Is it over

[raekun]

Good grief is this pandemic ever going to give up. I am wanting to get out and do things normal again. I can’t even get baseball tickets for dad and I anymore. When you do find them they are twice as much now! Anyway just checking in to see how everyone else is managing during these rough times!

[dyperbole]

Not bad at all.  I've had my two shots, so I've opened up a little bit more.  There were some things I liked about the last year plus that I will be keeping in my daily life, though.  For example, doing my shopping once a week and having a specific plan on what to get has made me a better shopper, as well as opened up more of my schedule.  I love to cook, so the last year has opened up more opportunities to use new and different recipes, so I've increased my "menu" of what I can make for dinner.

Golf has been an approved activity, so there has been no interruption there.  I'll be adding some indoor activities little by little, and I'll see what I'm comfortable with.  I'll still wear my mask and keep as much social distancing as possible, but I may start to take in some dine-in restaurants and maybe even a movie every once in a while (not like I was a big movie-goer before).

My days of watching sports live in person were dwindling anyway.  The last college football game I went to had a horrendous amount of traffic to leave the game, and it took me 2 hours to walk home.  No thanks -- TV is fine.  Probably will still take in spring training baseball in the future, as most of those games aren't full anyway.  

Traveling will likely happen in a few months, but for now, we have other issues than Covid keeping us from traveling for week(s) at a time.  Once those issues are dealt with, our travel budget is nice and fat, and we'll have some fun.  

[Rachael-Little]

Here in Texas I would say we are 75 percent of normal and traffic on the roads are almost back to normal 

Most restaurants are busy again, I’m so glad I live in a state like Texas 

[Little Cub Pants]

7 hours ago, Rachael-Little said:

Here in Texas I would say we are 75 percent of normal and traffic on the roads are almost back to normal 

Most restaurants are busy again, I’m so glad I live in a state like Texas 

Me too! Born and raised! I love Texas!❤️?

[feralfreak]

it hasnt affected me too much, other than not being able to get refills on fountain drinks for 80 cents when i bring in my own cup(the state stopped it over this damn bug), and when mom was in the hospital for her heart around this time last year they wouldnt let me stay with her(fortunately when she was in before christmas they did), places seem to be opening more, im waiting to see if the hospitals EECP clinic or whereever they have it is opening(for mom, not me)

[Dubious]

What pandemic? ?

[rusty pins]

It won't get fully back to normal if people won't get their vaccine, or at least 75 to 80% of people vaccinated.  When people still refuse to mask or distance in enclosed public places, this will keep surging over and over.  Look at India if you don't believe it!  On the other hand, the people who just refuse because they are stubborn or listen to their misguided politicians and get Covid-19 might finally wake up.  Maybe they need a good scare to make them understand the seriousness. 

[Rachael-Little]

47 minutes ago, rusty pins said:

It won't get fully back to normal if people won't get their vaccine, or at least 75 to 80% of people vaccinated.  When people still refuse to mask or distance in enclosed public places, this will keep surging over and over.  Look at India if you don't believe it!  On the other hand, the people who just refuse because they are stubborn or listen to their misguided politicians and get Covid-19 might finally wake up.  Maybe they need a good scare to make them understand the seriousness. 

I don’t totally agree, the US can’t be compared to a very populated area like India 

Others countries are not as spread as the US, the only places you might see hotspots are large US metros but the pandemic is over for tgr most part in the US 

[raekun]

People are passing on out there. It’s not over until we are safe again. 

[Dubious]

USA has many vaccines, but "none" that wants it..
About 40% is vaccinated.

[rusty pins]

4 hours ago, raekun said:

People are passing on out there. It’s not over until we are safe again. 

I 100% agree.  As mentioned, I work in a hospital.  We lost 2 people Tuesday, 2 people yesterday and one today from Covid-19 and out hospital is starting a very slight decline but is still near capacity with Covid-19 patients.

