Shanghai Disney closing again in response to Covid outbreak

I haven't thought about it lately. We've been mask free at work for about two months now, and I never stopped eating in restaurants outside of the few weeks in spring 2020 when I couldn't.

That said, I still haven't done the kind of traveling I did prior to March 2020, and at this point I can't figure out why. I think I just need to snap out of my routine and do a trip to get back in the swing of things.

Cleveland Clinic (in Ohio in any way) still requires masks for patients and staff. Think all the Cleveland area hospitals do. Dentists now requiring only for staff (95% of the time patients were there someone was looking in their mouth so masks weren't really very practical anyway). Nursing homes also require (for staff and visitors -- from what I see for patients its optional though not official policy). No where else requires them. I see some customers with masks and more employees in certain stores. Found out yesterday I have an uncle in ICU with Covid pneumonia. In late 80s with prior health issues. Fully vaxxed/boosted though.

We have learned to live with Covid (we can debate when that happened and we did--for about 80k pages--LOL). Could possibly see masks coming back if there is a fall surge. But that isn't really clear given the negativity about them. We shall see.

China still working zero Covid policy.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/shanghai-covid-19-lockdown-metal-barr...-1.6429345

Hospitals here still require masks. Diana had a minor procedure two weeks ago and they were still requiring. There are about 100 Covid cases in hospitals now here, which is "better," but remember that's 100 more than hospitals had normally prior to the pandemic.

I'm flying for the first time in two plus years next month. Will wear a mask because that proximity makes me anxious. I mean, it did before Covid.

Clinic's mask rule applies to all of their facilities. Go in for an office visit, physical or blood draw and you have to wear a mask. Not just at their hospitals. They didn't change their mask rules when the CDC changed its guidance. Sounds like Florida made masks optional at doctor's offices but not in hospitals.

Flew this past week and we wore masks while on the plane itself (not in the terminal, amusement parks or anywhere else). I don't miss not getting a cold or other sickness after flying like pre-covid... So I like still sporting the mask while in the tube in the sky. Nobody seems to care one way or another, it feels very 'normal' regardless of which you chose to do.

If I had to guesstimate, approx. 10-20% of passengers wore masks in the airport and on the plane itself. Much higher percentage just a few weeks ago when we went to/from Texas and it was still required while on the plane, of course.

After the past 2 years or so with COVID, it's so damn nice to be out and about. Walking around the amusement parks, out to eat, breweries and even the airport without a mask is really refreshing (even though I didn't really care before, it is nice now as it feels a bit more 'normal'). On our last three trips you almost forgot COVID existed, except when on the plane or whatever.

Our family had been Covid-free until my daughter tested positive yesterday. She likely got it at school. Just waiting for the rest of us to test positive at this point. I'm also hoping that she didn't spread it to anyone at any of the church services we attended this week.

I wonder if vaccine immunity actually wanes at all, or if we're seeing the effect of a rotating crop of dominant strains. I enthusiastically got my vaccine in hopes that it would be non-selective enough to offer a certain amount of collateral protection, then I find out the hard way that it doesn't even offer protection against a later variation of the same virus.

Last Thursday, we had some interesting information come out in Central Ohio. Our 7-day average increased from 628 cases on 4/12 to 726 cases on 4/19. An increase of 98 cases per day or a week-over-week increase of about 15%. Mind you, our peak case rate back in January was 24,549 cases per day on January 9 (coincidentally, the day I got out of the hospital), and so far the slope of increase looks nothing like that increase we saw back in August. But here's the truly interesting part: even with the 15% week-over-week increase, local news reported that for the first time since early 2020, there were 0 COVID patients on ventilators in Central Ohio.

Finally, I really wish the medical establishments would ditch the mask rules. I'm really tired of having to explain to doctor's office secretaries that putting a mask on me doesn't protect anybody from anything, but dramatically increases my stroke risk*.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

* I'm not joking. At my last office visit the RN measured my blood pressure at 210/160. When the LNP I was there to see let me take the mask off it dropped to 130/76.

--DCAjr

Do you really think the global community of immunologists understand the waning phenomenon less than you?

