Most of SF Bay Area has Surrrendered to COVID...

[Joe Guy]

The link below is from my county's health dept.

Feb. 9, 2022
In alignment with the State, the Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and the City of Berkeley will lift universal mask requirements for most indoor public settings beginning Wednesday, February 16.

I'll probably catch Covid within the next couple months. I'll let you know.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Unvaccinated individuals over age 2 will continue to be required to wear masks in all indoor public settings. Businesses, venue operators and hosts may determine their own paths forward to protect staff and patrons and may choose to require all patrons to wear masks.

The change aligns with the California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) decision to let expire the statewide indoor mask requirement, which was instated on December 15 during the latest COVID-19 surge. Indoor masking is still required by the State for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, in public transportation; health care settings; congregate settings like correctional facilities and homeless shelters; long term care facilities; and in K-12 schools and childcare settings.

I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of venues - shops, restaurants - which will still require masks.

[Joe Guy]

I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of venues - shops, restaurants - which will still require masks.

I hope so. Some smaller businesses might need more customers and think (or know from experience with their customers) they'll do more business if they lift restrictions.

Until yesterday, I hadn't seen anyone without a mask in places I normally go to. I was in a Home Depot, which was a weird experience in itself. I hadn't been inside one in over a year. I was ordering things online from there and had them delivered to my house or I went there and they brought my purchase out to my car. But yesterday I went in and there was a lady without a mask who looked kinda lost and she was walking with a dazed look on her face. Maybe she had covid.

The weirdest part of my trip was that inside the Home Depot there were no cashiers operating checkout lines other than a couple workers who were monitoring and assisting at self-checkout stands.

The grocery stores I go to are always pretty busy but everyone is always masked. It will be interesting to see how much that changes.

I'm going to keep wearing my mask but I wonder what others will do.

[dales]

Until a COVID suppository comes out, I'll continue to mask.

[Jarlaxle]

Try a plastic bag.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Per Joe:

The grocery stores I go to are always pretty busy but everyone is always masked. It will be interesting to see how much that changes.

Interesting. Here in KY the governor long ago put in place a 'mask if you are unvaccinated' order but of course there is no way of checking, like a forehead tattoo. Over the last few months a typical supermarket / HD / Lowes has had maybe 50:50 masked:unmasked. My guess is that a lot of the unmasked are unvaccinated because AFAIK most of my fully boosted friends continue to wear masks. Barnes and Noble customers are maybe 90% masked. I don't know what you can conclude from that.

My local Kroger has a sign at the door: everyone must wear a mask. But it is totally unpoliced and you can't expect a $10/hour shelf stacker to challenge a customer. I've pointed this out to a manager once or twice but they shrug their shoulders 'What are you gonna do?' So I wear my N95 mask and wash my hands when I get home and/or wipe them on the Lysol thingies I keep in the car.

[BoSoxGal]

School mask mandates end here at the end of the month. There hasn’t been a mask mandate for public places since May 2021 but I still see a lot of masking, especially among employees of places I visit - grocery, drugstore, etc. - and maybe 1/3 of customers. Of course all medical offices and hospitals require masks or no entry, period - most have security near the door to enforce this.

I have to be honest, I’m getting tired of the mask myself. I’ve still been wearing it in places that are crowded with people like the grocery store, but I start swimming at the YMCA next week and have no plans to mask there. I’ll be going at low traffic times because that’s what is available in my schedule and obviously I couldn’t mask in the pool anyway which is a covid19 safe environment, but I don’t plan to mask in the weight room either.

I’ll get another booster next month and at that point leave it up to the fates.

[Guinevere]

Local jurisdictions still have the ability to require masks and many may still do so, especially in public buildings (Town/City Halls and such). Also the CDC still recommends masking, so…….

I still wear mine in almost any public place and we still have a mandate in place at my office, unless you’re in your office alone.