22 hours ago, Rachael-Little said:

Others countries are not as spread as the US, the only places you might see hotspots are large US metros but the pandemic is over for tgr most part in the US 

As I said above, I work in a hospital and not in a metro area.  Not at all.  Base on my knowledge and facts, it's just starting on a slight downward trend right now but it's not at all over except for metro areas.  It's still going strong with a heavy amount of new cases every day in just my small area of the state.  Other areas of Michigan are hit much harder, and I'm not speaking just of Detroit.  What happens is people think it's about over when it starts a downward trend, they relax and socialize, stop wearing masks and then it spikes all over again.  I agree with Dr. Fauci that people vaccinated can go without masks when outside with the exception of being in a crowd or around people you don't know. Inside we still need our masks and social distancing to keep the downward trend and prevent the cycle that happens over and over when it spikes again.  To each his own on the vaccine, but I say it is wise and advised for everyone 16 and older to get one of the vaccines.  The risk has been show as very minimal (even the J&J had 15 deaths out of almost 8 million) and the benefits to getting vaccinated are huge!  No one will convince me otherwise as I see it daily at work!  By the way, with the people 65+ being the first to get vaccinated in January and February, the death among that age group has dropped significantly.  What we are seeing now are people in the 45 and below age bracket being the ones mostly testing positive for Covid-19.

[spark]

3 hours ago, Dubious said:

USA has many vaccines, but "none" that wants it..
About 40% is vaccinated.

That's not completely true

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations

You have to remember that we've only recently opened vaccines to all adults, and this is basically the first week where demand for vaccine and supply has evened out.   It is more than the amount of adults who get flu vaccines on a yearly basis.   

Based on what I see, I'd say we will be mostly back to normal in a few months, but still need to mask in public.   Things will take a while longer for the pandemic to run it's course worldwide

[oliver d]

Well we are 90% back to normal here thanks to the vaccination plan of the goverment I got my shots in January and since then more or less have been with out a mask.

[Rachael-Little]

To me mask make no sense once your vaccinated, hey if you want to go ahead but stop telling people they have to just to make them feel better or safe.

We have lived with and been around far more serious viruses for thousands of years and never were told mask are such huge life savers.

Sorry not buying it and never will 

[BabySofia]

19 minutes ago, Rachael-Little said:

We have lived with and been around far more serious viruses for thousands of years and never were told mask are such huge life savers.

I don't want to get into a battle here, but this is patently untrue. Beginning during the Black Death Plague in the 1600's you start to see masks becoming a part of medicine in treating that pandemic. Most of that was more about blocking the stench, but it was probably also somewhat effective (more so than nothing) in the Pneumonic cases of Plague. (Bubonic is generally fluid/flea born)

In the late 1800's - early 1900's you start to see doctors wearing cloth masks for surgeries. Also there are many accounts of people understanding the value of masks during the Spanish Flu of 1917! You can find tons of historical photos showing people wearing them then. 

Surgical teams will always wear them while performing surgery now. Additionally if you know anyone who has been a cancer patient and dealing with Chemo they are routinely told they need to wear face masks to help protect themselves. Flu this year has been at the lowest levels as far as any report I've come across. This is mostly due to the masking. 

Once you're vaccinated the masking is still considered necessary due to waiting for some additional studies on if you can transmit still if you catch it. With the Moderna/Pfizer vaccines they're saying 95% of vaccinated individuals will not catch it at all. The question is the 5% that do - are they dead end cases, or can they still spread it? I would guess that most of that data will be available by June and they'll make final decisions there on that. For now the safe thing is inside to still wear masks, or if you're in a crowded environment outside. (My personal guess is the data will show that vaccinated can probably stop around then. CDC is holding back a bit I hear just because there are still too many unvaccinated too.) 

