No change in coivd cases and deaths after spring break and no masks wtf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of us who left the area for break can confirm that Covid precautions are literally non existent except here. This area is so weird.

When I got off the plane in Orlando last week, I saw airport workers and sheriff's deputies in the terminal who weren't wearing masks.

Once we walked out of the terminal, maybe 1% of the people we saw were masked during our time there.

Something happened to a lot of people in this area that broke them during this pandemic.

I guess only broken people want to avoid getting a novel virus that causes long-term symptoms in an unknown percentage of those infected. I suppose only broken people would prefer not to have their lives disrupted by illness, want to avoid having to isolate themselves from infected family members, or risk infecting vulnerable people. That makes perfect sense.

This. Most smarter people are continuing to wear masks as they go about interacting with others.

Think it's about two weeks too soon to declare victory over spring break; most people aren't going to announce they are testing positive at home. I mean, hopefully hospitalizations will stay flat and this will start becoming endemic, but it's really too soon to tell.

So your theory is that people outside the DMV are universally dumb beyond the tiny percentage of people still masking in other areas? You think people in DC are just more informed and inherently better at risk assessment than people who live in places like NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle? Not just red states, but in very liberal areas with lots of highly educated progressives? For that matter, what about most of Canada and Europe, as well? Your saying DC is just smarter and better than people all these other places, that we alone understand Covid, the we are the only ones properly estimating the risk?

Is it at least a little big possible you are wrong about this? Do you have any doubts at all about it or are you 100% on it?

People who are COVID cautious follow other aspects of public health advice, not just what is convenient. That means testing when you have symptoms or staying home, isolating a positive family member when possible, having other family members wear high-quality masks outside of the house when indoors or in crowded outdoor settings for 10 days after last exposure, and testing family members 5 days after last exposure. That can be onerous, especially for larger families, especially at times when being out sick would be inconvenient. For me, avoiding those measures is reason enough to be cautious.

I don't know if it is smarter or if following this advice makes anyone a better person, but it definitely makes people who take measures to avoid infecting other people more compassionate human beings.

If you say you are following the science/public health guidance and also are "done with masks" you aren't following public health guidance and aren't willing to accept any inconvenience if you become infected to avoid infecting others.

The bolded argument is undermined by how often the most COVID cautious use their practices to criticize and shame those who are less cautious, even slightly less so. If you denigrate those who are fully boosted, for example, but who choose not to mask indoors, you are not, in fact, a compassionate human being. Being a compassionate human being means caring about more than transmitting COVID. Too many people here seem to have forgotten that.

Very true. This moralization of infectious disease is reminiscent of the early days AIDS pandemic, and we all know what a mistake it was back then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of us who left the area for break can confirm that Covid precautions are literally non existent except here. This area is so weird.

When I got off the plane in Orlando last week, I saw airport workers and sheriff's deputies in the terminal who weren't wearing masks.

Once we walked out of the terminal, maybe 1% of the people we saw were masked during our time there.

Something happened to a lot of people in this area that broke them during this pandemic.

I guess only broken people want to avoid getting a novel virus that causes long-term symptoms in an unknown percentage of those infected. I suppose only broken people would prefer not to have their lives disrupted by illness, want to avoid having to isolate themselves from infected family members, or risk infecting vulnerable people. That makes perfect sense.

This. Most smarter people are continuing to wear masks as they go about interacting with others.

Think it's about two weeks too soon to declare victory over spring break; most people aren't going to announce they are testing positive at home. I mean, hopefully hospitalizations will stay flat and this will start becoming endemic, but it's really too soon to tell.

So your theory is that people outside the DMV are universally dumb beyond the tiny percentage of people still masking in other areas? You think people in DC are just more informed and inherently better at risk assessment than people who live in places like NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle? Not just red states, but in very liberal areas with lots of highly educated progressives? For that matter, what about most of Canada and Europe, as well? Your saying DC is just smarter and better than people all these other places, that we alone understand Covid, the we are the only ones properly estimating the risk?

Is it at least a little big possible you are wrong about this? Do you have any doubts at all about it or are you 100% on it?

