Coronavirus on a Personal Basis

[zekeb]

My Menards store (a regional hardware/home supply store) strictly enforces a mask required policy. I'm in heavy trump territory. I haven't been there since CDC lifted the mask requirement. I'll see what they've done when I go there tomorrow.

[AndyinPA]

A number of businesses here are saying they are going to keep the mask requirement, and I'm good with that. I will feel more comfortable still wearing my mask, but I do think I will stop putting the filters in them. I was out yesterday to Costco and I realized that, two months after full vaccination, I no longer automatically pull away from people. I don't feel threatened in the same way I did before the vaccinations.

It would have been nice if they didn't keep the mandate up on public transportation. We are in private rooms on our Amtrak trip in a month, so we don't have to wear a mask while we are in our rooms, but it would be nice to move around the train without it. I was hoping the dining car would be back by then, but I guess that's not happening. Our meals will be delivered to our rooms. There are four of us going--I, my husband, our son, and our 11-year-old granddaughter. The adults will be fully vaccinated, but my granddaughter will be a couple of months away from getting her vaccinations.

We are doing national parks in Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, so we are mostly in the car and outside, so it feels pretty safe. But we will wear masks when we have to because she's going to have to wear masks when inside. It doesn't seem fair to make her wear a mask while we don't.

My understanding on the transportation mask mandate is that it's being pushed by flight attendants, and will stay in place until at least September 13. If that's the case, then flight attendants should be required to be vaccinated.

We are flying again in August. Our first trip will be to Iceland, and I guess we're going to have to wear masks. We usually fly from Pittsburgh to Boston, not too bad, but it's about 4 1/2-5 hours to Reykjavík from Boston. My husband has a really tough time wearing masks for any length of time. I'm okay with it, but I get dehydrated.

Our next flight will be after September 13, but it will be to Barcelona, so I hope that changes. That's a considerably longer flight.

[Lani]

We've moved back up to Tier 4, the only island so far to ever be Tier 4. No masks required outside, and capacity of businesses has risen. Still masking inside.

When the state reaches 60% vaccinated, 12 years old and up, we'll reach newly created Tier 5 - which is almost normal.

Currently, Kauai people 50 and over are 60%+ vaccinated, and people 65 and up are much higher - 70+% to 96%. Our big lag is the 40 and younger crowd, especially the younger people. But we are very close to 60% and could reach that level in a few days.

Because most of our cases are related to inter-island and mainland travel, the entire state has to reach 70% before we return to normal.

[Suranis]

Ireland is pretty much opening up. Masks are still manititory inside but traffic is back to normal and everyone is wandering around outside maskless.

Dunno how I feel about that, tbh.

[neonzx]

Ireland is pretty much opening up. Masks are still manititory inside but traffic is back to normal and everyone is wandering around outside maskless.

Dunno how I feel about that, tbh.

Did you get your jabs?

[Lani]

Ireland is pretty much opening up. Masks are still manititory inside but traffic is back to normal and everyone is wandering around outside maskless.

Dunno how I feel about that, tbh.

Yeah, I'm sad to see cars on the road again. My commute to town will return from 15 to 45 minutes in the near future. And crowded parking lots. Long lines in stores, especially Costco.There was something very calming and pleasant when life slowed down, as odd as that might sound.

The magical herd immunity of 70% hasn't been reached anywhere, and that's the low end of immunity. While I hope not, I think there will be a rise in cases. Not a huge ones in first world countries, but still a spike by the fall and winter. Here we are seeing young people rather than oldies becoming ill because us oldies have a much higher rate of vaccination.

Where I work, many employees are not vaccinated and don't plan to. The percent is confidential, but from what I hear, it is close to 50%. We're ready to move more people back to their offices, but that would require masks and social distancing. We're looking at having the people who are most productive working from home stay at home so the in-office people have more space.

The lease for my son's association expired early in the pandemic. They let it go. Everyone worked from home. Everyone kept their job. It's worked well, and it's anticipated that there will be another physical office, but smaller as some staff will continue teleworking.

So many things have happened, and despite the covid deniers, we are not returning to life in January 2020. We're entering a new reality.

[Suranis]

Did you get your jabs?

Just the one. I wont have my second AstraZenika till the end of June.

I loved the fact the roads were not bieng used. I loved bieng able to just walk without having to dodge lunatics. I loved the smell of the air. I loved the peace and stillness.