Going back to the original poster I think you're seeing the daylight popping through the clouds in the US at the moment. We still have about 50k new cases being reported each day, and about 700 deaths per day on average being reported. When that gets below 10k cases per day it becomes very possible to actually fully contact trace outbreaks. As of right now that's just not feasible still. Vaccine hesitancy is a real issue that's got the potential to cause alternate forms of the virus to spread that may get past the vaccine. (We see this with Flu regularly)

The other question that I think everyone has to watch is India and Brazil. They are having so many cases/deaths there, that it would be reasonable to believe we'll see some additional variants coming out from there. If that happens things could be extended another year. 

In countries who aren't vaccinating quickly we're probably going to see them struggling with this for a few years yet.

[DAQ]

3 hours ago, Rachael-Little said:

We have lived with and been around far more serious viruses for thousands of years and never were told mask are such huge life savers.

We've also died around viruses for thousands of years. Entire families wiped out by infectious diseases.

[Dubious]

3 hours ago, Rachael-Little said:

To me mask make no sense once your vaccinated

You are not 100% immune to the virus and the vaccine is at its max after a few weeks.

Max =/= Immune 

[Rachael-Little]

16 minutes ago, Dubious said:

You are not 100% immune to the virus and the vaccine is at its max after a few weeks.

Max =/= Immune 

Yes that’s true, you will never be fully immune to most viruses.

There is no such thing as 0 risk in this world, sure be careful but what we saw this past year was way overdone and more people are being harmed by the economy than the virus, especially in mental health 

 

[dlsafrica]

Even if one has had the vaccine doses, it still makes sense to me to wear a mask. Yes. You might not be able to personally get the virus, but I believe one can still pass it on.

Anyway, to the point, people seem to talk about COVID19 like it has a mind of its own. It'll go away when people are responsible and don't act like there's nothing wrong.

I see many countries going through total lockdown after total lockdown.  Here in South Africa we had three weeks of total lockdown in May last year, and restrictions have been lifted but by bit since then. We have pretty much been open totally since October.  We have things like limited alcohol sales and a four hour stay at home each day, but otherwise everything is fine. Our active infection amount is under 20000 for the first time in a year. 

[Dubious]

Not wearing a mask has a domino effect

I only wear mask when other people wear mask
I don't want to be the odd one. 

[babypb]

...wife & I used to go to the movies(me diapered of course!)practically twice per week. Don't know when or IF we'll ever get back to that again. Outdoor events don't bother me in the slightest, it's the inside events that make me cautious.

[Rachael-Little]

49 minutes ago, babypb said:

...wife & I used to go to the movies(me diapered of course!)practically twice per week. Don't know when or IF we'll ever get back to that again. Outdoor events don't bother me in the slightest, it's the inside events that make me cautious.

Sounds like you have bought into all the fear and panic of the media. The left media love people like you 

[Cruiser 03]

Only the stupid IMHO see this as AL as In Political 

When it's Survival,man has fought bugs before.we are all ancestors of people who survived the "black death" and 1918 pandemic stupidity .

Point of fact that he stupid who refuse vaccine will eventually be ostracized so that they are only dangerous/lethal to each other.getting them out of the gene pool. 100 years of science  and learning and the US has fared worse in 2020 then.it did in 1918,when your president is more concerned with playing with other man's balls in his holes and ignoring science you get death and destruction ,I hope Americans got what they wanted and deserved ! The dead didn't  that's for sure .

 

 

[Ohmo]

Regretfully, it is not over and won't be for many months.  Why?  Because people who fear what they don't understand will always be with us.  And people who hate being told what to do more than they fear the unknown.  Basically, two traits we often ascribe to bratty immature children.  

[vvp39]

Let me put it this way: In May I attended a wedding and reception in western Nebraska; around 300 people; not a stupidmask to be seen. In fact, I had no more use for mine once I left Washington eastbound. The next weekend at a campground in Arkansas for a reunion at which one of the evening rituals was to pass around a joint or two. No stupidmasks there either. Now I'm back in my own western state, one of those that has a backward Democrat governor who won't give up his power over who he thinks are his subjects, and is likely to face a recall movement.

All indications are that we have reached herd immunity.