People who are COVID cautious follow other aspects of public health advice, not just what is convenient. That means testing when you have symptoms or staying home, isolating a positive family member when possible, having other family members wear high-quality masks outside of the house when indoors or in crowded outdoor settings for 10 days after last exposure, and testing family members 5 days after last exposure. That can be onerous, especially for larger families, especially at times when being out sick would be inconvenient. For me, avoiding those measures is reason enough to be cautious.

I don't know if it is smarter or if following this advice makes anyone a better person, but it definitely makes people who take measures to avoid infecting other people more compassionate human beings.

If you say you are following the science/public health guidance and also are "done with masks" you aren't following public health guidance and aren't willing to accept any inconvenience if you become infected to avoid infecting others.

The bolded argument is undermined by how often the most COVID cautious use their practices to criticize and shame those who are less cautious, even slightly less so. If you denigrate those who are fully boosted, for example, but who choose not to mask indoors, you are not, in fact, a compassionate human being. Being a compassionate human being means caring about more than transmitting COVID. Too many people here seem to have forgotten that.

Very true. This moralization of infectious disease is reminiscent of the early days AIDS pandemic, and we all know what a mistake it was back then.

Real people aren't doing that. That is mostly a social media thing. Why should you care if other people assess risk differently than you do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cases in MoCo have quadrupled in a month.

I'm not saying it was either spring break (way too soon to see that) or taking off masks. But you can't really say "no change".

+1 and I would guess that at home tests are not all being reported. 70+ yr. old parents in DC positive last week for first time.

Why does that matter? If they test, and test positive, it is good info for them to have and they can stay home or take whatever measures they need to take until they feel better.

It would be best if all home positives were reported so health officials would have a better idea how much community spread is happening and how high case numbers are. I can’t believe that needs to be explained to you.

For example, if case numbers are high but hospitalizations are low, then we learn something about the current strain. But if cases aren’t being counted and hospitalizations start going up, we don’t have that information.

I know a whole bunch of people who escaped covid through the original, the delta and the omicron surges who have contracted covid in the past couple of weeks due to going back to normal, which is fine, but not one of them thought to report their at home results to the health department until reminded. I think people don’t think it’s still important. But it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cases in MoCo have quadrupled in a month.

I'm not saying it was either spring break (way too soon to see that) or taking off masks. But you can't really say "no change".

+1 and I would guess that at home tests are not all being reported. 70+ yr. old parents in DC positive last week for first time.

Why does that matter? If they test, and test positive, it is good info for them to have and they can stay home or take whatever measures they need to take until they feel better.

It would be best if all home positives were reported so health officials would have a better idea how much community spread is happening and how high case numbers are. I can’t believe that needs to be explained to you.

For example, if case numbers are high but hospitalizations are low, then we learn something about the current strain. But if cases aren’t being counted and hospitalizations start going up, we don’t have that information.

I know a whole bunch of people who escaped covid through the original, the delta and the omicron surges who have contracted covid in the past couple of weeks due to going back to normal, which is fine, but not one of them thought to report their at home results to the health department until reminded. I think people don’t think it’s still important. But it is.

Let me guess. You felt the need to "remind" them. People know, they just don't care any more despite whatever "reminding" you may have done. I'm sure they all ran right out and reported it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids have only been back for a few days. It takes time for #s to build. Check back in 2-3 weeks.

Please. We’ve heard “2 weeks” a million times before. Give it up already.

I'm sorry you struggle with the concept of exponential growth.

If we do have a "surge" it won't be a few days later. It takes time for case #s to grow.

Please bookmark this page and come back in TWO WEEKS and let me know what kind of EXPONENTIAL GROWTH we have had that caused a tremendous SURGE.

Ain’t gonna happen.

I don’t think there will a big surge.

I was only saying that if we do have one it doesn’t happen within a few days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cases in MoCo have quadrupled in a month.

I'm not saying it was either spring break (way too soon to see that) or taking off masks. But you can't really say "no change".

+1 and I would guess that at home tests are not all being reported. 70+ yr. old parents in DC positive last week for first time.

Why does that matter? If they test, and test positive, it is good info for them to have and they can stay home or take whatever measures they need to take until they feel better.

It would be best if all home positives were reported so health officials would have a better idea how much community spread is happening and how high case numbers are. I can’t believe that needs to be explained to you.

For example, if case numbers are high but hospitalizations are low, then we learn something about the current strain. But if cases aren’t being counted and hospitalizations start going up, we don’t have that information.

