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Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

nytimes.com

251–260 of 925 posts

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#251

I think it's worth noting that among the demographics that frequent this site there is ostensibly a deep distrust and skepticism of the American government on matters of surveillance, and law enforcement. Yet simultaneously there is ostensibly a high degree of trust in the motives and competency of the American government when it comes to COVID. There's been multiple threads lately, including one that is on the front…

As the Atlantic noted recently [0] there are many who see masks and safety measures due to COVID as part of their political identity. Likes guns to some, the masks, more critically the forcing of others to wear masks and abide by certain precautions, has become a weapon in politics. My distrust of the masks, and friction at being forced to wear one, really comes from that distrust of those who are forcing me; they are forcing me for politics, not for health and safety.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#252

I think it's worth noting that among the demographics that frequent this site there is ostensibly a deep distrust and skepticism of the American government on matters of surveillance, and law enforcement. Yet simultaneously there is ostensibly a high degree of trust in the motives and competency of the American government when it comes to COVID. There's been multiple threads lately, including one that is on the front…

The CDC is not law enforcement. The talent it attracts, its mission statement, its mode of operation are all different. The statements of fact they release pertain to public health with no human adversarial motives. The research they use to substantiate their claims can be peer reviewed, duplicated and critiqued.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#253

There is a non-paywalled story here. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fully-vaccinated-americans-r... Neither the NYT nor ABC stories have links to the actual guidance, and I don't see anything about this on cdc.gov. I guess this was embargoed and the story was released before cdc got around to publishing the guidance. Update: Guidance is now at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vac...

Thank you for noticing this. This is a media blitz, and one may wonder why there are prepared, published stories about CDC guidance that hadn't yet even been published. I'm sure there are many rational reasons for this. One, indeed, is particularly salient.

This is 100% normal. Press is informed under embargo to assure information goes out quickly and widely once the information is ready/ public. Nothing nefarious about it.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#254
I find it interesting that the people who screamed "trust/listen to the CDC!" the loudest when the CDC's position was "everyone wear your mask and stay home as much as you can" are now the ones looking hardest for reasons to ignore/downplay/criticize the CDC's guidance.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#255
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are literally zero downsides to wearing a mask in public, and it's crazy that anyone would shame someone for it. In many Asian countries it is considered civilized and thoughtful to wear a mask when feeling ill to prevent the spread of disease. I too hope this becomes the norm in the US.

You don't think that the continual dehumanization of people into creatures with eyes, hair, and without emotions is a downside to wearing a mask in public? A smile as you hold the elevator door for someone goes unseen; all the other person gets is a withering stare from behind a sterile surgeon's mask. A joke that's good enough to make someone grin but not laugh is now a joke that falls flat on its face. An inappropr…

Emphatically agreed. Particularly in our increasingly-polarized and dehumanized culture, smiles are worth saving. Masks definitely do have costs. Severe costs for children at school with new teachers/strangers.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's okay to do harmless things for political reasons, and bad to do harmful things for political reasons. It's ridiculous to try to turn that into a claim of hypocrisy and that everything is just politics.

Continuing to wear a mask yourself is harmless, but trying to make everyone else continue wearing masks is harmful.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Yes, that's true at this point in time, but I don't think that's what anthonygd was arguing. They were complaining about the act of personally wearing a mask without a scientific basis.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#257
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I traveled a bit during this pandemic and in Arizona it’s like the virus didn’t exist. Nobody was wearing a mask, nobody. Even indoor. Even the waiters. I’m back in SF now and everybody is wearing the mask. Everybody. The adults, the children, Even the vaccinated people. Yesterday the waiter asked me if we could put back our mask so she could hand us our plate. Country of extremes. I feel like there’s no going back t…

We had a lady on Nextdoor lauding her ability to go outside without a mask and being able to smile at a friend from afar now that she’s vaccinated. Masks haven’t been required outside when social distancing for most of the pandemic, vaccinated or not. There’s reasons for wearing masks (or not), but the decision to wear one (or not) typically has nothing to do with reason.

> There’s reasons for wearing masks (or not), but the decision to wear one (or not) typically has nothing to do with reason.

It spreads so poorly outdoors (this has been abundantly documented), especially if your exposure to someone is brief, that the main reason is a combination of virtue signaling, hygiene theater, and because it makes you feel safer.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#258

How cynical is it to question whether or not this was timed at least in part to bolster economic outlook in the face of the market shrinkage this week over inflation fears? (Experts have been asking for more explicit guidance from the CDC for months now.) Edit: for reference, up until this point, the CDC has not even been willing to concede the safety of outdoor activities: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/briefing…

I can't judge your cynicism, but I can say it's quite suspect that media outlets—apparently—behaved as the mouthpiece of the state: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27145446

Why is it suspect? It's huge news, and will affect businesses, events, weddings, vacation, personal life for the millions of people who have still been taking public health and the CDC seriously. It's news. And I don't think it's surprising that they would have the scoop around the same time.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#259
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least I was right about the CDC lacking credibility.

Walking back statements because they're untrue/unverified/exaggerated/unqualified shouldn't necessarily remove your credibility. But doubling down on falsehoods definitely should. Science is the pursuit of knowledge and we can always conduct a new experiment that reveals inaccuracies or invalid conclusions from yesterday's experiment.

There has been an apparent turn in the present culture-war-type rhetoric to distrusting people because they admit their mistakes, but somehow heaping more praise on those who double down on their falsehoods. Really curious how that comes about.

Re: Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the CDC said

#260

I wish it was common and expected that those that want to go maskless, wear their vaccination cards around their necks. Not a requirement, but just having it be common enough that if you do, people will know what it means. Here in San Francisco, more than 50% of people are fully vaccinated, but everyone is still wearing masks, even outdoors. I don't think it is just that SF hasn't changed the mandate, it is more abou…

Is social pressure really a particularly smart way to make decisions? We're talking about a "Feature" of human behavior that evolved during a time when we were living as nomadic hunter/gatherers. Social isolation from your tribe might have cost you your life.

Fast forward to 2020. It's the exact opposite. We live in a society with billions of people. Who cares if someone saw you crossing the sidewalk gave you a bad look? Odds are that will be the last interaction with them for the rest of your life.

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