Highly vaxed purple/blue area in a very blue larger metro area. Masks on indoors always, mixed outdoors.
I had to tell my husband that if we are the only family at the park that the kids don’t need masks. I can’t wait for them to be vaccinated and move on at least a little with our lives. We had friends over last weekend for an <20 person holiday party. It was so nice to have something somewhat normal.
I live in Seattle and honestly we should ease back restrictions, setting aside Omicron for the time being. On-site extracurriculars should be back (with masks I guess), vaccinated family members should be allowed to volunteer at school, I should be able to go to spin class without a mask (but with proof of vaccination), offices should require proof of vaccination but otherwise be back to normal. Maybe large offices and retailers should require masks but eh.
We've fully vaccinated 86% of adults here, weighted towards older adults. We've eliminated around 93% of the mortality risk at a minimum. The hospitals are not filling up. If you haven't gotten your shot yet I'm sorry I think that's on you. We've tried asking nicely, we've tried giving away stuff, we've tried yelling, we've tried requiring it. It's time to send everybody a crate of kf94 masks and move on with life. We'd save more lives by banning cars and making people take mass transit + walk/ride bicycles everywhere instead.
My guess is that stuff will ease up in April -- the 1 year anniversary of universal availability here, plus a reasonable guess at when 2-4yos will be able to get their shots -- but if it doesn't and the health situation is roughly where it is now, I'm gonna be pissed.
DITTO. All of it. I do not know a single person who is not vaxxed (not eligible notwithstanding). What is the point of being vaxxed if life can't return to normal-ish. I'm happy to keep masking inside, but I will absolutely not be sad when I no longer have to wear a mask in the classroom.
My biggest issue right now is that our school is requiring outdoor lunch. Every single student in my grade is vaccinated. Why are we eating outside?
I live in a blue dot in a red state with a Democratic governor. Vax rates are around 75% here -- last week, our school district said 20% of 5-12s had received their first shot, which isn't great but is way above the state average.
Generally, people here act like COVID doesn't exist. We wear masks indoors and are one of the few at this point. We are in school and in activities and wear masks (thankfully required at school but not at activities). Our friends are vaccinated and boosted, and we hang out in small groups indoors and outdoors with them. It is a risk I am willing to take for a dose of normalcy at this point.
With an *almost* fully vaccinated family (my youngest turns 5 this winter), I am of the mindset that, once she's vaccinated, we have done all we can do personally, we are selective in what we do and who we hang out with, and we follow any recommended COVID guidance to reduce our risk. But, we aren't going to lock ourselves inside forever and instead have to learn to live with this.
Chicago area. We’ve had a mask mandate this entire time except for like two weeks. I want benchmarks of when it goes away. If we hit x new cases or x% of ICU beds open, I want to know we’ll be done. I’m happy to wear them again if numbers hit a level indicating masks are required, but I want definitions of what those numbers are. At one point, I think we were one of two states with mask mandates, and our cases were super low. It’s frustrating because if there isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel, people give up.
I have some friends living like normal and some like they are still unvaccinated and in deathly danger. We are in between, but closer to normal. We still don’t take our little one many places, and we aren’t going places with major crowds, but the vaccinated members in our family are living more normally now. One kid’s school lets parents volunteer but you can’t bring any food/treats. The other does not let parents volunteer but does allow food and treats. Both of us still work from home mostly, though my H goes in 1-2 times per week .
Post by awkwardpenguin on Dec 14, 2021 0:45:18 GMT -5
I’m in Chicago proper, we have a statewide indoor mask mandate in public places and everyone follows it. Most bars require proof of vaccination and some restaurants too. My pool is open at half capacity. Kids are back in school full time but masked.
Socially we’re still locked down even though I’d prefer to not be, because lots of people still aren’t doing indoor activities. My book club is still meeting on Zoom. DS (4) is still unvaccinated but his BFF is fully vaxxed because she’s 5 so we’re doing an indoor play date this weekend.
I think this summer/early fall was probably as good as it’s going to get, case wise. If we’re waiting for things to get better to resume life, it may not happen. I don’t think we’ve really grappled with that yet.