The kid who gave my kid Covid today told Simon that vaccines have poison in them, and that's why he's not vaccinated. Still a lot of stupid out there.

It’s not only a lot of stupid out there. It’s a pure disregard for others……

The media stopped talking about Covid because of the Ukraine war. Covid hasn’t went away. Personally I am continuing my practices. Booster every 6 mo. Mask indoors or when I’m close to other people outdoors (theme park queue is an example).

Those selfish people that scream “freedom” and refuse to get vaccinated cost everyone else their freedom to do things normally and without worry.

Except, Covid sort of has gone away, or is well on its way to going away, at least as far as overall risk is concerned in England, which we can reasonably assume applies here as well.

The high degree of immune protection from vaccination and previous infection among England’s population formed the basis of the government’s decisions to end legally enforced self-isolation last month and scale back free testing from April 1 as part of its “living with Covid” plan.

So if the risk now resembles that of the flu, it seems strange to take the same prophylactic measures we were taking when things were much worse. I get that we should take some lessons from the pandemic on how to protect ourselves and others. For example, I think mask wearing makes sense in certain situations - on flights (but not the airport), at medical facilities, where you will undoubtedly be exposed to a higher concentration of ill people, etc. And we should all be more aware of when we should take a day off from work, and things like that.

But if three years ago people weren't wearing a mask outdoors to protect others from the flu, does their not doing so now mean they're disregarding others' health?

RideMan said:

Finally, I really wish the medical establishments would ditch the mask rules. I'm really tired of having to explain to doctor's office secretaries that putting a mask on me doesn't protect anybody from anything, but dramatically increases my stroke risk*.

Haven't we been saying all along, with regard to balancing risk versus the inconvenience/harm of prophylactic measures, that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? Medical establishments seem like one of the places where wearing a mask makes a lot of sense, since there is unavoidably a high concentration of people who can spread illness. And you cannot be certain that you are not contagious with something, even if you are asymptomatic, so you can't say with certainty that you wearing a mask doesn't protect others.

There is a pretty crazy range of people, still, two years later, especially at the ends. I see high school students walking home, alone, with masks on. I imagine there's a deeper psychological thing there that may have nothing to do with Covid, but that's speculation. I have noticed older folks wearing masks around the parks, as recently as today, but of course we don't know their individual risk factors.

The changing guidelines over the last six months in particular, through the Omicron wave, have mostly been rooted in science, and generally premature by a few weeks. Given the sheer fatigue, I give the public health folks a lot of credit for sticking to it. I imagine that my doctor, in a private practice, may have had a number of employees get sick, which is business-stopping when you have a staff of six. Similarly, people are anxious to see cruise testing end, but the cruise lines I suspect don't care about the passengers as much as they want to avoid infection sweeping through their crew. You can't just send hundreds of people from all over the world home when they're sick and work on a ship.

The article Brandon is referring to is a fascinating look at the data. The important context not to be overlooked though is the same thing that has been true from the start: Any fatality rate is amplified when the disease is super contagious. It may be less lethal than flu, but if people are more likely to get it, then more people can die from it. Today the CDC said it's likely that at least 60% of Americans have been "exposed" at this point. So assuming in excess of a million people have died so far, 0.5% of the 60% of Americans exposed, the math all works out. The task now is pushing it even lower by making sure our vaccination and booster game is right going forward.

As a country, the United States is officially out of the pandemic phase.

Cool. Only took a couple months, but the rest of the country finally caught up with me.

And of course I catch Covid after the pandemic is "over".

Haha, same. Although mine was so mild I didn't even know it was Covid. I seriously thought I had allergies. Called in sick for work and got a Covid test because I get sick time protections if it is. Turns out it was and I had no idea.

Mulfinator said:

And of course I catch Covid after the pandemic is "over".

Sucks

RRR > Covid

Not if you're under 50

Meh. I'd take a lap on Rip Ride Rockit over this weird nerve discomfort I'm having.

I'd take my covid experience (called off of work and replayed God of War on the PS5 I just picked up) over a ride on RRR. :)