DC drops indoor mask and vaccine mandates tomorrow

[Anonymous]

Case rates in DC schools are dropping, like the community case rates are dropping. Unsurprisingly, school case rates do what community case rates do. This has been shown time and again throughout the pandemic.

Here's the data: https://coronavirus.dc.gov/page/dc-schools-data

[Anonymous]

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

"Great" for who?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I can't have been the only person who ate indoors in DC for the first time a couple of weeks ago BECAUSE of the vax mandate, and will now not do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I can't have been the only person who ate indoors in DC for the first time a couple of weeks ago BECAUSE of the vax mandate, and will now not do so.

Bye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Because A LOT of DC got COVID over the past month. We just finally started testing negative this past weekend in our house, kid brought it home from daycare. Now multiply that across a lot of households staying home because they were infected.

Plus, of course, people staying home because Omicron was so transmissible.

In hindsight, July-November 2021 was a lovely respite from the COVID scaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This feels so unfair. So unvaccinated adults can swan around unmasked in restaurants and bars, but my fully vaxxed kids have to continue wearing their masks for 8 hours a day in school. Drop the school mask mandate before dropping the vax mandate.

Schools will be next. Time to turn up the heat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I can't have been the only person who ate indoors in DC for the first time a couple of weeks ago BECAUSE of the vax mandate, and will now not do so.

OK, what is your limit? When will you eat in a restaurant again if there is no vax mandate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I can't have been the only person who ate indoors in DC for the first time a couple of weeks ago BECAUSE of the vax mandate, and will now not do so.

OK, what is your limit? When will you eat in a restaurant again if there is no vax mandate?

She'll be there tomorrow night. This is all bluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I can't have been the only person who ate indoors in DC for the first time a couple of weeks ago BECAUSE of the vax mandate, and will now not do so.

OK, what is your limit? When will you eat in a restaurant again if there is no vax mandate?

Honestly, I'm not sure. I probably will when case numbers go down, but for now the risk/reward calculation for ME personally means that I'd rather not - I'd rather, or I need to, spend my "risk points" on other things. I'd probably feel differently if eating in restaurants was a more important part of my life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This feels so unfair. So unvaccinated adults can swan around unmasked in restaurants and bars, but my fully vaxxed kids have to continue wearing their masks for 8 hours a day in school. Drop the school mask mandate before dropping the vax mandate.

Schools will be next. Time to turn up the heat.

Who should we contact to “turn up the heat”? This is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This feels so unfair. So unvaccinated adults can swan around unmasked in restaurants and bars, but my fully vaxxed kids have to continue wearing their masks for 8 hours a day in school. Drop the school mask mandate before dropping the vax mandate.

Schools will be next. Time to turn up the heat.

Who should we contact to “turn up the heat”? This is nuts.

Start with your city council person. Also Mayor Bowser herself.

[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.

Lazy and misogynistic post. But you knew that.

[Anonymous]

At this stage, who are we protecting with in-school masking? The teachers and staff have to be vaccinated, so are at low risk of hospitalization or death. The kids were already at low risk, and now with vaccination for all over 4, they are at any even lower risk. What's the point, particularly when school rates are dropping like community rates?

[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.

+100

[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.

No, they'll continue to harp on those of us who "choose" to go maskless, thereby putting "everyone else in grave danger." The difference is, now we can legitimately tell them where they can put their pretty mask.