[Long Run]

Many places are lifting their mask mandates. Oregon looks to be dong so at the end of March. I believe the reasoning is that the Omicron surge is clearly coming to an end, with cases trending down even as testing has increased. Masks are 30-90% effective in stopping the spread of COVID (depending on mask type and how many people are wearing them), and the average effectiveness in the studies I read, is that mask use under a mandate can reduce the spread of COVID by 70%. That means that in any one instance, there is still a 30% chance of a carrier of COVID to spread the virus; thngs that have a 30% chance of happening happen frequently (see Trump beats Clinton). If you multiply the number of instances of potential exposure, then the masks only delay the spread of COVID, they do not prevent it. So the only justification for the mask mandates was to once again flatten the curve to help prevent the hospitals from being overrun. Since that risk is going away (per the medical experts), there is no more need for a mask mandate.

People who are still concerned and want that extra level of protection that a mask provides can wear a mask, with the N95 being the best bet as it has a success rate of 90+% in protecting the wearer for the minimal time periods one might be in Home Depot or the grocery store. And the studies I have seen still peg the exposure at 10-15 minutes to be enough dosage that an infected person can transmit. This is why the stores have never been significant spreading sites -- everyone moving around, in and out in 10-20 minutes, and typically tall ceilings with good air circulation. Strategies to improve a person's odds of not contracting the virus, or if exposed, surviving, include: get vaccinated, reduce visits to places where you are near others for extended periods of time and/or crowded places, stay physically active so your respiratory system is healthy, and wear a mask when in a place of elevated risk.

[ex-khobar Andy]

No point in wearing a mask in a pool as the chlorine will take care of any viruses in the water. Backyard pools are usually around 1 - 2 parts per million chlorine while commercial pools often go a bit higher. US drinking water (city water) is typically 0.3 to 0.5 ppm.

I think I'd still wear a mask in the weight room. Canada's ice hockey team beat the Russians 6 -1 while fully masked so it does not seem to interfere with sports activity. Especially as weight room activity, unless you are into power lifting, is not particularly demanding in the sense that you are not gulping for massive quantities of air. A typical mask is not going to interfere with your weight workout.

They usually don't tell you what is in those spray bottles of disinfectant you are supposed to use to wipe down the equipment after you have used it. At the start of the pandemic - maybe March 2020 - I asked my local gym and they didn't know or at least the desk folk did not know. Not all disinfectant is anti-viral.

[Long Run]

Kids were passing out in races as short as 800m wearing masks. There was no more empty gesture than track kids out running in the open air and being required to mask up. Absurd.

Depending on how crowded the weight room is, I would not wear the mask during the actual lifting, but for the 80% of the time in recovery it might make sense.

As for spray bottles at gyms, that is just good hygiene in general, but we have already gone through the fomite transmission data -- it is just not a serious threat of transmission. Don't put your hands in your mouth during your session and you should be fine.

[BoSoxGal]

If the weight room is crowded when I’m there, I might mask. In general it seems the Y is not very crowded at all at the times I’ll be going, which is mid-morning. That said I do understand that virus can linger in the air for some time after a room clears out but the ventilation at the Y is very good so . . .

I’m not very concerned about fomites and have not been for a very long time now. The science has been clear for well over a year that this virus is transmitting primarily by air, breathed in or in some cases entering through the eyes. Moreover I am, like many healthcare workers, fanatical about hand washing - I wash my hands so often that despite regular use of lotion my knuckles in particular are permanently rough and scratchy in winter when the humidity is very low. I would say it is likely I wash my hands on average 30 times a day, and when I’ve been in a public place touching things the public has been touching, I don’t rely with any confidence on any sanitizers provided. I do all the touching I need to do, refrain from touching my eyes nose or mouth and use a sanitizing wipe or hand sanitizer as soon as I can, usually when I get back to my car. I’ve been in PT for cervical radiculopathy the last few weeks and have had to touch all sorts of shared equipment in the PT gym - there are bottles of sanitizer which the therapists are responsible for using to wipe down each surface after a client finishes, but I still assume the surfaces are germy. In this regard I have been a germaphobe for decades, since taking microbiology. I rightly assume I am constantly being exposed to all kinds of bacteria and viruses when touching any surface out in public, and have long been in the practice of elbowing my way through doorways when possible and when not I pull my coat cuff down and use it to touch doorknobs and handles.

