Montgomery- 5 more days and masks off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Like the lady I saw yesterday driving in a mini copper convertible. Alone. With a mask. Does she think she’s gonna catch covid From the air? Or is she making a statement. Like her Biden bumper sticker isn’t enough. The mask reinforces to all who see her that she’s anti trump.
But I have to say we are also all becoming conditioned in this area. Especially the kids. I’m noticing more and more that young kids, elementary and high school age, or just wearing masks everywhere. I don’t think they’re doing it to make a statement and I certainly don’t think they’re afraid I think they’ve just gotten used to them and it’s become their new normal. I’m sure their parents reinforce it as well but when they’re out and about walking down the street they still have their masks on. I just don’t understand on how beautiful day it was yesterday at someone who choose to walk down and empty sidewalk alone or with another close friend or family member and keep their mask on. Don’t you miss breathing fresh air?

We went out of our way to reinforce to our kids that they need to take their masks off when they're outside. We never made them wear it at the playground or any other outdoor activity. It's just school at this point, and our 13 year-old says enforcement is pretty haphazard at his DC MS.

I don't want my kids to think this is normal. I'm really jealous of their cousins down in Florida who have been going to school all year with zero restrictions. It's frustrating to me that the demographic that is at the lowest risk is stuck living with restrictions to protect adults who can't be bothered to vaccinate themselves. You don't want to get the vaccine? Fine. But, leave my kids alone and let them get back to normal life.

It is normal to them. Why do you care! Your kids are good people. You should learn from them.

DP

I truly don’t care what other people do. You all can mask up for as long as you want. Makes no difference to me!

As long as you let my kids take their masks off, we’re cool!

There is NO mask mandate. If you are talking about schools, stop being selfish as schools are a hot bed given how many kids there are and how close together they are.

You can have your kids take their mask off all they want but they aren't coming into my house either way given your behavior so its a non-issue what you do for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like masks because it makes it easy to identify people by their politics without ever needing to engage them in person.

See someone strolling down the sidewalk with a mask on? That’s an ally.

No mask? Enemy.

Easy peasy.

I hate masks. I will wear them if the law tells me too, and I do. But as soon as that order was rescinded, the mask came off. I do ask people if they'd like me to mask up if we are in close quarters.

~super liberal

Two more days and masks on.

55.96. Damn. No good.

I mean, that number by itself doesn't look so bad. But its been clear for several days now they Sunday (tomorrow) was our only hope for dropping below 50. Now we know what would need: no more than 28 new cases. That's not going to happen.

It'll be interesting to see how the county handles this. Because the new cases *last* Monday were so low, I think we're quite likely to find ourselves in a position where we'll know tomorrow that it will be mathematically impossible to drop below 50 on Monday. So will they get a jump on sending out an announcement regarding when the mask requirement will return? Or will they wait for Tuesday for the CDC to "confirm" Monday's number, as they wanted to do when it came to dropping the mandate?

Given the trajectory of things, and the recent push for more surveillance testing in schools and workplaces, it seems unlikely we'll drop below 50 for 7 consecutive days anytime soon. But the county should reach 85% vaccinated in about a month. So, the mandate will be gone again in time to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. And I think enough of the councilmemers, and even Dr. Stoddard, now agree it is time to stop using case numbers to drive our response. MoCo's COVID situation looks great in all ways besides case counts, and even a spike in cases won't change that. With our incredibly high vaccination rate, we'll be fine regardless of where cases go.

Do the posters obsessed with these numbers have anything better to do? It doesn't matter. If you are obese or a smoker - be concerned. If you have elderly persons in your care - take care of them. Everyone else move the hell on.

