CDC updates guidance, recommends vaccinated people wear masks indoors in certain areas

[Subduction Zone]

CDC updates guidance, recommends vaccinated people wear masks indoors in certain areas | CNN

I did the right thing during 2020, wore a mask and kept distance...

Did the right thing in 2021, got vaccinated...

This particular reversal in mask guidance? I'm not so sure...

Given the CDC directors comments and statements earlier, there seems to be a breakdown in the logic somewhere.

She openly acknowledged that the chance of contracting any serious level of disease when vaccinated is low... she also acknowledged that while it's still possible to transmit with an asymptomatic infection, it's less likely.

We know that the vaccine is widely available for anyone who wants to get one and there's no supply issues stopping anyone from getting vaccinated.

We know that infections in the age group that's not currently eligible are overwhelmingly mild or asymptomatic.

Given these pieces of info, wouldn't that mean that me going back to wearing a mask is solely for the benefit of anti-vaccine types who don't take it seriously and have no intention of getting vaccinated anyway?


Maybe we can come up with a new term for people like myself who have no interest in going back to masking for the benefit of people who've used words like "sheeple" to describe me for the last 18 months. Maybe "second wave anti-mask"? Sort of like the term "second wave feminist"?

Sadly we all have to pay the price for those that refuse to get vaccinated.

Perhaps a punitive tax after the fact should be in the offing? The people that refuse to get vaccinated are clearly costing everyone else a lot of money and comfort.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

...and that's fine if you choose to do so due to your personal circumstances.

However, statistical logic would dictate that I (being fully vaccinated) coming in contact with you (being vaccinated) in a store presents an infinitesimally small risk of transmitting covid (that could then be transmitted to your family)

Therefore, the guidance reversal still doesn't make a lot of sense.

I'm fully Covid-19 vaccinated. CA gave instruction that people ,that Covid-19 vaccinated dont need to wear a mask . But. I know most people. That aren't vaccination . They aren't wearing a mask or social distancing . So the risks goes up. Protect your self and social distance and continue to wear the mask. I have family members, that are against social distancing and mask and vaccination. But they want to go to Hawaii, So they are getting the vaccination. Weak minds need more time.

 

[loveofourlord]

When will you consider yourself to be "fully safe"? I don't see a declaration of that being made by the governments anytime soon, unless they mandate that we all stay home with a SWAT team stationed outside to make sure we never leave the house.

Probably once the vaccination rates are higher, I'm probably stupidly paranoid living in a town with 95 cases PERIOD, but I keep thinking not having many cases is actually a bad thing as it wouldn't take much to sweep through town.

 

[Sodafox]

Remember, though, that my first point was that "Influenza is still out there."

By masking, social distancing, and hand hygiene, the world sailed through the influenza season practically unscathed. That's not a lesson to ignore.

That's because one of the most popular methods used to test for covid was getting false positives being unable to differentiate between the flu and covid.

Lab Alert: Changes to CDC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 Testing

A Look at the Three Most Common Types of COVID-19 Tests | Opelika & Auburn, Alabama (AL), East Alabama Medical Center

*this isn't to say that all covid cases should be chalked up to the flu but only to debunk that we got through the flu season "unscathed". While we can't know for sure, I'm certain we had just as many flu cases this past season as we have had any other, it's just they were rolled into/mistakenly counted as covid cases instead.

 

[FireDragon76]

I know where that name comes from, and I know why it is being used: Covid: India tells social media firms to remove 'India variant' from content



Early in the pandemic, there were many who didn't take it all that seriously. Too bad they don't get blamed equally: Nancy Pelosi Visits San Francisco's Chinatown Amid Coronavirus Concerns

That's not an example of anything, except perhaps right wing pundits peddling in bigotry and xenophobia. Just because the virus originated in Wuhan, doesn't mean "Chinatown" is going to be especially at risk anymore than any other neighborhood.

 

[Tanj]

Hmmmm. Rather different than what we're now being told to expect from vaccines for Covid. A number of different vaccines are available for the same virus, and now we're experiencing a second pandemic is the second year of its existence. Those other diseases, not so much.

Yep, it's almost like measles and mumps are single-stranded, negative-sense, enveloped, icosohedral non-segmented RNA virus in the family Paramyxoviridae, rubella is a single stranded positive, enveloped pleomorphic non segmented RNA virus in the family Matonaviridae, smallpox is a linear, double stranded DNA, naked brick shaped virus in the family Poxviridae, while Cov2 is single stranded positive-sense, emveloped icosohedral non segmented RNA virus in the family Coronaviridae.

It's almost like they are completely different viruses. Who would have thought their vaccines would behave differently? Next you'll be telling me cockroaches and elephants are different species.

 

[ThisIsMe123]

There are also still people who are afraid that the vaccine will have a reaction that makes them miss work,

That's what sick leave is for.

 

[Tanj]

That's because one of the most popular methods used to test for covid was getting false positives being unable to differentiate between the flu and covid.

What????

Thats a serious misreading of your sources. The first is recommending the use of a multiplex test that detects both, not that there is any cross reactivity, and the second doesn't mention flu at all.

