Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what the purpose of opening them is -- do people really feel comfortable to sit inside and eat with masks off? I'm happy getting takeout.
I do wish more restaurants would repurpose their wait staff to do delivery. I hate grub hub and ubereats, and would order about 5x as often if I didn't have to get dressed to go pick it up.

We were in Snowshoe this weekend for skiing. My friends and I were able to sit at a bar, order a burger and have drinks. It was pretty awesome.

So, yeah, there are plenty of people who are comfortable eating inside with masks off. Get out of your bubble.

My kid's doing Zoom school in our living room and shouting across the yard at her grandparents, and you're flying to Snowshoe to eat hamburgers with friends indoors in bars apres-ski.

NP - I am living my life to the best of my ability while still obeying health orders. People have different comfort levels with risk and that is OK. During COVID, we bought a house in a state that is more relaxed than MD, and have traveled there for weeks on end. Eating indoors throughout the pandemic, but wearing masks in grocery and retail stores, etc. All has been fine.

I know a multi-generational family that was comfortable traveling to a resort over Christmas, in a state that encouraged tourism travel. The generations stayed separately and wore masks. The result was: everyone in the family tested positive afterwards - grandchildren, children, and grandparents. One of the children (late 30s or early 40s) got very sick and almost had to go to the hospital, their spouse missed work for several weeks because of the positive test plus caregiving for the very sick spouse and the grandchildren, and one of the grandparents died.

It's all fine, until it's not.

I know a large extended family that was comfortable staying at home, getting take out, both parents worked at home (one is a scientist,) in the state of Maryland, the county of Montgomery, where pretty much most things are shut down. The result was in: a close family member came over for the take out one night and within a week everyone in the extended family who btw had also followed all the rules tested positive for COVID. No one knows who patient zero was.

One is now in the hospital in the ICU and one will likely end up there shortly.

You're right. It's all fine until its not. We need to shut down take out too. It encourages people to eat together in their homes which causes COVID.

Please mind the sarcasm.

It doesn't, though.

I don't know about rules, but if all of those family members tested positive, they were probably spending time indoors with each other unmasked - which is a known risk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what the purpose of opening them is -- do people really feel comfortable to sit inside and eat with masks off? I'm happy getting takeout.
I do wish more restaurants would repurpose their wait staff to do delivery. I hate grub hub and ubereats, and would order about 5x as often if I didn't have to get dressed to go pick it up.

We were in Snowshoe this weekend for skiing. My friends and I were able to sit at a bar, order a burger and have drinks. It was pretty awesome.

So, yeah, there are plenty of people who are comfortable eating inside with masks off. Get out of your bubble.

My kid's doing Zoom school in our living room and shouting across the yard at her grandparents, and you're flying to Snowshoe to eat hamburgers with friends indoors in bars apres-ski.

NP - I am living my life to the best of my ability while still obeying health orders. People have different comfort levels with risk and that is OK. During COVID, we bought a house in a state that is more relaxed than MD, and have traveled there for weeks on end. Eating indoors throughout the pandemic, but wearing masks in grocery and retail stores, etc. All has been fine.

I know a multi-generational family that was comfortable traveling to a resort over Christmas, in a state that encouraged tourism travel. The generations stayed separately and wore masks. The result was: everyone in the family tested positive afterwards - grandchildren, children, and grandparents. One of the children (late 30s or early 40s) got very sick and almost had to go to the hospital, their spouse missed work for several weeks because of the positive test plus caregiving for the very sick spouse and the grandchildren, and one of the grandparents died.

It's all fine, until it's not.

Yeah, the focus on people "comfort levels" and "feelings" is just so misguided. Your feelings have nothing to do with whether or not your actions contribute to the spread of COVID. Indoor dining has been identified as one of the biggest sources of spread, which is not surprising, given that it involves people indoors for an hour or so without masks. You can feel totally comfortable, and still get sick or spread COVID to others.