BC has mask mandates in all indoor public spaces, including schools. I'm okay with that. We've got a fairly high vaccination rate, and restaurants and other indoor venues require vaccine passports. I'm okay with that too. I'm over the pandemic as a whole but appreciate the rules on place that allow us to live a fairly normal life.
I’m also in NY. My county has around 60+% of total population vaccinated. My H and I are fully vaccinated and boosted, DD will be two weeks post 2nd shot this Thursday. DS will be 5 in April, so waiting for eligibility for under 5s, or his birthday. As others have said, NY just reinstated the indoor mask mandate yesterday, but it had little impact for us because we have been wearing them all along to protect the kids. Masks are required indoors at school.
We were doing pretty well, until DS got quarantined last week after an exposure at daycare. That turned into a second exposure before we knew about the first, pushing back his quarantine date. Those exposures resulted in 5 cases out of his small, in-home daycare/preschool. Thankfully, we’ve tested him several times and he remains symptom free and testing negative. But, we’re still dealing with the inconvenience/trauma of keeping him home for 10 days while we work, anxiety over the possibility of him getting sick, canceling fun holiday plans for last weekend, and limbo because we’re supposed to host Christmas for my family this upcoming weekend. Now that it appears we’re in the clear, I’m scrambling to do all of the things I didn’t want to do if we weren’t going to be able to host. I’m so tired, and so done with all of this. He’s a very healthy 4yo. I don’t want him to get COVID, but I’m fairly certain he would be fine. I just can’t take the huge disruption to our lives at a moment’s notice anymore. I need him to be able to get the vaccine.
There’s a huge range of what people are doing. We still avoid large crowds. H and I have eaten indoors at restaurants a handful of times, but never with the kids. We do things we really want to do, and see the people we really want to see. Most of our friends and family are vaxxed, boosted, etc…
I’m in Florida so everyone around me has been “normal” since May 2020. We had a mask mandate at work (college) until last summer. I still wear a mask (really only faculty do—and not all). I have lost multiple former students (20’s and 30’s). Those were just the ones I heard about because I happened to see an obituary
. @@@my kids have had in-person school since August 2020 (we opted for virtual last year though). @@@
I feel like everyone forgot my family as everyone went on with their lives and no longer will invite us (or accept our invites) as we were more conservative in our approach.
I’m in Florida so everyone around me has been “normal” since May 2020. We had a mask mandate at work (college) until last summer. I still wear a mask (really only faculty do—and not all). I have lost multiple former students (20’s and 30’s). Those were just the ones I heard about because I happened to see an obituary
. @@@my kids have had in-person school since August 2020 (we opted for virtual last year though). @@@
I feel like everyone forgot my family as everyone went on with their lives and no longer will invite us (or accept our invites) as we were more conservative in our approach.
Yep we definitely had some of this, too. It really sucks. As soon as I could see how depressed my kid was we opened back up some but we lost friends in the process. She still doesn't get it. It's good to know who were really friends and who weren't though.
I’m right outside Boston - highly vaxxed/blue area with a LOT of medical professionals. Very Covid conservative (still have mask mandates, schools are doing outdoor eating/spacing/test to stay programs etc). I’m fine with masks indoors for shopping etc. I’ll be happy when schools can take away masks just because I know it’s hard on the teachers.
We aren’t totally normal yet but way more relaxed than a year ago. We still haven’t eaten indoors at a restaurant since March 2020 for example. DS1 (14) went to a movie this weekend and that was the first for any of us since the pandemic started. But, I went to see Hadestown a few weeks ago and we are going to the Boston Pops next week etc. We were going to unclench now that DS2 has both doses, but then omicron hit. I’m on immunosuppressives so need to be more cautious. It feels very never ending to me.
