We need people to keep wearing masks until there is herd immunity for the simple facts that a) you can't tell who is vaccinated or not by sight, and b) social pressure to wear them in public will collapse if X% of people stop wearing them.
Except vaccination is a prime argument for not having masks. Especially since we are at a point where it is reasonable to assume that anyone who wants a vaccine has gotten one and the remainder are on the fence or are choosing not to get one (at least in the US). Thus, the argument for wearing masks (to protect people) is no longer relevant because those who have not gotten the vaccination have accepted the risk of the disease and have decided they are protected enough. EDIT: This acceptance indicates that there is no longer a need to wear masks as a form of protection.
Masks are far more annoying than seatbelts. I got vaccinated. I don’t mind wearing the mask in stores. But wearing it in a social environment does significantly alter the experience for the worse, in my opinion.
Why don’t we pay people to get vaccinated? And mandate that employers allow people to take days off if they are sick for a bit after the shot?
The problem is also the social pressure that this will add on other people by the anti-mask who are going to say "Why are you wearing a mask ? Nobody is going to check anyway, just say you are vaccinated, pfff..."
From an outsider perspective (I'm Canadian), the politicalization of wearing a mask seems like a huge distraction from action that can make a much bigger difference:
* staying home when even a little bit sick
* physical distancing (esp. indoors)
* hand washing
* don't touch your eyes, nose, mouth with unclean hands
* getting tested if having symptoms
* if physical distancing is not possible, then wearing a mask (esp. indoors)
I kind of worry that in a desperate attempt to improve the economy, US governments will continue to ignore the advice of experts and embrace mask-wearing as a panacea.
Protect who though? Who do masks protect at this point? People who are vaccinated? They have no need to worry. People who are unvaccinated? They made that choice.
There is literally no reason for a vaccinated individual to wear a mask. Vaccines work. They are the ticket out of this. Not masks.
Its not black and white - we're not going for 100% security. Masks never did that anyway, and it wasn't the point in wearing them. The point was to change 'R0' to less than 1, so the epidemic wouldn't grow geometrically and swamp the healthcare system.
It's quite reasonable to say that vaccinated people are less likely to spread the disease than say, an at-risk person wearing a mask. If those two are commensurate, then sure vaccinated people can go maskless.
There are social reasons to keep wearing a mask of course. To reduce confusion about who's safe and who's just being negligent. I still wear one in public, and I've been vaccinated.
It's popular to back-seat drive during difficult times, and point out gleefully when somebody isn't 100% in line with one's own understanding. It's largely not constructive, and causes more upset and confusion. The best advice is, do your part to reduce infection risk. And stop stirring the pot.
Vaccinated people must be required to wear masks to prevent the transmission of more virulent strains.
Unvaccinated people, because they would be homebound (or killed) by the more virulent strains, must be allowed to go about their business maskless. This way, we'll achieve herd immunity by spreading less virulent strains around. Sort of like an airborne live attenuated vaccine.
Wearing a mask was soo tough lol.
Now getting a shot is the next idiotic discussion. If everybody just got it, this would be like a mild flu and nobody would care.
It’s funny how wrong the anti-mask etc people were. Possibly wrong 3-5 times on big issues throughout the past 1.5 years.
Continuing to wear a mask in public is about compliance, not safety per se: if exceptions were made for the vaccinated, people who just don't want to wear a mask would be hard to separate from those who are no longer at risk of catching or spreading the disease.
As someone who has had natural immunity (it sucked, made a full recovery) for most of the pandemic, this has been on my mind, since masking is purely cosmetic for me.
I wear masks when my country mandates that I should. But I think the issue is this...
Covid is here to stay, many countries have very high vaccination rates at this point, so effectively if we continue to wear masks even in very high vaccination countries we're essentially saying we have to wear them forever, because what's going to change? Unless some new vaccine comes out that actually prevents transmission covid is a permanent thing.
And to put it simply, while I understood the need to wear one when we had no vaccines because anything that helped was a good idea, I'm not sure I'm prepared to wear one indefinitely.
You should wear masks in public when you are vaccinated because while you're protected from severe symptoms, you can still carry the virus and transmit it to others.
> The ultra risk aversion is what many people are souring on, especially considering the risks are low to begin with for the vast majority.
Yea but...they are not low for a significant portion of the population, which should matter? And those people are affected when people don't wear masks because many of them are not able to completely isolate. I don't really understand this line of reasoning -- wearing a mask helps people, so why not do it? Is it really that debilitating? I don't like wearing a mask either but if wearing one helps, why not wear it?
Personally I think not dying of a deadly disease is a pretty good carrot, as is the fact that we get to eventually stop wearing masks, but I accept those are sort of abstract rewards.
Unfortunately the what you are suggesting just isn't feasible. Mask wearing is also still necessary because we don't know if vaccinated people are still carriers. It is entirely possible the R number of a vaccinated person not wearing as mask is higher than the R number of an unvaccinated person wearing a mask.
Honestly, I think we should just pay people to take it.
This reminds me of the recommendation by, wouldn't you know it, the same people, that masks should only be worn by the visibly sick, and medical personnel.
This disease has killed hundreds of thousands of people, and is on track to kill millions, quite aside from the terrible economic havoc which is just beginning.
ramp up production of the fucking vaccine. We can afford to be wrong about this.
What needs to happen is making mask wearing mandatory for anyone in the public.
If both parties have a mask, even just made at home from a piece of cloth or even a scarf, the risk of one party infecting the other goes way down, even without sophisticated respirators being used.
I think everyone would prefer to not wear masks, they are undoubtedly an inconvenience. But you’ve still not shown any evidence they are really a safety hazard. There is strong evidence they reduce transmission of aerosols. Given that our best shot at a return to normalcy is a vaccine, and those should be available for all western school age kids by years end, is it really that huge of an inconvenience to do it a few more months?
Masks work. I don't dispute that. I just don't want to wear one for the rest of my life. I don't want my government telling me what to wear.
I got vaccinated months ago because I thought that would be the end of masks. That was the entire point of vaccinating: not needing a mask because the virus could do nothing to you. The vaccination rate in my country is almost 80% and we still have a mask mandate. I will not even consider taking a booster until they do away with the mask.
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