The New Normal

[Harvey]

You don't see a problem with being forced to cover your face in public indefinitely? Well I do. There's nothing offensive about my face, and I don't like being treated like a biohazard.

Dude you are cute! ?

 

[Peter Minde]

You don't see a problem with being forced to cover your face in public indefinitely? Well I do. There's nothing offensive about my face, and I don't like being treated like a biohazard.

Asymptomatic people can transmit covid. People who've been vaxxed can get covid and transmit it. Like me.

 

[jasonwx]

Mask wearing in public is the greatest thing since sliced bread. All of Asia has been doing this for ever.
I don’t have to breath your air
You don’t have breath in mine.

But I’m cool with what ever people want to do

 

[snoloco]

Asymptomatic people can transmit covid. People who've been vaxxed can get covid and transmit it. Like me.

But if you're vaccinated it's not a big deal if you get exposed or infected, and you're basically asking for this to be permanent.

Mask wearing in public is the greatest thing since sliced bread. All of Asia has been doing this for ever.
I don’t have to breath your air
You don’t have breath in mine.

No they haven't.

But I’m cool with what ever people want to do

Ok, then I'm never wearing one again.

 

[MarzNC]

I agree with you on the waste water, but I think it's 50/50 about being done. Another variant will surely come. If it's like omicron we probably are getting done, if it's delta maybe not.

From what I've read . . . remember my background is biostatistical research not medicine . . . the way a virus spreads after mutating makes it's very unlikely that a later variant will be more transmissible AND more serious from a symptoms standpoint. The reason SARS didn't spread quite as far even though it was a pandemic was that people could stay healthy by simply avoiding close contact with anyone with symptoms. Same for MERS, the other more recent coronavirus. The fatality rate for anyone who got SARS or MERS was far higher than even the original strain of SARS-CoV-2.

There was never a vaccine developed for SARS or MERS although the research done helped in the research for a COVID-19 vaccine. SARS disappeared for lack of hosts. Same happened for the 1918-20 pandemic. People who were sick were isolated and died terrible deaths fairly quickly. Hospitals learned how to keep their staff healthy with masking and keep the patients with the new disease in a separate ward so they didn't infect other patients.

A virus can't keep spreading if the host dies. Or if the host is obviously sick so that other potential hosts avoid them. So a new variant that can replicate while the host doesn't have any clue they are infected is much more likely to spread to another host.

What's happening with Omicron is that in another month or so there will be far more people in world with natural immunity and/or vaccine-induced immunity. How long natural immunity lasts is a bit unkown. But probably at least 3-6 months, if not longer.

Delta isn't gone yet, but probably will be by the end of February essentially worldwide.

 

[tirolski]

We are in full time hiring mode, looking to fill 4 positions.

Ya can work from home?
Whadya gotta be able to do?

 

[MarzNC]

Mask wearing in public is the greatest thing since sliced bread. All of Asia has been doing this for ever.
I don’t have to breath your air
You don’t have breath in mine.

But I’m cool with what ever people want to do

My impression is that after SARS hit Asia in 2002, that's when masking during flu season became the cultural norm. More in big cities but it wasn't a big deal if someone masked in the countryside either.

Air pollution in the big cities in Asia was the original reason people started masking. People in Japan have been masking on the subway for a few decades at least.

I discovered in 2020 that the Swiss have a cultural distaste for masking that is similar to the South. Face masks were outlawed in a few local jurisdictions (Cantons) because there were "gangs" in Switzerland that wore masks. Not that long ago, the laws were on the books in the 20th century. North Carolina has a law against face masks that had to be "suspended" in 2020. It was a law from the 1950s designed to combat the growing power off the KKK.

It was very clear by April 2020 that "culture matters" when it comes to how people view masking or any public health measures that require healthy individuals to change their behavior to slow community spread of a highly infectious disease. Politics is part of "culture" but it's far more complicated when looking at regional differences within N. America or on other continents.

For 2022, my thinking is based on the concept "think global, act local." I don't just consider what's going in NC or the southeast or even just the USA. The "new normal" will be different as of Feb 2022 in NYC or Chicago or SLC, as compared to Raleigh or Atlanta.

 

[Peter Minde]

But if you're vaccinated it's not a big deal if you get exposed or infected, and you're basically asking for this to be permanent.

"It's not a big deal." I call BS. It's a big deal when you infect someone with a compromised immune system.

 

[Tjf1967]

In Montana I would say 1 in every 1000 people has a mask on. Bozeman. I don't know what to think.

 

[MC2]

There's nothing offensive about my face

Lol

The person who quit lives out of state and is full time at home.

I do think it's BS to say a person's individual reaction to something like this, isn't legit..

Yes, it would be bs… if someone said that.

Also, it sounds like that person didn't want to work for you anymore. Sorry if that bothers you, but it happened. As I said, lots of people are reevaluating their work/life balance.