DC drops indoor mask and vaccine mandates tomorrow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with dropping the mask mandate but the vaccine mandate was good, common-sense public health policy.

What do you think the vaccine mandate in DC accomplished, exactly? Other than helping Virginia restaurants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m done wearing a mask as of today. Nothing will be different in two weeks so time to get a head start.

Good luck and god bless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with dropping the mask mandate but the vaccine mandate was good, common-sense public health policy.

What do you think the vaccine mandate in DC accomplished, exactly? Other than helping Virginia restaurants?

VA resident here. We drove to DC specifically because of the mandate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing they are keeping the mask mandates for schools because Omicron is still ripping through classrooms like wild fire. Our DC-based daycare was absolutely decimated for the past month. I imagine the same is happening in classrooms, particularly when so few kids are vaccinated.

No, Omicron is not ripping through classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with dropping the mask mandate but the vaccine mandate was good, common-sense public health policy.

What do you think the vaccine mandate in DC accomplished, exactly? Other than helping Virginia restaurants?

VA resident here. We drove to DC specifically because of the mandate.

You and three others. Meanwhile, restaurants in Virginia make record profits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with dropping the mask mandate but the vaccine mandate was good, common-sense public health policy.

What do you think the vaccine mandate in DC accomplished, exactly? Other than helping Virginia restaurants?

VA resident here. We drove to DC specifically because of the mandate.

You're part of a pretty small minority. We have a number of hospitality industry clients. Reservations dropped in their DC restaurants, and went up in their Arlington establishments, as soon as the mandate came into place in DC. And restaurants hated the mandates and being forced to try and enforce it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing they are keeping the mask mandates for schools because Omicron is still ripping through classrooms like wild fire. Our DC-based daycare was absolutely decimated for the past month. I imagine the same is happening in classrooms, particularly when so few kids are vaccinated.

Masks didn't stop Omicron from ripping through groups of people including daycares. Now our daily case rates are back down around 100/day. Why do our littlest kids need a mask?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with dropping the mask mandate but the vaccine mandate was good, common-sense public health policy.

What do you think the vaccine mandate in DC accomplished, exactly? Other than helping Virginia restaurants?

VA resident here. We drove to DC specifically because of the mandate.

You're part of a pretty small minority. We have a number of hospitality industry clients. Reservations dropped in their DC restaurants, and went up in their Arlington establishments, as soon as the mandate came into place in DC. And restaurants hated the mandates and being forced to try and enforce it.

The mandate was only in place for 6 weeks. Didn't make an ounce of difference.

[Anonymous]

I agree with everyone that dropping the vax mandate seems like a bizarre decision right now (I'm fine dropping the masks and also wish they'd at least explore dropping masks in schools), BUT

I frequent three different dining establishments due to some peculiarities of my schedule. One is a restaurant with a substantial bar, one is a coffee shop, and one is a mid-priced neighborhood restaurant (no bar). I am at them the same times every week, the coffee shop multiple times a week.

I do not know why, but they have all been a LOT less busy the last month. I wouldn't think it's the vax mandate because they are all in DC neighborhoods with a lot of vaccinated people and high mask compliance. If I had to speculate, it's that omicron freaked out a lot of the people who regularly hit up these spots, and that decreased business despite the vax mandate, not because of it.

But if you were an owner or manager of one of these places, you might not be sure what was causing it. The vax mandate was an inconvenience for businesses to implement, so it might be easy to point to it as the problem and lobby for DC to get rid of it. Again, I don't think that's the culprit, and I think likely these places were going to see a surge in business in the spring due to an overall decline in cases anyway. But I'm betting that there is some vocal opposition to the vax mandate among DC businesses, but rather than taking to Twitter and complaining on here, they are quietly lobbying through associations to get rid of the mandate. That's just my guess, because otherwise this seems out of left field.

I think a lot of the businesses who like the mandate will just keep it, now that it's been incorporated into their business practices.

[Anonymous]

Racial inequality meant that the vaccine mandate was never going to last in DC.

Sad day for the Mask Karens. I’m sure they’ll find something else to talk to the manager about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with dropping the mask mandate but the vaccine mandate was good, common-sense public health policy.

What do you think the vaccine mandate in DC accomplished, exactly? Other than helping Virginia restaurants?

VA resident here. We drove to DC specifically because of the mandate.

You're part of a pretty small minority. We have a number of hospitality industry clients. Reservations dropped in their DC restaurants, and went up in their Arlington establishments, as soon as the mandate came into place in DC. And restaurants hated the mandates and being forced to try and enforce it.

The mandate was only in place for 6 weeks. Didn't make an ounce of difference.

It hasn't even been in place for that long. It was announced six weeks ago. It's only been in effect (partially) since Jan. 15

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Racial inequality meant that the vaccine mandate was never going to last in DC.

Sad day for the Mask Karens. I’m sure they’ll find something else to talk to the manager about.

Oh, they are just exuberant that it is continuing in schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing they are keeping the mask mandates for schools because Omicron is still ripping through classrooms like wild fire. Our DC-based daycare was absolutely decimated for the past month. I imagine the same is happening in classrooms, particularly when so few kids are vaccinated.

No, Omicron is not ripping through classrooms.

Correct, because they are wearing masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing they are keeping the mask mandates for schools because Omicron is still ripping through classrooms like wild fire. Our DC-based daycare was absolutely decimated for the past month. I imagine the same is happening in classrooms, particularly when so few kids are vaccinated.

No, Omicron is not ripping through classrooms.

Correct, because they are wearing masks.

DP, but its not ripping through classrooms right now because the case rate has gone down.

Guess what everyone was doing when case rates where high and omicron WAS "ripping through classrooms"? Wearing masks.

Face it, masks didn't stop omicron. There's no point to them at schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are they doing this? The vax mandate was great

Because it sucks. And people who are vaccinated are going out of their way to eat in Virginia because they don’t like the mandates. Lots of lost business and headaches for the restaurant owners.