I know a whole bunch of people who escaped covid through the original, the delta and the omicron surges who have contracted covid in the past couple of weeks due to going back to normal, which is fine, but not one of them thought to report their at home results to the health department until reminded. I think people don’t think it’s still important. But it is.

Or we could move on and focus on things that matter just as much or more - crime, heart disease, poverty, obesity etc.

[Anonymous]

We had 10 cases at our elementary that had only 1 or 2 every few weeks. However they are all home tests, so I am not sure if they get reported to the health department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of us who left the area for break can confirm that Covid precautions are literally non existent except here. This area is so weird.

When I got off the plane in Orlando last week, I saw airport workers and sheriff's deputies in the terminal who weren't wearing masks.

Once we walked out of the terminal, maybe 1% of the people we saw were masked during our time there.

Something happened to a lot of people in this area that broke them during this pandemic.

I guess only broken people want to avoid getting a novel virus that causes long-term symptoms in an unknown percentage of those infected. I suppose only broken people would prefer not to have their lives disrupted by illness, want to avoid having to isolate themselves from infected family members, or risk infecting vulnerable people. That makes perfect sense.

This. Most smarter people are continuing to wear masks as they go about interacting with others.

Think it's about two weeks too soon to declare victory over spring break; most people aren't going to announce they are testing positive at home. I mean, hopefully hospitalizations will stay flat and this will start becoming endemic, but it's really too soon to tell.

So your theory is that people outside the DMV are universally dumb beyond the tiny percentage of people still masking in other areas? You think people in DC are just more informed and inherently better at risk assessment than people who live in places like NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle? Not just red states, but in very liberal areas with lots of highly educated progressives? For that matter, what about most of Canada and Europe, as well? Your saying DC is just smarter and better than people all these other places, that we alone understand Covid, the we are the only ones properly estimating the risk?

Is it at least a little big possible you are wrong about this? Do you have any doubts at all about it or are you 100% on it?

People who are COVID cautious follow other aspects of public health advice, not just what is convenient. That means testing when you have symptoms or staying home, isolating a positive family member when possible, having other family members wear high-quality masks outside of the house when indoors or in crowded outdoor settings for 10 days after last exposure, and testing family members 5 days after last exposure. That can be onerous, especially for larger families, especially at times when being out sick would be inconvenient. For me, avoiding those measures is reason enough to be cautious.

I don't know if it is smarter or if following this advice makes anyone a better person, but it definitely makes people who take measures to avoid infecting other people more compassionate human beings.

If you say you are following the science/public health guidance and also are "done with masks" you aren't following public health guidance and aren't willing to accept any inconvenience if you become infected to avoid infecting others.

The bolded argument is undermined by how often the most COVID cautious use their practices to criticize and shame those who are less cautious, even slightly less so. If you denigrate those who are fully boosted, for example, but who choose not to mask indoors, you are not, in fact, a compassionate human being. Being a compassionate human being means caring about more than transmitting COVID. Too many people here seem to have forgotten that.

Very true. This moralization of infectious disease is reminiscent of the early days AIDS pandemic, and we all know what a mistake it was back then.

Real people aren't doing that. That is mostly a social media thing. Why should you care if other people assess risk differently than you do?

I didn't say anything about caring about other people's risk assessments, but since you are asking: the reason to care would be that other people's risk assessment have guided policy for the past 2 years, and are still guiding them to a certain degree (see, for instance, charter schools and colleges continuing to impose mask mandates as well as other Covid restrictions because they are catering to the most risk averse and their zero Covid approach), and those policies have had very negative effects on lots of people. So yeah, we do still get to care because this isn't just about you continuing to wear a mask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cases in MoCo have quadrupled in a month.

I'm not saying it was either spring break (way too soon to see that) or taking off masks. But you can't really say "no change".

+1 and I would guess that at home tests are not all being reported. 70+ yr. old parents in DC positive last week for first time.

Why does that matter? If they test, and test positive, it is good info for them to have and they can stay home or take whatever measures they need to take until they feel better.

It would be best if all home positives were reported so health officials would have a better idea how much community spread is happening and how high case numbers are. I can’t believe that needs to be explained to you.

For example, if case numbers are high but hospitalizations are low, then we learn something about the current strain. But if cases aren’t being counted and hospitalizations start going up, we don’t have that information.

