Originally Posted by
shorthauldad
Since two members of my immediate family have had Covid - both confirmed by PCR test - within the last month, my view is that I'm probably safer by *not* staying at home
Despite testing pretty much every other day, including a good handful of PCR tests, the other three of us have not caught it, despite taking absolutely no precautions at home whatsoever...
Wow, it's almost as if the
vaccines can actually prevent infections!
Originally Posted by
js1993
The U.S. has ~3% of the world's population but ~20% of the world's Covid deaths, despite all of the mandates and testing and jabs and the highest per capita healthcare spending on the planet. If you're under 70 and not morbidly obese, your risk was always extraordinarily low, no matter where you were or what you did.
You say that almost as if that means we should actually have better healthcare outcomes, lol. Nope, that's what a for-profit healthcare system does. Sorry, back on topic.
Originally Posted by
northinsouth
I've got to say, so much of this back and forth comes down to where in the country one spends most of their time. My wife and I live in AL, and for the most part, the masks have come off save for percentage of the cautious, immuno-compromised, elderly, etc. It's just like it's not a thing people think about much here, and this has even permeated to people who had not been anti-mask or vax, but ordinary people of all political stripes. People here are just much more lax.
My step-kid lives in Chicago and my MIL in the UWS in NYC. The masks are used in enclosed spaces and they are still unwilling to eat indoors, go to basketball game, etc. I think in these bigger cities in the NE and a few Midwest, more people are less willing to do away with masks.
Honestly, the difference is breathtaking, and one where I think it almost feels like different countries. Whenever we travel to them or they to us, I *feel* the caution is so peculiar because it doesn't jibe with my daily life. But then I realize that my daily life must appear reckless to them. Not taking sides here, but many times I've just been struck by the different realities.
Totally agree, and I think largely this is a function of differences between rural and urban living, and the mentality that comes with both. And obviously NYC getting hit hard first before we knew much of anything about the virus and disease played into that a lot. That said, the virus itself didn't really differentiate, and while people are not as close together so much in the rural areas, they also took fewer precautions (vaccines/masks) and so did get hit at least as hard as the cities.