In an historically purple Philly burb here. Life is pretty much back to normal; I'd say half to two-thirds of people are wearing masks in any given store. Pretty much everything is open without restrictions (restaurants at full indoor capacity, etc)
Our school board is so bat shit crazy that they've been the subject of multiple NY Times features. They just removed the mask mandate in schools as of yesterday, but according to my son it was pretty much optional/unenforced before then anyway so absolutely nothing changed. My daughter attends a private school in a different county. Their covid protocols are much stricter and still fully masked for everything.
Honestly, my H and son got covid in February despite the fact that we were the most conservative people in our social circle, in terms of covid precautions. After that I became a little "fuck it" with restrictions because I felt like the sacrifices weren't worth it (we still got it, our quarantine was horrible because me and DD never tested positive so we had to keep her home from school for a month, etc). We still wear masks, we are all fully vaxxed and H and I are boosted, but otherwise are not restricting our activity. We eat in restaurants, meet up with friends, I am traveling for work this week, etc.
I'm outside of NYC and as others have said, the governor has issued a mask mandate again. Our county exec has said he will not enforce the mandate in our county. The public schools here are having activities and sports, but my kids go to a Catholic school and the archdiocese will not open up at all. We're not even allowed to have outside events.
I'm in a red city in a blue state with a Dem gov (Inslee).
My county is at 64% vaxxed. I'll be surprised if we make it to 70%. My county is one of 15 in my state that qualifies for free at home antigen tests to be sent to your house. We have a mask mandate for inside all schools, businesses and stores.
My DS5 is one of very few in his school who wear a mask correctly except while eating. (I'm including the teachers in this assessment.) Very few people mask outside. I hardly ever do unless it's really crowded. Masking in stores has gone down. There are way more no mask in sight people inside stores/businesses than last year. Outside sports seem to be back to normal with no masking outside except a very few. Inside sports are hit or miss with mask compliance. No players wear masks inside.
We've been locked down with DS5 (except for school starting at the end of August 2021) since March 2020. He'll be 2 weeks post his second vax on Saturday and H & I are boosted so and we'll be doing stuff & seeing people again. At this point we've done what we can. We'll mask as we're asked/when we feel more comfortable doing so when not required, and watch for hospitals filling up (which they are right now) to temper what/how much we do/who we see based on their vax status. It's so good for our mental-well being to be around people; 18 months of isolation was more than enough (up until August 2021).
I'm in a Boston suburb and I feel like I'm liking in the twighlight zone. Most people are back to normal life, but cases here are peaking at the same rate as last year. I don't understand it giving the high vaccination rate in the state. Masks are not required (only a few towns are requiring it). I still wear mine, but I've noticed most people are not anymore.
Our school is in the midst of the biggest outbreak we've ever had. It started with an outbreak in the 2nd grade and they did test and stay and found a whole bunch more positives. Now they are testing the entire grade every day (not sure for how long). DD1 is in 1st and multiple kids in her class are close contacts. It is getting scary, we never had this many cases all of last year. I'm so lucky we got DD1 vaccinated right after it was approved for her age, so she's fully vaxxed, but she's in the minority. In my town, 30% of kids 5-11 have had 1 shot, only 14% have had both. DD2 is still ineligible for the vaccine and my anxiety for her is through the roof.
I realized this morning that in March, we will have been in this pandemic for 2 years. That hit me really hard.
I’m in a blue city in a red county in a purple state. There aren’t mandates in place so it really depends on where you go and who your circle is.
I went to one pharmacy for my flu shot and it was 100% masked. I went to a different pharmacy for my covid booster and I was the only one wearing one. Most stores and restaurants are like this. We’ve found our places we feel safe and have been sticking to them.
Schools have dropped their mask mandates, we did in person learning last year, and extra curricular activities have been operating as normal since this summer. Our vaccination rate of children is significantly higher than the rest of the state, but still lower than I would like to see.
Meanwhile, our hospital is diverting ambulances and is transferring patients out of state. And my friend tried to take her kid to urgent care last week but ended up leaving after 2.5 hours because they were nowhere close to being seen.
Our group of friends is wearing masks in public spaces and are all vaccinated (if eligible). Most of us are still required to work from home. We are doing play dates indoors with this group now that it is too cold to get together outside. We are all careful and avoid each other if we have participated in anything risky.