I know a whole bunch of people who escaped covid through the original, the delta and the omicron surges who have contracted covid in the past couple of weeks due to going back to normal, which is fine, but not one of them thought to report their at home results to the health department until reminded. I think people don’t think it’s still important. But it is.

Let me guess. You felt the need to "remind" them. People know, they just don't care any more despite whatever "reminding" you may have done. I'm sure they all ran right out and reported it.

Ha! Of course they did! These are close friends who’ve all been very, very careful and were quick to let their close contacts know and isolate. Of course they wanted to report their positives. It’s easy to do and, more importantly, the right thing to do.

Honestly, I think that some of you have lost the plot a little. Your choices aren’t to be a triple masker who never leaves the house or someone who disregards every single public health recommendation, like please report a positive test so we can continue to track the course of this disease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had 10 cases at our elementary that had only 1 or 2 every few weeks. However they are all home tests, so I am not sure if they get reported to the health department.

Your school is reporting them. Anyone who gets a PCR test is automatically reported. It’s the home testers who don’t get a PCR who are falling through the cracks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cases in MoCo have quadrupled in a month.

I'm not saying it was either spring break (way too soon to see that) or taking off masks. But you can't really say "no change".

+1 and I would guess that at home tests are not all being reported. 70+ yr. old parents in DC positive last week for first time.

Why does that matter? If they test, and test positive, it is good info for them to have and they can stay home or take whatever measures they need to take until they feel better.

It would be best if all home positives were reported so health officials would have a better idea how much community spread is happening and how high case numbers are. I can’t believe that needs to be explained to you.

For example, if case numbers are high but hospitalizations are low, then we learn something about the current strain. But if cases aren’t being counted and hospitalizations start going up, we don’t have that information.

I know a whole bunch of people who escaped covid through the original, the delta and the omicron surges who have contracted covid in the past couple of weeks due to going back to normal, which is fine, but not one of them thought to report their at home results to the health department until reminded. I think people don’t think it’s still important. But it is.

Let me guess. You felt the need to "remind" them. People know, they just don't care any more despite whatever "reminding" you may have done. I'm sure they all ran right out and reported it.

Ha! Of course they did! These are close friends who’ve all been very, very careful and were quick to let their close contacts know and isolate. Of course they wanted to report their positives. It’s easy to do and, more importantly, the right thing to do.

Honestly, I think that some of you have lost the plot a little. Your choices aren’t to be a triple masker who never leaves the house or someone who disregards every single public health recommendation, like please report a positive test so we can continue to track the course of this disease.

how do you report a positive home test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cases in MoCo have quadrupled in a month.

I'm not saying it was either spring break (way too soon to see that) or taking off masks. But you can't really say "no change".

+1 and I would guess that at home tests are not all being reported. 70+ yr. old parents in DC positive last week for first time.

Why does that matter? If they test, and test positive, it is good info for them to have and they can stay home or take whatever measures they need to take until they feel better.

It would be best if all home positives were reported so health officials would have a better idea how much community spread is happening and how high case numbers are. I can’t believe that needs to be explained to you.

For example, if case numbers are high but hospitalizations are low, then we learn something about the current strain. But if cases aren’t being counted and hospitalizations start going up, we don’t have that information.

I know a whole bunch of people who escaped covid through the original, the delta and the omicron surges who have contracted covid in the past couple of weeks due to going back to normal, which is fine, but not one of them thought to report their at home results to the health department until reminded. I think people don’t think it’s still important. But it is.

Let me guess. You felt the need to "remind" them. People know, they just don't care any more despite whatever "reminding" you may have done. I'm sure they all ran right out and reported it.

Ha! Of course they did! These are close friends who’ve all been very, very careful and were quick to let their close contacts know and isolate. Of course they wanted to report their positives. It’s easy to do and, more importantly, the right thing to do.

Honestly, I think that some of you have lost the plot a little. Your choices aren’t to be a triple masker who never leaves the house or someone who disregards every single public health recommendation, like please report a positive test so we can continue to track the course of this disease.

It can’t be meaningfully tracked. Anybody that self reports isn’t even a rounding error blip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cases in MoCo have quadrupled in a month.

I'm not saying it was either spring break (way too soon to see that) or taking off masks. But you can't really say "no change".