Last week a woman told me he had to be at her school for 2:20pm Maximum or she would not be able to get a place to park to pick up her kid at 3:00pm. That's Lunacy.

People seem desperate to go back to crazy. And it upsets me as, hard as the lockdown was, I had a taste of peace. I'll never look at traffic the same way again. I don't want this.

[Kendra]

Jeebus, that stupid. Vaccines readily available and a small minority of the workforce refuse to get them. Labor and Industries has a bulletin out now that vaccinated staff who aren't helping customers (accounting peeps like me) and don't have to socially distance. However, no vaccine and you're still supposed to mask up at all times and socially distance. Boss passes out the memo and asks everyone to read and initial (we're a small company, so not a lot of employees). Two of them flat out refused to read and/or initial the damn thing. The third one who will likely do the same is on vacation. This is after two out of the three employees at our branch east of the mountains just tested positive and the third one who isn't positive yet refused to get the stinking vaccine.

Can anyone guess who have been the absolute worst during this whole thing about keeping their effing masks on?

[AndyinPA]

I was out yesterday, an eye appointment, and a few errands. I am seeing a few more people in stores without masks, but the vast majority, including me, are wearing them. I wore them in all the indoor places I went. But my last stop was a farmers' market. It was a warm, breezy day, so while I kept my mask handy on my wrist, I didn't wear one. It felt great, but I will say that, in general, I'm a little suspicious of people without masks. Having said that, I think Allegheny County is the highest vaccinated county in the state, close to 70 percent. That's probably because it has a large elderly population, second-highest elderly county in the country after one in Florida, I think.

[Foggy]

At the hotel we're at this week, signs all over - CDC says if you're vaccinated, no need to worry about a mask.

[zekeb]

Japan is currently having another big outbreak. Jeebus, they're a first world country. I never hear of their vaccination status. Does this indicate that we aren't out of the woods yet?

[neonzx]

And the if you are "vaccinated" means what? Do you need to show some sort of proof?

[Suranis]

Was just out getting a few biuts and I was standing there and 4 19 or so year old Likely Lads were there one without a mask and 3 half wearing them. I was the usual 6 feet away from the woman in front of me, but this guy went right up into my back. I stood there, REALLY not wanting to say anything but knowing that if I wasnt going to do it no one would. So anyway, when the woman in front of me left I stepped forward and just said "stay back there, please."

He said "Ok I was back it I was standing back I was standing back. I muttered something and he was looking back at his likely lads and said something like "i'll hick you in the face nyuknyuk" I just looked at him and then went back to doing my groceries, and went out feeling like a complete idiot.

So ya, welcome back to the good times where everyone is jammed together and I am anxious as fuck and cant bear to go into a shop. Woohoo!

[zekeb]

And the if you are "vaccinated" means what? Do you need to show some sort of proof?

My card is so screwed up that any inspector wouldn't accept it. My name was spelled wrong. I wanted it fixed. Their "fix" was to pen in the missing character. It looks like a real hose-up. The batch numbers between the two doses are eerily similar. Two letters near the beginning are switched and all other characters are the same. Of course our fine governor doesn't want vaccination passports, so this might just be a part of the "don't give a damn about vaccinations" culture in my state. If I wished to travel to another state or country that needed proof of vaccination, my card would be worthless.

[neonzx]

And the if you are "vaccinated" means what? Do you need to show some sort of proof?

My card is so screwed up that any inspector wouldn't accept it. My name was spelled wrong. I wanted it fixed. Their "fix" was to pen in the missing character. It looks like a real hose-up. The batch numbers between the two doses are eerily similar. Two letters near the beginning are switched and all other characters are the same. Of course our fine governor doesn't want vaccination passports, so this might just be a part of the "don't give a damn about vaccinations" culture in my state. If I wished to travel to another state or country that needed proof of vaccination, my card would be worthless.

I don't even know what sort of doc I'm gonna get tomorrow with jab 2. Or if I get even anything. It's Florida. They didn't standardize this stuff. Whatever crap paper they give me from Florida will be worthless in, say, Iowa.

[zekeb]

And the if you are "vaccinated" means what? Do you need to show some sort of proof?

My card is so screwed up that any inspector wouldn't accept it. My name was spelled wrong. I wanted it fixed. Their "fix" was to pen in the missing character. It looks like a real hose-up. The batch numbers between the two doses are eerily similar. Two letters near the beginning are switched and all other characters are the same. Of course our fine governor doesn't want vaccination passports, so this might just be a part of the "don't give a damn about vaccinations" culture in my state. If I wished to travel to another state or country that needed proof of vaccination, my card would be worthless.