*this isn't to say that all covid cases should be chalked up to the flu

Indeed, it's because none of the COVID cases should be chalked up to the flu.

but only to debunk that we got through the flu season "unscathed". While we can't know for sure, I'm certain we had just as many flu cases this past season as we have had any other, it's just they were rolled into/mistakenly counted as covid cases instead.

Entirely wrong.
Upcoming 2020-2021 Influenza Season

Flu activity was unusually low throughout the 2020-2021 flu season both in the United States and globally, despite high levels of testing. During September 28, 2020–May 22, 2021 in the United States, 1,675 (0.2%) of 818,939 respiratory specimens tested by U.S. clinical laboratories were positive for an influenza virus. The low level of flu activity during this past season contributed to dramatically fewer flu illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths compared with previous flu seasons. For comparison, during the last three seasons before the pandemic, the proportion of respiratory specimens testing positive for influenza peaked between 26.2% and 30.3%. In terms of hospitalizations, the cumulative rate of laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations in the 2020-2021 season was the lowest recorded since this type of data collection began in 2005. For pediatric deaths, CDC received one report of a pediatric flu death in a child during the 2020–2021 flu season. Since flu deaths in children became nationally notifiable in 2004, reported flu deaths in children had previously ranged from a low of 37 (during 2011-2012) to a high of 199 (during 2019-2020).

 

[hedrick]

That's what sick leave is for.

You’re assuming they work in a traditional 9 to 5 job for a good company.

 

[BBAS 64]

Does anyone really listen to the CDC anymore...?

They are like "spam" emails at this point

 

[RDKirk]

That's what sick leave is for.

To be fair, those workers typically do not have sick leave benefits.

 

[RDKirk]

You’re assuming they work in a traditional 9 to 5 job for a good company.

If we go by the numbers, sick leave is not "traditional." It's rather the minority of jobs, numerically, that provide sick leave benefits.

 

[Mayzoo]

I am fully vaccinated and still wear a mask indoors in public places. I have immunocompromised people at home and I am not taking a chance.

Me too. I wear it to help the immunocompromise in my home and all the others as well.

 

[RDKirk]

That's because one of the most popular methods used to test for covid was getting false positives being unable to differentiate between the flu and covid.

Lab Alert: Changes to CDC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 Testing

A Look at the Three Most Common Types of COVID-19 Tests | Opelika & Auburn, Alabama (AL), East Alabama Medical Center

*this isn't to say that all covid cases should be chalked up to the flu but only to debunk that we got through the flu season "unscathed". While we can't know for sure, I'm certain we had just as many flu cases this past season as we have had any other, it's just they were rolled into/mistakenly counted as covid cases instead.

There were 35.5 million cases of influenza in 2019.

There were 3 million cases of covid-19 and 65 thousand cases of influenza in 2020. Even if we rolled both of them together in 2020, we were more than 30 million cases short of cases in 2020.

Precautions against covid transmission work like gangbusters against influenza.

 

[Aldebaran]

What does that have to do with you not wearing them?

Are you suggesting that I defy the CDC?

 

[RDKirk]

Are you suggesting that I defy the CDC?

I've been wearing KN-95 masks myself since February of last year, so in being more careful than their minimal guidelines, yes.

 

[Aldebaran]

Me too. I wear it to help the immunocompromise in my home and all the others as well.

Only a very short time ago, we were being told that getting a Covid shot was for that purpose. Soon, it will be the reason to be confined to our homes and close down our businesses.

 

[Aldebaran]

I've been wearing KN-95 masks myself since February of last year, so in being more careful than their minimal guidelines, yes.

Don't you consider that to be selfish since that takes away such masks from our health care workers who need them most?

 

[RDKirk]

Don't you consider that to be selfish since that takes away such masks from our health care workers who need them most?

It does not. That's one of the misconceptions I blame Fauci for. The supply of K-95 masks to the retail market was curtailed almost immediately, and all were funneled into the medical supply market from the start. That was never, ever a real concern, except for black market...which would and did exist anyway.

KN-95 masks aren't even authorized by the government for health care workers.

 

[sfs]

...but the same was true with influenza. Immunosuppressed folks were always at higher risks from that as they either couldn't be vaccinated, or would have a week immunoresponse to a flu vaccine even if they did get it.

Sure -- but covid-19 is much more infectious than flu, and it's at least ten times as deadly (probably more), and far more likely to lead to long-term disability. Those are real differences, easily large enough to justify different behavior. Oh, and I almost forgot: covid is also much more likely to transmit from an asymptomatic person than flu is. So you're more likely to be a risk to others without knowing it.

Immunosuppressed have always existed...is your suggestion that everyone should've always been masking up the whole time?

No, although I do now think that anyone who has flu symptoms should either stay home or mask up. I think it's worth paying attention to the fact that flu kills something like 200 children in the US every year, and that this year, thanks to anti-covid measures, there was almost no flu.

There are some societies that do that, but not in Western cultures that I'm aware of.

I think it's good when cultures learn new and useful things from one another.