But there are SO many people that think it's just about personal feelings. It's why states need to close stuff down -- a lot of people think "if it's open, it must be safe," and that's not really how a lot of these decisions are being made. And I guess I wouldn't care if it was just the people taking the biggest risks who were getting sick and dying, but that's also not how it works. They spread it to others who might be taking objectively fewer risks, or who must take risks as part of their job (the servers in these restaurants, for example), but who cannot totally isolate (because it's impossible for many people to totally isolate).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what the purpose of opening them is -- do people really feel comfortable to sit inside and eat with masks off? I'm happy getting takeout.
I do wish more restaurants would repurpose their wait staff to do delivery. I hate grub hub and ubereats, and would order about 5x as often if I didn't have to get dressed to go pick it up.

We were in Snowshoe this weekend for skiing. My friends and I were able to sit at a bar, order a burger and have drinks. It was pretty awesome.

So, yeah, there are plenty of people who are comfortable eating inside with masks off. Get out of your bubble.

My kid's doing Zoom school in our living room and shouting across the yard at her grandparents, and you're flying to Snowshoe to eat hamburgers with friends indoors in bars apres-ski.

NP - I am living my life to the best of my ability while still obeying health orders. People have different comfort levels with risk and that is OK. During COVID, we bought a house in a state that is more relaxed than MD, and have traveled there for weeks on end. Eating indoors throughout the pandemic, but wearing masks in grocery and retail stores, etc. All has been fine.

I know a multi-generational family that was comfortable traveling to a resort over Christmas, in a state that encouraged tourism travel. The generations stayed separately and wore masks. The result was: everyone in the family tested positive afterwards - grandchildren, children, and grandparents. One of the children (late 30s or early 40s) got very sick and almost had to go to the hospital, their spouse missed work for several weeks because of the positive test plus caregiving for the very sick spouse and the grandchildren, and one of the grandparents died.

It's all fine, until it's not.

I know a large extended family that was comfortable staying at home, getting take out, both parents worked at home (one is a scientist,) in the state of Maryland, the county of Montgomery, where pretty much most things are shut down. The result was in: a close family member came over for the take out one night and within a week everyone in the extended family who btw had also followed all the rules tested positive for COVID. No one knows who patient zero was.

One is now in the hospital in the ICU and one will likely end up there shortly.

You're right. It's all fine until its not. We need to shut down take out too. It encourages people to eat together in their homes which causes COVID.

Please mind the sarcasm.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what the purpose of opening them is -- do people really feel comfortable to sit inside and eat with masks off? I'm happy getting takeout.
I do wish more restaurants would repurpose their wait staff to do delivery. I hate grub hub and ubereats, and would order about 5x as often if I didn't have to get dressed to go pick it up.

We were in Snowshoe this weekend for skiing. My friends and I were able to sit at a bar, order a burger and have drinks. It was pretty awesome.

So, yeah, there are plenty of people who are comfortable eating inside with masks off. Get out of your bubble.

My kid's doing Zoom school in our living room and shouting across the yard at her grandparents, and you're flying to Snowshoe to eat hamburgers with friends indoors in bars apres-ski.

NP - I am living my life to the best of my ability while still obeying health orders. People have different comfort levels with risk and that is OK. During COVID, we bought a house in a state that is more relaxed than MD, and have traveled there for weeks on end. Eating indoors throughout the pandemic, but wearing masks in grocery and retail stores, etc. All has been fine.

I know a multi-generational family that was comfortable traveling to a resort over Christmas, in a state that encouraged tourism travel. The generations stayed separately and wore masks. The result was: everyone in the family tested positive afterwards - grandchildren, children, and grandparents. One of the children (late 30s or early 40s) got very sick and almost had to go to the hospital, their spouse missed work for several weeks because of the positive test plus caregiving for the very sick spouse and the grandchildren, and one of the grandparents died.

It's all fine, until it's not.

No way. No WAY!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The CDC just recommended that states shut down indoor dining so that schools have a better change of returning in-person. Let's do that instead.

