Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
This is a sincere question:
When everyone around you is living like Covid is in the rear view mirror, which they are (hence reinstatements of mandates), what is one to do? Wearing a mask in a restaurant full of people without them is pointless. And what of meetings? I’ve been careful to ask about mask protocol when meeting older people (70s/80s) only to have them advise they’d already had it and been vaxxed and didn’t care.
Should one turn down social engagements? Turn down business entertainment?
Whose level of vigilance is controlling? Whose should be the standard? Surely, one cannot say we should act like it’s March 2020 all over again. And yet, it’s hard not to translate a lot of tsk tsk’ing as demanding exactly that.
I’ve danced with this disease twice and been vaxxed and boosted. Perhaps my choice of mask was lacking. But now, when in the grocery store where I’d be one of maybe 3-5% of people still masking, am I still duty bound to mask up?
It is not a heresy to say that when in Rome, one might as well do as in Rome. And to say that Covid cannot continue to define us, control us, to the extent it has. These are reasonable and eminently defensible propositions.
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Look, I'm immunocompromised, so yes, I turn down invitations and appointments all the time. When I set up a business lunch, I have them in the office and have food delivered, and two to four people will sit at a conference table meant for 24, with a good distance between us. I don't insist that you turn down appointments and such, but please try to keep your distance from people who are taking extra care because they may well have very good reasons.
I mask up. Who gives a shit what the crowd is doing, it helps and is no big deal. I also avoid people who don't mask and places where they don't mask, which makes moving around difficult not because there are people who don't give a shit (I can manage them) but because there are a lot of people who are really into being complete assholes to anyone wearing a mask and getting in their face.
A hint: if anyone wants to go to a musical event safely, try opera. The sizable gay community participation means everyone who is into opera, straight or gay, has awful aids stories about people they loved. Masking is at 95% and testing is higher. If you want to go to a restaurant, find a neighborhood full of doctors to go in. Again, much safer than others, which are starting to add back tables they took out for social distancing purposes. My oncologist has shared a bunch of tips with me, he's really limited what he does since the masks came off, given that he spends his whole life with immunocompromised people. Just a complete hero.
But you're just being an idiot if you think a surgical mask is less useful than a gater. Where do you get such information? I mean, I get that you're the kind of person who likes to follow the crowd, but it's the ignorance of stuff like that that makes me shake my head and give up. And when you say COVID is "controlling" someone what is that about? Ever watched someone walk on ice? Should they just run, because otherwise the ice is controlling them? How dare people use snow tires! They are giving in to the ice.