+1 and I would guess that at home tests are not all being reported. 70+ yr. old parents in DC positive last week for first time.

Why does that matter? If they test, and test positive, it is good info for them to have and they can stay home or take whatever measures they need to take until they feel better.

It would be best if all home positives were reported so health officials would have a better idea how much community spread is happening and how high case numbers are. I can’t believe that needs to be explained to you.

For example, if case numbers are high but hospitalizations are low, then we learn something about the current strain. But if cases aren’t being counted and hospitalizations start going up, we don’t have that information.

I know a whole bunch of people who escaped covid through the original, the delta and the omicron surges who have contracted covid in the past couple of weeks due to going back to normal, which is fine, but not one of them thought to report their at home results to the health department until reminded. I think people don’t think it’s still important. But it is.

Let me guess. You felt the need to "remind" them. People know, they just don't care any more despite whatever "reminding" you may have done. I'm sure they all ran right out and reported it.

Ha! Of course they did! These are close friends who’ve all been very, very careful and were quick to let their close contacts know and isolate. Of course they wanted to report their positives. It’s easy to do and, more importantly, the right thing to do.

Honestly, I think that some of you have lost the plot a little. Your choices aren’t to be a triple masker who never leaves the house or someone who disregards every single public health recommendation, like please report a positive test so we can continue to track the course of this disease.

how do you report a positive home test?

Here is the link for Maryland:

https://covidlink.maryland.gov/content/testing/if-you-test-positive/#:~:text=You%20can%20report%20your%20positive,register%20to%20create%20an%20account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of us who left the area for break can confirm that Covid precautions are literally non existent except here. This area is so weird.

When I got off the plane in Orlando last week, I saw airport workers and sheriff's deputies in the terminal who weren't wearing masks.

Once we walked out of the terminal, maybe 1% of the people we saw were masked during our time there.

Something happened to a lot of people in this area that broke them during this pandemic.

I guess only broken people want to avoid getting a novel virus that causes long-term symptoms in an unknown percentage of those infected. I suppose only broken people would prefer not to have their lives disrupted by illness, want to avoid having to isolate themselves from infected family members, or risk infecting vulnerable people. That makes perfect sense.

This. Most smarter people are continuing to wear masks as they go about interacting with others.

Think it's about two weeks too soon to declare victory over spring break; most people aren't going to announce they are testing positive at home. I mean, hopefully hospitalizations will stay flat and this will start becoming endemic, but it's really too soon to tell.

So your theory is that people outside the DMV are universally dumb beyond the tiny percentage of people still masking in other areas? You think people in DC are just more informed and inherently better at risk assessment than people who live in places like NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle? Not just red states, but in very liberal areas with lots of highly educated progressives? For that matter, what about most of Canada and Europe, as well? Your saying DC is just smarter and better than people all these other places, that we alone understand Covid, the we are the only ones properly estimating the risk?

Is it at least a little big possible you are wrong about this? Do you have any doubts at all about it or are you 100% on it?

Well said. I don't think they doubt themselves even one bit.

Religious zealots never do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of us who left the area for break can confirm that Covid precautions are literally non existent except here. This area is so weird.

When I got off the plane in Orlando last week, I saw airport workers and sheriff's deputies in the terminal who weren't wearing masks.

Once we walked out of the terminal, maybe 1% of the people we saw were masked during our time there.

Something happened to a lot of people in this area that broke them during this pandemic.

I guess only broken people want to avoid getting a novel virus that causes long-term symptoms in an unknown percentage of those infected. I suppose only broken people would prefer not to have their lives disrupted by illness, want to avoid having to isolate themselves from infected family members, or risk infecting vulnerable people. That makes perfect sense.

This. Most smarter people are continuing to wear masks as they go about interacting with others.

Think it's about two weeks too soon to declare victory over spring break; most people aren't going to announce they are testing positive at home. I mean, hopefully hospitalizations will stay flat and this will start becoming endemic, but it's really too soon to tell.

So your theory is that people outside the DMV are universally dumb beyond the tiny percentage of people still masking in other areas? You think people in DC are just more informed and inherently better at risk assessment than people who live in places like NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle? Not just red states, but in very liberal areas with lots of highly educated progressives? For that matter, what about most of Canada and Europe, as well? Your saying DC is just smarter and better than people all these other places, that we alone understand Covid, the we are the only ones properly estimating the risk?

