandates will actually work, because most of the people abiding by them will be vaccinated people, so it probably needs to be advisory. We just need to give full approval to the vaccines, reach the last people who can be convinced to be vaccinated (Apoorva in the Daily episode says she believes ~20% of adults will probably never go for it, but there are more than that that haven't gotten the shot yet that can be convinced), and approve the vaccine for more @ asap. And I just have to accept the strong possibility that I'll get infected, so it's more weighing of exposure risks like I did last year, but with a little more breathing room because of the vaccine.
Post by Velar Fricative on Jul 26, 2021 8:50:51 GMT -5
NYC will require all municipal workers to be vaccinated by mid-September (or face weekly testing). My borough is home to a sizable population of municipal workers (teachers, police, firefighters, sanitation, etc.) so I'm curious to see what this does to our rates (we are #3 out of the 5 boroughs in adult vaccination rates).
Our unions are strong so I think the weekly testing allowance is the only way they'll go along with it.
I do not know if this covers my employer - we are heavily funded by the city and receive benefits from them, but we're not a city agency per se. Our workforce of ~2k is about 65% fully vaccinated and I imagine things would pick up if we are included.
CNN Major medical groups call for mandatory vaccines for health care workers
As the number of Covid-19 cases surges in the United States, more than 50 health care groups -- including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association -- issued a joint statement calling for all health care and long-term care employers to mandate employees be vaccinated against Covid-19.
---------- Wonder if this will have an impact & if others professional groups will call for it also. The nurses lost their fight against the local hospital here & had to be vaccinated or fired.
NYC will require all municipal workers to be vaccinated by mid-September (or face weekly testing). My borough is home to a sizable population of municipal workers (teachers, police, firefighters, sanitation, etc.) so I'm curious to see what this does to our rates (we are #3 out of the 5 boroughs in adult vaccination rates).
Our unions are strong so I think the weekly testing allowance is the only way they'll go along with it.
I do not know if this covers my employer - we are heavily funded by the city and receive benefits from them, but we're not a city agency per se. Our workforce of ~2k is about 65% fully vaccinated and I imagine things would pick up if we are included.
Is there any talk of requirements for transit workers (including those that are not city agencies but with a large city presence, like LIRR, MTA, NJT)?
NYC will require all municipal workers to be vaccinated by mid-September (or face weekly testing). My borough is home to a sizable population of municipal workers (teachers, police, firefighters, sanitation, etc.) so I'm curious to see what this does to our rates (we are #3 out of the 5 boroughs in adult vaccination rates).
Our unions are strong so I think the weekly testing allowance is the only way they'll go along with it.
I do not know if this covers my employer - we are heavily funded by the city and receive benefits from them, but we're not a city agency per se. Our workforce of ~2k is about 65% fully vaccinated and I imagine things would pick up if we are included.
Is there any talk of requirements for transit workers (including those that are not city agencies but with a large city presence, like LIRR, MTA, NJT)?
My large hospital system in Houston, TX - our COVID cases have tripled in 2 weeks. 2 weeks ago we had about 100-ish patients across the system. We are at about 300 now. ERs are saturated. Med/surg floors are saturated. ICUs close to saturation.
I hope it’s enforced, but last summer when CA mandated weekly testing for hospital employees my hospital system declined, citing resource issues. And then we never heard anything else about it.
I hope it’s enforced, but last summer when CA mandated weekly testing for hospital employees my hospital system declined, citing resource issues. And then we never heard anything else about it.
I hope the costs are passed on to those choosing weekly testing over vaccination.
CNN Major medical groups call for mandatory vaccines for health care workers
As the number of Covid-19 cases surges in the United States, more than 50 health care groups -- including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association -- issued a joint statement calling for all health care and long-term care employers to mandate employees be vaccinated against Covid-19.
---------- Wonder if this will have an impact & if others professional groups will call for it also. The nurses lost their fight against the local hospital here & had to be vaccinated or fired.
I hope it’s enforced, but last summer when CA mandated weekly testing for hospital employees my hospital system declined, citing resource issues. And then we never heard anything else about it.
I hope the costs are passed on to those choosing weekly testing over vaccination.
I'm all for that!
At the same time, we're already understaffed and are having a hard time filling vacancies that have been open for a while. losing more staff will hurt, but hospitals have to choose ethics over $$ when they draw that line.
I hope the costs are passed on to those choosing weekly testing over vaccination.
I'm all for that!
At the same time, we're already understaffed and are having a hard time filling vacancies that have been open for a while. losing more staff will hurt, but hospitals have to choose ethics over $$ when they draw that line.
Not just ethics--I'm sure a large priority is keeping staff healthy so they are not missing work. An outbreak can take down a whole unit or office, especially since there's is no way to eat while distancing in some medical hospital/medical office settings (our local hospital staff outbreak was traced back to eating in the break room).
I think requiring the vaccine or regular testing is reasonable and I would like to see it more widespread. It does give people a choice, which I think cuts away at some of the reflexive "you can't tell me what to do" reactions. IMO it'll also ultimately nudge more people to get vaccinated if they have to deal with the inconvenience/discomfort of frequent testing.