We have various levels of indoor dining in our extended family. None to 2x week. The CDC went to 10 days exposure quarantine while Australia and our own military stayed at 14. Australia ignored WHO on borders and the CDC and WHO were where to be found on Jan 22,2020 when the exchange students were to arrive at Longfellow Middle School?

US politicians of both parties don't want to go Australia which is the proven route for resuming a large degree of normal life. Schools? Every staff member should go back in person 2 weeks after the 2nd vaccine. These vaccines don't have an infinite life of protection. They will be an annual like the flu shot.

Australia and New Zealand-life in their bubble. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/28/queenslands-decision-to-reopen-border-with-nsw-takes-gladys-berejiklian-by-surprise

Anyone advocating for the policies followed by Australia and New Zealand should get the heck out of the United States because they have a fundamental misunderstanding of natural rights and our Constitution.

Natural rights? We have nowhere else to go and have ancestors here pre Revolutionary War. The fact is that people in Australia are living almost normally while we are not. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

I'm all for promoting the general welfare of US citizens. From the rat induced plague in CA to cholera and the federal quarantine stations. Wait- those were similar to the Australia inbound quarantine hotels for covid 19. So in 2020 a different constitution applies?

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/historyquarantine.html

https://www.history.com/news/first-plague-outbreak-united-states-california

Items in the Constitution seem to bend depending on select POV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what the purpose of opening them is -- do people really feel comfortable to sit inside and eat with masks off? I'm happy getting takeout.
I do wish more restaurants would repurpose their wait staff to do delivery. I hate grub hub and ubereats, and would order about 5x as often if I didn't have to get dressed to go pick it up.

That's the part I get stuck on. I haven't eaten inside a restaurant since March, and the reason isn't the ban on indoor eating in restaurants. The reason is that I don't want to sit inside a building with my mask off, and a bunch of other people with their masks off, to eat.

When they were open, my family and I went often to support restaurants that we care about. So, did lots of other people, but tables are spaced way out and I understand disease transmission, so I was not worried.

Oh, you "understand disease transmission"? Ok then you must know they vary. Which disease or diseases do you "understand"?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The CDC just recommended that states shut down indoor dining so that schools have a better change of returning in-person. Let's do that instead.

We have various levels of indoor dining in our extended family. None to 2x week. The CDC went to 10 days exposure quarantine while Australia and our own military stayed at 14. Australia ignored WHO on borders and the CDC and WHO were where to be found on Jan 22,2020 when the exchange students were to arrive at Longfellow Middle School?

US politicians of both parties don't want to go Australia which is the proven route for resuming a large degree of normal life. Schools? Every staff member should go back in person 2 weeks after the 2nd vaccine. These vaccines don't have an infinite life of protection. They will be an annual like the flu shot.

Australia and New Zealand-life in their bubble. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/28/queenslands-decision-to-reopen-border-with-nsw-takes-gladys-berejiklian-by-surprise

Anyone advocating for the policies followed by Australia and New Zealand should get the heck out of the United States because they have a fundamental misunderstanding of natural rights and our Constitution.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what the purpose of opening them is -- do people really feel comfortable to sit inside and eat with masks off? I'm happy getting takeout.
I do wish more restaurants would repurpose their wait staff to do delivery. I hate grub hub and ubereats, and would order about 5x as often if I didn't have to get dressed to go pick it up.

We were in Snowshoe this weekend for skiing. My friends and I were able to sit at a bar, order a burger and have drinks. It was pretty awesome.

So, yeah, there are plenty of people who are comfortable eating inside with masks off. Get out of your bubble.

My kid's doing Zoom school in our living room and shouting across the yard at her grandparents, and you're flying to Snowshoe to eat hamburgers with friends indoors in bars apres-ski.