Is it at least a little big possible you are wrong about this? Do you have any doubts at all about it or are you 100% on it?

People who are COVID cautious follow other aspects of public health advice, not just what is convenient. That means testing when you have symptoms or staying home, isolating a positive family member when possible, having other family members wear high-quality masks outside of the house when indoors or in crowded outdoor settings for 10 days after last exposure, and testing family members 5 days after last exposure. That can be onerous, especially for larger families, especially at times when being out sick would be inconvenient. For me, avoiding those measures is reason enough to be cautious.

I don't know if it is smarter or if following this advice makes anyone a better person, but it definitely makes people who take measures to avoid infecting other people more compassionate human beings.

If you say you are following the science/public health guidance and also are "done with masks" you aren't following public health guidance and aren't willing to accept any inconvenience if you become infected to avoid infecting others.

So you think that people out the DMV are just lying about following other aspects of public health advice. You think that since they no longer wear masks outdoors or in certain indoor environments that the CDC has said it is okay for unvaccinated people to unmask, that means they aren't testing or isolating with exposures? You assume that they are jus doing what is convenient, that they are hypocrites when they say they are following CDC advice, that it's just a ruse to avoid wearing masks?

Have you... met people from other areas? My extended family is Covid cautious. They masked for a long time, but mask a lot less since getting vaccinated. There was a brief period of remarking during Omicron, but when it passed they stopped masking again. Some of them work in healthcare so they of course mask at work. But they go to restaurants, travel, etc. They are all vaccinated and boosted, some twice. Some have high risk factors and they mask more than others. They don't freak out when the see unmasked people in stores. They all test as appropriate and of course isolate with symptoms. Many of them got Covid during the Omicron surge and they stayed home and quarantined as they were supposed to.

And yet if you went to where they live, you'd see lots of unmasked people just living their lives. Not stupid people or Trump lovers. Not anti-vaxers or anti-maskers. Intelligent, educated people making rational choices for themselves and their family. There would be whole days that would go by when you wouldn't even think about Covid. You might see a few people in masks and not think anything of it, assume they were high risk or that they had a cold or that they just preferred to wear a mask.

This is much of the country now. DC is the only place I know of where people are still FREAKING OUT about this and constantly trying to one-up each other for being the most Covid-cautious, for being the people doing the pandemic the best. I know people all over the country and I don't know anywhere like this.

When you are the outlier, you have to ask yourself if you might be the one doing it wrong. Like you might just want to consider that people in DC are not better, smarter, more virtuous, more educated, or more informed than everyone else on the planet. Just throwing it out there.

PP here, and I never said anything about freaking out about unvaccinated or unmasked people. I also never said anything about mask mandates or avoiding activities. You are talking about right versus wrong.

I simply said that if you take COVID seriously, you accept your personal risk and the responsibility to try to avoid spreading it if your family gets COVID. For some people, efforts to avoid infection by way of masking or avoiding crowded indoor settings aren't as onerous as others think they are. I would much rather mask in the airport than be sick on my vacation. If masking cuts down on the chance of being sick, why is that "wrong"? Why does it bother you so much if others mask?

By the way, I just returned from a trip to a red state where I spoke with people who are masking, including servers, Uber drivers, and others we met. Their reasons were the same as most of us here - they have vulnerable family members that they live with or care for, they have medical conditions that put them at higher risk of a bad outcome from COVID, they have medical conditions that might not necessary not put them at greater risk from COVID, but which make them more cautious about the possibility of long COVID, they have young children at home, etc. These people are out there. Why judging them so important to you?

Then why are you even arguing with me? The whole point of this back and forth was that you (or some PP) argued that if you are "smart" you will mask indoors at all times. And this was brought up to counter the earlier argument that only in DC is masking this widespread and are people as militant about it, that in other parts of the country, even liberal, pro-science, pro-vax and pro-mask areas, people do not mask are extensively as they do here nor are they as insistent that others mask even if they do mask.

No one is suggesting you shouldn't mask in the airport. I mask in the airport! Rather, we are saying that this smug insistence that "only smart" people mask in the place you mask is bizarre. As though there is no other conclusion any person could possible make about Covid precautions than the one you, personally, have made.