I don't even know what sort of doc I'm gonna get tomorrow with jab 2. Or if I get even anything. It's Florida. They didn't standardize this stuff. Whatever crap paper they give me from Florida will be worthless in, say, Iowa.

There should be a line on your card where they fill in the details of jab #2. My card also has a place for any additional boosters. Take your original card with. They should be listing jab #2 on that one.

[neonzx]

My card is so screwed up that any inspector wouldn't accept it. My name was spelled wrong. I wanted it fixed. Their "fix" was to pen in the missing character. It looks like a real hose-up. The batch numbers between the two doses are eerily similar. Two letters near the beginning are switched and all other characters are the same. Of course our fine governor doesn't want vaccination passports, so this might just be a part of the "don't give a damn about vaccinations" culture in my state. If I wished to travel to another state or country that needed proof of vaccination, my card would be worthless.

I don't even know what sort of doc I'm gonna get tomorrow with jab 2. Or if I get even anything. It's Florida. They didn't standardize this stuff. Whatever crap paper they give me from Florida will be worthless in, say, Iowa.

There should be a line on your card where they fill in the details of jab #2. My card also has a place for any additional boosters. Take your original card with. They should be listing jab #2 on that one.

I have the original card, but it's impressively unimpressive. What century is this?

[sugar magnolia]

I don't even know what sort of doc I'm gonna get tomorrow with jab 2. Or if I get even anything. It's Florida. They didn't standardize this stuff. Whatever crap paper they give me from Florida will be worthless in, say, Iowa.

There should be a line on your card where they fill in the details of jab #2. My card also has a place for any additional boosters. Take your original card with. They should be listing jab #2 on that one.

I have the original card, but it's impressively unimpressive. What century is this?

What did you expect to get other than a simple paper card with blanks for the usual info? Serious question.

[neonzx]

A neighbor friend of mine called this morning wanting to know if I had cold meds (I didn't) -- he wanted Dayquil and Niquil so I went and got them for him. He's in bad shape, but he had jab #1 two and a half weeks ago, so I don't think it's the corona.

[neonzx]

What did you expect to get other than a simple paper card with blanks for the usual info? Serious question.

I just thought it would be more formal. A 10yo could forge these note cards.

[Suranis]

Eh, they were focused on getting the Vaccine into peoples arms. Inventing a new tamper proof passport style card could have taken months. The Card I have here in socialist Europe is a simple cardboard card that could be forged easilly too. I'd rather them cut corners on the card than the Vaccine distribution.

[sugar magnolia]

What did you expect to get other than a simple paper card with blanks for the usual info? Serious question.

I just thought it would be more formal. A 10yo could forge these note cards.

The vaccine "blue cards" that are required by schools here have been the same for decades. A simple blue paper card that looks pretty much the same as the current vaccine cards but double the size so there's room for all the vaccines to be listed. Mine in the 60s looked exactly like my kid's did in the 80s. It never occurred to me the covid cards would be any different than the existing vaccine cards, other than the color.

[Patagoniagirl]

I wonder at some point airlines and immigration officials might require certified vaccines cards? The ones I filled out at the vaccine clinics required us to write the name, date of birth, dates of vaccinations and nothing else. There were no stamps or other official documentation on the cards.

I asked if there was a way I could obtain certified documentation for possible future travel to a country which might require that. They said they don't do that.

[AndyinPA]

We are going to Iceland in August. We have to bring the vaccination cards we have. I got my vaccine one place; my husband got it in another. Although our cards are essentially set up the same, mine is a little bigger than his. I have photos of them on my phone. That's all I'll take on the train trip in a few weeks as we're not leaving the country. I doubt anyone here wants to see them.

[Lani]

Your department of health supposedly has the info on each person who receives the vaccine, the dates, and name of the vaccine. So theoretically your DOH will confirm that a person's card is correct.

There's a program called Safe Travels. Travelers upload their cards, the program confirms with the DOH. When traveling, your vaccination is confirmed at arrival, and you skip quarantine. People tell me that travel around or to Hawaii is much easier now. Some countries require a similar system for entry, but use something other than Safe Travels.

BTW, EEOC, US Department of Justice, states that an employer can require an employee to show his/her card. It is not a HIPAA violation. It is a workplace safety issue. People who refuse vaccination, but interact with other people, may be looking for a new job in the future.