I don't care about numbers as they will continue to go up and down. Its not about the elderly, nor are we obsessed or smoke. Some of us have health issues, long term health issues and don't want covid on top of that. For you covid is no big deal. For us, it probably means death. The covid deniers are far worse than the vaccine refusal folks at this point as they are just as much spreaders and don't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Like the lady I saw yesterday driving in a mini copper convertible. Alone. With a mask. Does she think she’s gonna catch covid From the air? Or is she making a statement. Like her Biden bumper sticker isn’t enough. The mask reinforces to all who see her that she’s anti trump.
But I have to say we are also all becoming conditioned in this area. Especially the kids. I’m noticing more and more that young kids, elementary and high school age, or just wearing masks everywhere. I don’t think they’re doing it to make a statement and I certainly don’t think they’re afraid I think they’ve just gotten used to them and it’s become their new normal. I’m sure their parents reinforce it as well but when they’re out and about walking down the street they still have their masks on. I just don’t understand on how beautiful day it was yesterday at someone who choose to walk down and empty sidewalk alone or with another close friend or family member and keep their mask on. Don’t you miss breathing fresh air?

Covid is caught through the air.

I realize it’s an airborne virus. But I’m a convertible doing 40 miles an hour. Highly unlikely.

[Anonymous]

We’re now far enough out from the lifting of the mask mandate to see the effects of lifting it. Surprise, cases went up. The vaccines aren’t as effective in preventing transmission as we first thought, though they appear to be pretty good at preventing serious illness. Our healthcare workers are going to be in for another rough thanksgiving and christmas as hospitalizations go up again.

I have no desire to mask forever, but the virus is still fairly new. We don’t have a good handle on the mean time between significant mutations, we don’t know for sure how long immunity (natural or vaccine) lasts, and we have neither enough genetic sequencing nor enough breakthrough data to be certain that it’s ok to get rid of low-cost measures like masking. I don’t understand why the council was in such a hurry to get rid of the mandate and thought it needed to play games with numbers to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Like the lady I saw yesterday driving in a mini copper convertible. Alone. With a mask. Does she think she’s gonna catch covid From the air? Or is she making a statement. Like her Biden bumper sticker isn’t enough. The mask reinforces to all who see her that she’s anti trump.
But I have to say we are also all becoming conditioned in this area. Especially the kids. I’m noticing more and more that young kids, elementary and high school age, or just wearing masks everywhere. I don’t think they’re doing it to make a statement and I certainly don’t think they’re afraid I think they’ve just gotten used to them and it’s become their new normal. I’m sure their parents reinforce it as well but when they’re out and about walking down the street they still have their masks on. I just don’t understand on how beautiful day it was yesterday at someone who choose to walk down and empty sidewalk alone or with another close friend or family member and keep their mask on. Don’t you miss breathing fresh air?

We went out of our way to reinforce to our kids that they need to take their masks off when they're outside. We never made them wear it at the playground or any other outdoor activity. It's just school at this point, and our 13 year-old says enforcement is pretty haphazard at his DC MS.

I don't want my kids to think this is normal. I'm really jealous of their cousins down in Florida who have been going to school all year with zero restrictions. It's frustrating to me that the demographic that is at the lowest risk is stuck living with restrictions to protect adults who can't be bothered to vaccinate themselves. You don't want to get the vaccine? Fine. But, leave my kids alone and let them get back to normal life.

It is normal to them. Why do you care! Your kids are good people. You should learn from them.

DP

I truly don’t care what other people do. You all can mask up for as long as you want. Makes no difference to me!

As long as you let my kids take their masks off, we’re cool!

There is NO mask mandate. If you are talking about schools, stop being selfish as schools are a hot bed given how many kids there are and how close together they are.

You can have your kids take their mask off all they want but they aren't coming into my house either way given your behavior so its a non-issue what you do for us.

Except schools haven’t been hotbeds of transmission. Yes, there was a concern they might be, but now we have a ton of data from schools in MoCo, and around the United States and world, showing cases in schools roughly track with cases in the community as a whole. And kids aren’t even at high risk from Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re now far enough out from the lifting of the mask mandate to see the effects of lifting it. Surprise, cases went up. The vaccines aren’t as effective in preventing transmission as we first thought, though they appear to be pretty good at preventing serious illness. Our healthcare workers are going to be in for another rough thanksgiving and christmas as hospitalizations go up again.