I've noticed locally that some of the businesses that had done away with masks for their employees are back to wearing masks.
I’m not sure if more places are requiring it, but I’m definitely noticing more people, especially employees, are wearing them. At the beginning of last week, I’d guess that fewer than 5% of people were wearing masks. We might be up to 15%. Still not many, but a definite increase.
We’re quick to blame the Delta variant, but the timing also lines up pretty clearly when people stopped wearing masks in public. It makes me wonder how much of the increase is because of the variant vs being a testament to the effectiveness of masks. (That includes the vaccine. Those initial studies were done when everyone was wearing a mask. Vaccine is 90%ish effective WITH masks…but is it less without? How much less?)
Post by Velar Fricative on Jul 27, 2021 10:08:00 GMT -5
I've noticed fewer masks while out...
Like, I had been impressed at all the masking up in stores and stuff even after the mandate was lifted, so it's noticeable that there are fewer masks. At work we are quickly depleting our masks for visitors because more people are coming in without them.
I’m glad to see that, but it feels like it’s too late.
My county has skyrocketed in cases since our mask mandate was lifted in late May, naturally this was exactly what I predicted. We were at 2.2 cases per 100,000 residents per day, now we’re back to 17 cases per 100,000 residents per day. It immediately began going up and keeps accelerating.
And yet every day I see fewer masks and have begun getting snide comments about my wearing a mask. We resumed requiring them at work and our volunteers have people being outright abusive to them about it.
Glad they did it - salty it was even a thing they had to reverse.
Yeah, I’m still mad.
They never should have removed the mask mandate to begin with. Many of us said this would happen. It’s not about the science. It’s about human behavior.
Post by Velar Fricative on Jul 27, 2021 10:44:28 GMT -5
I'm not mad at the CDC. Based on some reports, it seems like the contagiousness and viral load of Delta was underestimated until further studies were conducted, and the increase in breakthrough cases might be more than they expected too (especially symptomatic breakthrough cases). The latter was alluded to in the recent Daily episode. The advice should always evolve with the findings buuuuuuuuut we all know this does not do anything to build trust among the unvaccinated.
Post by dulcemariamar on Jul 27, 2021 11:15:21 GMT -5
Watching from Europe, I was shocked when the CDC removed the mask mandate but we were in the middle of an increase of cases because of Delta so it was easy to see from that perspective that it was only a matter of time that it would hit the States since borders weren’t closed.
But I can also understand why the CDC made this recommendation because it was a carrot to dangle in front of people to encourage people to vaccinate. I still wear my mask everywhere and just consider the vaccine as an added bonus. I don’t think that this will be over until every county has access to the vaccine.
New coronavirus cases have declined for six days in a row in Britain, a shift that is baffling scientists, many of whom predicted a powerful surge in cases after the government relaxed all but a handful of restrictions in England last week.
Few experts are willing to draw definitive conclusions from the downward trend, which could reflect transient factors like the school summer break, the end of the European soccer championships or fewer people getting tested for the virus.
Could also be self-enforced behaviors by Brits - it seemed like there was a vocal contingent of people who didn't like "freedom day" and probably just stuck to previous behaviors due to the previous surge. And obviously, this could still change.
Post by Velar Fricative on Jul 27, 2021 11:23:46 GMT -5
I mostly blame most* people who can be vaccinated but aren't. Most chose to conveniently ignore the part about the CDC's guidance being for fully vaccinated people.
*I say "most" because I do know a couple of unvaccinated people whose situations I know make it difficult for them to get it done right now. But, they're not flouting the guidelines - they're wearing masks everywhere, maintaining distance as much as they can, etc. Sadly, most unvaccinated people in my area are just conspiracy theorists who are flouting the guidelines so that's where my anger is reserved. The people I know in this boat are pretty quiet about it as well except informing people when they need to know (i.e. not posting nonsense on social media).
New coronavirus cases have declined for six days in a row in Britain, a shift that is baffling scientists, many of whom predicted a powerful surge in cases after the government relaxed all but a handful of restrictions in England last week.
Few experts are willing to draw definitive conclusions from the downward trend, which could reflect transient factors like the school summer break, the end of the European soccer championships or fewer people getting tested for the virus.
Could also be self-enforced behaviors by Brits - it seemed like there was a vocal contingent of people who didn't like "freedom day" and probably just stuck to previous behaviors due to the previous surge. And obviously, this could still change.
I wouldn’t underestimate travel in Europe from July 15th until the end of August. So many people have 3+ weeks of holidays and the numbers are exploding in Spain/Greece/Portugal because they are the popular holiday destinations. Places like Baleares Islands are so ridiculously expensive this year because everyone and their brother from the UK are traveling there because it was at one time on the green list. I think it is on amber? Anyway... in my town it seems like a ghost town. I think most people took advantage of working from home and left as soon as school ended for the year
Today’s Daily episode was literally talking about how this was so unlikely to happen because of the optics around it, and the politics. So this surprised me.
My mom sent me this update today and it made me so happy. My H is a contractor and he knows that one of the people under him is unvaccinated and he suspects another who doesn’t wear a mask.