Post by steamboat185 on Dec 14, 2021 11:27:04 GMT -5
We are in Denver masks are required indoors everywhere and anytime we are on school property including outside. I really don’t mind at all. My gym is making everyone show proof of vaccine status to workout- without a mask. The kids are in dance and gymnastics and wear masks. We went to the theater this week and everyone had to show proof of vacations and wear a mask. I’m fine with this level of restrictions. It feels like something we could do indefinitely. Edit we still aren’t eating inside restaurants, but the kids just made it past the 2 week wait after the 2nd vaccine and we just got boosted so maybe we will soon?
Last year we had to leave the school immediately after dismissal (no playground time allowed) the kids could only play with their class at recess, they had to each lunch in their classrooms, and couldn’t leave their seats. That was bad. What they are doing this year is sustainable in my opinion- they have even moved some of the “well known” school events outside so parents can come watch if they are masked and we can volunteer at the outside events if we show proof of vaccination.
Honestly, my H and son got covid in February despite the fact that we were the most conservative people in our social circle, in terms of covid precautions. After that I became a little "fuck it" with restrictions because I felt like the sacrifices weren't worth it (we still got it, our quarantine was horrible because me and DD never tested positive so we had to keep her home from school for a month, etc). We still wear masks, we are all fully vaxxed and H and I are boosted, but otherwise are not restricting our activity. We eat in restaurants, meet up with friends, I am traveling for work this week, etc.
I think lots of people once it’s been in their house (assuming it wasn’t deadly or long covid-y) kind of feel a lot less anxiety about it than others. My teen got it at the end of January. No one else in our house got it despite taking no precautions in the home. Kind of made me really feel like wearing a mask in the grocery store was over the top because of I could be in close contact with someone with covid for days and not get it then probably the 15 seconds that I might be next to someone looking at apples isn’t going to be that big of a deal. And frankly it just seems like an absolute crap shoot as to who gets it, people taking no precautions seem to get it at nearly the same rate as people taking lots of precautions in my circles.
I'm in a blue area of a very red state (Florida) and it's still all over the board. Most people in my immediate neighborhood are volunarily masking at stores, going in and out of daycare, etc. but the restaurants are plenty busy so I suppose it's just about mitigating some but not all risk?
I am still under a mask mandate at work though and don't expect that to change any time soon.
I live in Seattle and honestly we should ease back restrictions, setting aside Omicron for the time being. On-site extracurriculars should be back (with masks I guess), vaccinated family members should be allowed to volunteer at school, I should be able to go to spin class without a mask (but with proof of vaccination), offices should require proof of vaccination but otherwise be back to normal. Maybe large offices and retailers should require masks but eh.
We've fully vaccinated 86% of adults here, weighted towards older adults. We've eliminated around 93% of the mortality risk at a minimum. The hospitals are not filling up. If you haven't gotten your shot yet I'm sorry I think that's on you. We've tried asking nicely, we've tried giving away stuff, we've tried yelling, we've tried requiring it. It's time to send everybody a crate of kf94 masks and move on with life. We'd save more lives by banning cars and making people take mass transit + walk/ride bicycles everywhere instead.
My guess is that stuff will ease up in April -- the 1 year anniversary of universal availability here, plus a reasonable guess at when 2-4yos will be able to get their shots -- but if it doesn't and the health situation is roughly where it is now, I'm gonna be pissed.
DITTO. All of it. I do not know a single person who is not vaxxed (not eligible notwithstanding). What is the point of being vaxxed if life can't return to normal-ish. I'm happy to keep masking inside, but I will absolutely not be sad when I no longer have to wear a mask in the classroom.
My biggest issue right now is that our school is requiring outdoor lunch. Every single student in my grade is vaccinated. Why are we eating outside?
Because there might be one breakthrough infection who transmits another breakthrough infection who then goes to a Idaho for Christmas and kills their unvaccinated Newsmax-addled grandmother.
You know what's higher risk than that? Driving from Seattle to Idaho and back in the winter!