As for the masks - I don’t intend to be reckless but I do feel the time is coming for all of us to relax a little where and when it makes sense. I am certainly still going to be careful in crowded settings to reduce the likelihood I might transmit to one of my clients. That has always been a much bigger concern of mine than my own exposure, and definitely since vaccination. I’ve done well with the Pfizer and plan on boosters twice a year until/unless advice in this regard changes. Between vaccines and the antiviral therapeutics now available, I feel solidly confident that I am not going to die of covid19. I’d still prefer to avoid getting it and risking long covid - I already deal with enough health issues - but I am ready to let go of the more oppressive mentality I have adhered to these last two years and accept the likelihood that avoiding covid19 infection forever is very unlikely.

[Burning Petard]

My expeience with masking now here in Northern Delaware is similar to Joe Guy's near the top of this thread. But BSG:

" I’ll get another booster next month"

This that mean a second booster? I have been kind of nervous about my own status since I live alone and have been on social security for more than ten years. It has been just over six months since I got my third vaccination. That third one was kind of unofficial since it had not yet been 'approved' but I could see which way the data was blowing and Walgreens did it no questions asked.

But I have not seen data on second boosters. That only means I may not be paying attention.

Snailgate

[Bicycle Bill]

With regards to additional boosters, wasn't it common practice not all that long ago to receive a tetanus booster on a regular basis?  I remember being asked "how long since your last tetanus shot?" a couple of different times after I found myself in the clinic being treated for some sort of scrape/cut/dog bite/whatever, so the concept of immunization effectiveness decreasing over time doesn't appear to be a recent one.

-"BB"-

[Guinevere]

Tetanus (or, anti-tetanus, to be more precise) requires a booster every 10 years.

COVID is, eventually (and perhaps soon), going to be classified as endemic rather than pandemic, and we will deal with it like the flu. Once it hits that stage, annual boosters will likely be sufficient.

[BoSoxGal]

Tetanus is every ten years, but while being treated for any penetrating wound by an unclean object the recommendation is for a booster if it’s been more than 5 years. I learned this during an ER visit a couple of years ago, just before the pandemic broke open, when I sliced the tip of my pinky off with the chef’s knife I got for Xmas. I’m pretty sure I hadn’t had a booster for a couple of decades and I’ve never had a GP ask me about that - have any of you? Seems like it might be a booster that many adults neglect.

As to a second covid19 vaccine booster - I’ve been following the medical guidance and data on this carefully and plan to get a second booster - 4th shot - at the six month mark, because it is recommended for those who are moderately immunocompromised due to autoimmune disease, as I am. There is no risk from an extra vaccination dose so it just seems a no brainer. The US hasn’t set forth specific recommendations on 2nd boosters but Israel is recommending it for anyone over 60 because of their higher risk considering the natural progression of immunosenescence that results in a poorer immune response to vaccines.

[Burning Petard]

There was a story in WaPo today with a good argument that individuals in 'high risk' category for Covid should probably get a fourth shot after six months. And the category includes anyone over 60.

Delaware Governor Carney tuned off the state mandate for masks for everybody (some fine print exemptions) in any indoor setting. Still required for schools. Effective as of 8am Feb 11. I went to a funeral at 1030am Feb 11 this morning) in Delaware, at my church. There were more than 110 people present. Everybody was wearing a mask, with one exception. That seemed to be little child about 3 or 4 years old. I was greatly surprised. In the population of people I expected to be there I was sure there would be some anti-maskers. Did not happen. Perhaps it was the situation; everybody there recognized it was not a time for controversy. May be there is reason for hope here in the USofA.

Snailgate.

[Big RR]

Not a time for controversy and, likely, not an event where distancing was possible. I always carry a mask with me and usually wear a mask in crowds, but in stores with few shoppers, I usually do not and give others a wide berth. I doubt you could do that in a church with 110 people present.