NP - I am living my life to the best of my ability while still obeying health orders. People have different comfort levels with risk and that is OK. During COVID, we bought a house in a state that is more relaxed than MD, and have traveled there for weeks on end. Eating indoors throughout the pandemic, but wearing masks in grocery and retail stores, etc. All has been fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what the purpose of opening them is -- do people really feel comfortable to sit inside and eat with masks off? I'm happy getting takeout.
I do wish more restaurants would repurpose their wait staff to do delivery. I hate grub hub and ubereats, and would order about 5x as often if I didn't have to get dressed to go pick it up.

That's the part I get stuck on. I haven't eaten inside a restaurant since March, and the reason isn't the ban on indoor eating in restaurants. The reason is that I don't want to sit inside a building with my mask off, and a bunch of other people with their masks off, to eat.

When they were open, my family and I went often to support restaurants that we care about. So, did lots of other people, but tables are spaced way out and I understand disease transmission, so I was not worried.

Anonymous wrote:The CDC just recommended that states shut down indoor dining so that schools have a better change of returning in-person. Let's do that instead.

We have various levels of indoor dining in our extended family. None to 2x week. The CDC went to 10 days exposure quarantine while Australia and our own military stayed at 14. Australia ignored WHO on borders and the CDC and WHO were where to be found on Jan 22,2020 when the exchange students were to arrive at Longfellow Middle School?

US politicians of both parties don't want to go Australia which is the proven route for resuming a large degree of normal life. Schools? Every staff member should go back in person 2 weeks after the 2nd vaccine. These vaccines don't have an infinite life of protection. They will be an annual like the flu shot.

Australia and New Zealand-life in their bubble. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/28/queenslands-decision-to-reopen-border-with-nsw-takes-gladys-berejiklian-by-surprise

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The daily life as we know it has ended. The best thing to do is to embrace the change. We love the curbside pickups. We will continue to do that for at least another year of so.

OMG, literally you will not do anything out of your home until 1/26/2022? Let's for once be a bit more positive with vaccines rolling out although not as quickly as we would all like. They will come, people will be vaccinated and daily life will go on. Has your life always been this hopeless?

I am not that pp, but yes. Going out to eat is not more important than my health, sorry.

Go out and live your life if you want

I don't care what risk decisions people make for themselves. You want to stay home or do takeout? You do you. But don't shove that decision down everyone else's throats.

When you say stupid crap like "you do you" during a pandemic, you sound like an imbecile. Are you 12?

Anonymous wrote:The CDC just recommended that states shut down indoor dining so that schools have a better change of returning in-person. Let's do that instead.

Schools shouldn’t be opening either.

The CDC just recommended that states shut down indoor dining so that schools have a better change of returning in-person. Let's do that instead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what the purpose of opening them is -- do people really feel comfortable to sit inside and eat with masks off? I'm happy getting takeout.
I do wish more restaurants would repurpose their wait staff to do delivery. I hate grub hub and ubereats, and would order about 5x as often if I didn't have to get dressed to go pick it up.

We were in Snowshoe this weekend for skiing. My friends and I were able to sit at a bar, order a burger and have drinks. It was pretty awesome.

So, yeah, there are plenty of people who are comfortable eating inside with masks off. Get out of your bubble.

My kid's doing Zoom school in our living room and shouting across the yard at her grandparents, and you're flying to Snowshoe to eat hamburgers with friends indoors in bars apres-ski.

Well, we drove.

But, yeah. The dirty little secret is that nothing we’ve done over the last 10 months to try and stop this pandemic were ever going to work. The so-called experts were flailing around. Regular Americans were sold a false bill of goods. And we all bought into the sunk cost fallacy when it comes to lockdowns, masks, distancing etc.

Nothing you did in the last 10 months has made any difference. This virus was always going to do what it wanted to do until we get enough of the population vaccinated.

So, I’m going to drink in a bar in a ski town and be okay with that decision.

So, what’s your take on why so many other countries are doing so much better than the US? Clearly there are experts out there who know how to handle this successfully, and clearly there are things that people can do that will have a significant impact — and make a difference. Are you specifically pointing to American “so-called experts” and “regular Americans “ in your diatribe as somehow being incapable of understanding how to manage this pandemic?