(My mother is MSNBC-addled, she's convinced Trump and the whole crew are going to prison soon for ONE of their scams and that he's in Putin's pocket. I STG we need screen time rules for the elderly)
Post by mccallister84 on Dec 14, 2021 13:12:23 GMT -5
For those of you who are back to normal are you not concerned about quarantine requirements? Because honestly that’s my hold up now. I cannot do a 24 day quarantine (DD2 is too young to be vaxxed).
Disclaimer: I’m sure we’d survive it but I am really concerned for my mental health if we need to quarantine.
For those of you who are back to normal are you not concerned about quarantine requirements? Because honestly that’s my hold up now. I cannot do a 24 day quarantine (DD2 is too young to be vaxxed).
Disclaimer: I’m sure we’d survive it but I am really concerned for my mental health if we need to quarantine.
I’m terribly traumatized by our 24 day quarantine from when my teenager had covid. But, once DH and I were vaccinated and no longer required to quarantine I was no longer that concerned about it. We were also vaxxed when DD1 was still in her 90 day quarantine exemption period and she and DD2 were able to get vaccinated shortly after that ended. So the only person who would have been subjected to quarantine was my youngest.
Our school district isn’t quarantining after school exposure any more so quarantining in general wasn’t as much of a concern once they stopped that.
And now all of us are vaccinated so no one would be subject to quarantine any more unless we are actually sick with covid so quarantining is no longer a concern at all. The disincentive to testing because of the quarantine requirements is much higher for me at this point than any incentive for testing. I was an over tester for the past 18 months, but now I will only test for major major symptoms.
My brother and SIL had covid in their house twice and my SIL is seriously traumatized by the long quarantine periods. The first time their 4 year old contracted a completely asymptomatic case of covid that she transmitted to exactly no one in a pre vaccine world (late March before brother and SIL were eligible) and they had to do 24 days of quarantine. Then SIL contracted a breakthrough case (only lost taste and smell no other symptoms) and gave it to my brother (breakthrough also for him with essentially no symptoms) last month and neither of their kids contracted it so their kids were subjected to yet another excessively long quarantine. The kids are now vaccinated and brother and SIL got boosters because they are so traumatized by the quarantining. . But, ultimately the excessive nature of the quarantining will make them almost completely unlikely to ever test again.
For those of you who are back to normal are you not concerned about quarantine requirements? Because honestly that’s my hold up now. I cannot do a 24 day quarantine (DD2 is too young to be vaxxed).
Disclaimer: I’m sure we’d survive it but I am really concerned for my mental health if we need to quarantine.
If everyone else in your house is vaccinated why would it be a 24 day quarantine?
As I said earlier DD2 isn’t. She’s too young to be vaxxed. So it’s my understanding that if anyone of us got covid she has to quarantine for 24 days unless she also tests positive.
As I said earlier DD2 isn’t. She’s too young to be vaxxed. So it’s my understanding that if anyone of us got covid she has to quarantine for 24 days unless she also tests positive.
Right, I said everyone else in your house is vaccinated. Assuming you are vaccinated and boostered and not doing anything extremely high risk and have her mask as much as possible, I wouldn’t avoid doing reasonable things for this reason alone.
I mean we aren’t - they both go to preschool (masks required) and I’ll take them to the stores, etc and they wear their masks even if most other people aren’t. We even flew at Thanksgiving. But we aren’t doing indoor dining or indoor play dates, etc. and for me my hesitation is not getting Covid but the quarantine requirements that would come with it.
Central Ohio here, in a blue county surrounded by red. Numbers are definitely getting closer to December 2020/January 2021 levels but apparently rates in my county aren't as bad as other (more rural and less vaxxed) counties? Our city has a mask mandate but once you get outside the city limits it's up to individual businesses and not many have them. The county is at ~64% overall vax rate but only ~31% for 5-19 year olds which is actually a little higher than I thought it'd be. School has been okay overall, numbers have been up since Thanksgiving but trended down a bit last week and so far this week so we'll see how the next couple months go. Mask mandate at school is still in place and at AJ's school classes are split at lunch to allow for increased spacing (minimum of 3 feet, 6 feet preferred) while eating and unmasked. AJ claims his classmates are all pretty good about wearing masks properly but they're 8-9 year olds so who knows?