I have no desire to mask forever, but the virus is still fairly new. We don’t have a good handle on the mean time between significant mutations, we don’t know for sure how long immunity (natural or vaccine) lasts, and we have neither enough genetic sequencing nor enough breakthrough data to be certain that it’s ok to get rid of low-cost measures like masking. I don’t understand why the council was in such a hurry to get rid of the mandate and thought it needed to play games with numbers to do so.

There are so many ridiculous parts to this post. We’re not seeing an increase in cases from unmasked people. Why? We’ll, first we haven’t seen a significant increase in cases. We’re about two weeks out from lifting the mask mandate. Here’s a graph of the last 30 days.



Do you see a significant trend there? Cases have gone up an insignificant amount. And the small amount they did go up happened before there even could have been an impact from lifting the mandate.

Second, the mandate went away, but mask usage was largely unchanged. Schools still required it. Many workplaces still did. And almost everyone else voluntarily continued to wear masks indoors.

And third, cases really don’t matter. Everyone agrees Covid will become endemic. Cases will continue, but the severity of cases will be low as people have acquired some level of protective immunity through vaccination and/or prior infection. We saw that with the Delta wave- cases went up significantly, but hospitalizations and deaths were significantly moderated by our high vaccination rate. Now even more people are vaccinate. And more people have protection from recovering from prior infections. Regardless of what happens with cases, we’re not going to see the dangerous spikes like 2020 again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re now far enough out from the lifting of the mask mandate to see the effects of lifting it. Surprise, cases went up. The vaccines aren’t as effective in preventing transmission as we first thought, though they appear to be pretty good at preventing serious illness. Our healthcare workers are going to be in for another rough thanksgiving and christmas as hospitalizations go up again.

I have no desire to mask forever, but the virus is still fairly new. We don’t have a good handle on the mean time between significant mutations, we don’t know for sure how long immunity (natural or vaccine) lasts, and we have neither enough genetic sequencing nor enough breakthrough data to be certain that it’s ok to get rid of low-cost measures like masking. I don’t understand why the council was in such a hurry to get rid of the mandate and thought it needed to play games with numbers to do so.

There are so many ridiculous parts to this post. We’re not seeing an increase in cases from unmasked people. Why? We’ll, first we haven’t seen a significant increase in cases. We’re about two weeks out from lifting the mask mandate. Here’s a graph of the last 30 days.



Do you see a significant trend there? Cases have gone up an insignificant amount. And the small amount they did go up happened before there even could have been an impact from lifting the mandate.

Second, the mandate went away, but mask usage was largely unchanged. Schools still required it. Many workplaces still did. And almost everyone else voluntarily continued to wear masks indoors.

And third, cases really don’t matter. Everyone agrees Covid will become endemic. Cases will continue, but the severity of cases will be low as people have acquired some level of protective immunity through vaccination and/or prior infection. We saw that with the Delta wave- cases went up significantly, but hospitalizations and deaths were significantly moderated by our high vaccination rate. Now even more people are vaccinate. And more people have protection from recovering from prior infections. Regardless of what happens with cases, we’re not going to see the dangerous spikes like 2020 again.

Well reasoned posts will never break through the anxiety and social signaling of those who bitterly cling to their masks and religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:



Do you see a significant trend there? Cases have gone up an insignificant amount. And the small amount they did go up happened before there even could have been an impact from lifting the mandate.

As of today, the 7-day case rate is up 20 percent since 11/6. The 7-day positivity rate, while still low, has ticked up for seven straight days, which usually is a precursor to larger increases in cases.