Both J and I work outside the home and have been all along-he's a restaurant manager and I work in healthcare but on the outpatient side of things. J's employer lifted their company mask mandate and are encouraging vaccination but not requiring it, J thinks at his restaurant the rate is maaaaybe 50%. Ours is still in effect because healthcare, and vaccines are required...if you don't get it and don't have an approved exemption on file you are subject to "work restriction" (have not found out details on what that means) and are not eligible for annual raises (this part is similar to flu shot policy). We are both fully vaccinated and boosted, AJ will be considered fully vaccinated on Sunday, and little miss Z (2.5) is too young still. Aside from her babysitter's (with a small group of kids, all parents are fully vaccinated) and vaccinated family members Z's "indoor activities" bubble is pretty nonexistent and will stay that way for now. AJ is back in indoor sports (basketball and soccer), and we plan to take him to some indoor sporting events this winter with masks when not in our seats.
Blue county in purple state. We're at almost 90% of adult pop with one dose, 81% fully vaccinated. Total population is almost 70% fully vaccinated. I don't think it's going to get much better outside of the 5-12 age who haven't been fully vaccinated yet.
I'd say things loosened up quite a bit a few months ago. Masks are required in school and at DD's TKD classes. Most stores have "masks recommended" signs and I'd say 50-70% of the people I see are wearing masks still. Outside I rarely see masks. It seems fairly thought out to me and I'm ok with it.
That being said, I personally have not fully unclenched. I'm not ready to eat inside but totally understand why others want to and do! Maybe it's because we have enjoyed curbside so much and we're not foodies? DD will be two weeks post second dose on Friday and we need to assess what will change for us.
Post by luv2rn4fun on Dec 14, 2021 13:53:48 GMT -5
We are at 65% vaccinated rate. We are the minority that wear a mask, pretty much anytime we are around others, unless required to do so (which is basically school when indoors). My boys (and myself) wear a mask since my youngest has asthma (they are scheduled to get their first shot in 2 weeks…couldn’t get in with our pediatrician sooner and this actually works well for the 2nd shot so we can do it at DS1 well appointment in Jan). Our state issued a mask mandate for everyone when indoors but I don’t see a lot of compliance happening here.
I actually know of more COVID cases now than the entire pandemic. Our neighbor is unvaccinated and had a rough time. They spread it to several other family by having the youngest quarantine with extended family instead of at home. More cases at school too, which hasn’t been the case since beginning of Oct.
If everyone else in your house is vaccinated why would it be a 24 day quarantine?
As I said earlier DD2 isn’t. She’s too young to be vaxxed. So it’s my understanding that if anyone of us got covid she has to quarantine for 24 days unless she also tests positive.
This is true (and could be longer if everyone in the house who's vaccinated gradually tests positive because the clock starts again every time...). I'm in this boat with DH, DD1 and I being fully vaccinated and DD2 being too young. I guess I don't even bother thinking about this because given Delta's and Omicron's contagiousness, once that shit enters our house we are all sitting ducks and she'll probably be infected if she wasn't the one to bring it home. That sounds terrible but it's the reality. DD1 tested positive in February (asymptomatic), and DH and I each only had one dose by then, so yes, those 24 days of isolation in the dead of winter were awful. The rest of us didn't get it, but that was with OG covid. I don't think we'll be as lucky the next time so quarantines should hopefully not last as long.
24 day quarantines sounds terrible. And honestly not very reasonable.
That was never a thing here. If you were a close contact last year in school you stayed home 10 days. You could come back with a negative test after that time. Now quarantines for exposure aren’t a thing at all.
We’ve been living pretty normally, except just being COVID conscious. Wearing masks when appropriate, hand washing, etc. Overall though, school is pretty much the only thing not back to normal (or as normal as we’ll ever get back to)
ETA - maybe normal is why our hospitals are struggling now? 😢