The county has more than 300,000 residents who aren't yet fully vaccinated. We don't know how many people vaccinated more than 12 months ago have received a third dose, which appears to be the only one that counts if it's been more than six months since your second shot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re now far enough out from the lifting of the mask mandate to see the effects of lifting it. Surprise, cases went up. The vaccines aren’t as effective in preventing transmission as we first thought, though they appear to be pretty good at preventing serious illness. Our healthcare workers are going to be in for another rough thanksgiving and christmas as hospitalizations go up again.

I have no desire to mask forever, but the virus is still fairly new. We don’t have a good handle on the mean time between significant mutations, we don’t know for sure how long immunity (natural or vaccine) lasts, and we have neither enough genetic sequencing nor enough breakthrough data to be certain that it’s ok to get rid of low-cost measures like masking. I don’t understand why the council was in such a hurry to get rid of the mandate and thought it needed to play games with numbers to do so.

Many of us said this all along. BUT, MoCo will just change the matrix to keep masks off. Election time is coming up and politicians care about votes, not health.

We don't know actual numbers as many test at home or don't test and just say its a cold.

[Anonymous]

5 days at substantial -- today was 55.96. Two more days above 50 and the mask mandate is reenacted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:



Do you see a significant trend there? Cases have gone up an insignificant amount. And the small amount they did go up happened before there even could have been an impact from lifting the mandate.

As of today, the 7-day case rate is up 20 percent since 11/6. The 7-day positivity rate, while still low, has ticked up for seven straight days, which usually is a precursor to larger increases in cases.

The county has more than 300,000 residents who aren't yet fully vaccinated. We don't know how many people vaccinated more than 12 months ago have received a third dose, which appears to be the only one that counts if it's been more than six months since your second shot.

Its a very small amount unvaccinated and some may not be vaccinated for health and other reasons. Given the high level of vaccinated its time to stop blaming the unvaccinated and look at behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:5 days at substantial -- today was 55.96. Two more days above 50 and the mask mandate is reenacted.

They'll just change the criteria like they just did. Elections coming up and votes are more important than safety. Dead and sick people don't vote.

[Anonymous]

The mask mandate was lifted. No one. I mean no one in this area has changed their behavior. If they masked before they are still masking now. Those who socialized before are still socializing now and those who did not still are not. The mask mandate being lifted did not change behavior. Not in this area. So if cases have gone up a little or is not because everyone in the county has ripped off masks and started to socializing. We are all behaving now the way we were as individuals six months ago. And yes, even in states with much less compliance to masks etc the pattern of cases increasing and decreasing seems to be the same. It’s not as simple as masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:



Do you see a significant trend there? Cases have gone up an insignificant amount. And the small amount they did go up happened before there even could have been an impact from lifting the mandate.

As of today, the 7-day case rate is up 20 percent since 11/6. The 7-day positivity rate, while still low, has ticked up for seven straight days, which usually is a precursor to larger increases in cases.

The county has more than 300,000 residents who aren't yet fully vaccinated. We don't know how many people vaccinated more than 12 months ago have received a third dose, which appears to be the only one that counts if it's been more than six months since your second shot.

Again, look the graph of cases. Are you really suggesting you think there's a trend there? Your statement about a 20% in weekly cases since 11/6 might initially sound bad, but you could have just as easily reported the increase since 10/30. In that case you would have had to say 5%. I guess 20% sounds better for your cause than 5%.

There's no meaningful trend. At least, not yet. And certainly not anything that could be linked to a change in behavior over the mask mandate, given there wasn't a change in behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5 days at substantial -- today was 55.96. Two more days above 50 and the mask mandate is reenacted.

They'll just change the criteria like they just did. Elections coming up and votes are more important than safety. Dead and sick people don't vote.

If only. I’d love to see them change the order to remove the useless mask provision, but it is coming back. We’ll be stuck with masks for another month or so until we get up to 85% fully vaccinated. I’m not changing, though. I never stopped wearing a mask myself in stores, but I did stop pretending to have my kids wear masks. And I’m not going to start again. They never kept the mask in place for more than 5 seconds at a time anyway, so it was always just for show. Just like cloth masks in general.