How Are You Calculating Amount of Risk While Returning to Somewhat Normal?

[pacergal]

DH and I will continue wearing masks. I actually think we will wear them for the future in higher exposure places. Nice having some protection from other peoples germs, colds, flus, etc. And not spreading ours if we need to go someplace and have a cold.
I check CDC website weekly. Even though we are in low risk area, DBiL, Nephew, his wife all had covid in the past couple of weeks.
It's still around.

 

[Midpack]

We are both vaccinated and boosted. While I usually only mask where the establishment requires it or I see many other people doing it, I mask to be polite to them rather than out of concern for myself. I guess if I was in an environment where I felt uncomfortable then I would either mask up or leave.

I'm trying to tip-toe on the fine line between prudence and paranoia.

+2. We only wear ours when required (few if any places today) or maybe in crowds of strangers indoors - case by case. It’s not a big inconvenience, so what’s the harm? Some actual experts say we’re all going to get it eventually and we’re both vaxxed and boosted, so we’re not all that concerned any more. I have four friends in similar health to us who have had Covid and none had to seek medical treatment, they just felt horrible and weak for a couple days. Ready to move on…

However if we were immunocompromised in any way, it would be a different story.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

We are both vaccinated and boosted. While I usually only mask where the establishment requires it or I see many other people doing it, I mask to be polite to them rather than out of concern for myself. I guess if I was in an environment where I felt uncomfortable then I would either mask up or leave.

I'm trying to tip-toe on the fine line between prudence and paranoia.

This is how I feel.
However, I have an air fare credit from a 2020 Hawaii trip that didn’t happen. Anyone have thoughts on flying- being crammed into a fully booked plane? I haven’t been to any crowded events in over 2 years. I can’t decide if I really want to fly-I do want to go to Hawaii. It’s the getting there and back that’s the scary part.

 

[disneysteve]

This is how I feel.
However, I have an air fare credit from a 2020 Hawaii trip that didn’t happen. Anyone have thoughts on flying- being crammed into a fully booked plane? I haven’t been to any crowded events in over 2 years. I can’t decide if I really want to fly-I do want to go to Hawaii. It’s the getting there and back that’s the scary part.

I flew multiple times in 2021 because of my cousin's illness and death. We also flew once to Disney World. And that was during peak COVID times. I wore an N95 the entire time and that was fine. I do wish they would have enforced the mask policy better, but I managed to not catch anything.

Now, with cases down sharply, I feel even more comfortable flying, though I would still wear my N95.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

I flew multiple times in 2021 because of my cousin's illness and death. We also flew once to Disney World. And that was during peak COVID times. I wore an N95 the entire time and that was fine. I do wish they would have enforced the mask policy better, but I managed to not catch anything.

Now, with cases down sharply, I feel even more comfortable flying, though I would still wear my N95.

Thank you. This is very helpful. I thought I could also have a face shield for the flight to cover my eyes in addition to the mask.
Particularly if others weren’t wearing masks.

 

[Major Tom]

My friend and I went to dinner and a show in San Francisco a few nights ago. We had dinner in a little Italian seafood restaurant in North Beach. The place was packed, including the counter, where we were sitting. No-one was wearing a mask - not even while they were waiting for the their food. It was a little surprising to see. Oddly, neither of us were particularly nervous about the situation, as we would have been had we encountered it a few months ago. We talked about it afterwards, and decided that, although it felt strange, we realized that at some point, we were going to have to relax our mask-wearing.

Everyone wore masks at the sold-out show in a theater with a capacity of 2,300.

My local Trader Joe's no longer requests that customers wear masks, though about 90% still do. All employees are still wearing them. I will continue to mask up in businesses for the time being. It's not hard, though it was fun to see a sea of people's faces in the restaurant the other night.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I have chosen a somewhat arbitrary criterion. My county went below 10 new cases/100k residents on March 3. I decided to wait two weeks from that date; if cases are still decreasing or holding steady, I will stop masking. Here is to a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

[braumeister]

We took a total of 13 flights last year (all domestic). Except for a bit of scheduling hassle, they were all great, and people were very good about complying with the rules.

We hated the requirement to mask up from arrival at an airport until departure from the far away airport, but we were good. Seems to me it wasn't really necessary in the airport terminals since they are so huge and you can mostly keep apart from other people. But OTOH we felt safe.

In the old days I used to pick up a cold sometimes from flying, but we had none of that with masks. I can see wearing a mask on the plane as something I'll do much more routinely in the future.

 

[Major Tom]

I have chosen a somewhat arbitrary criterion. My county went below 10 new cases/100k residents on March 3.

Is that a daily average? My county (Alameda County, CA) is currently at a daily average of 166 cases in a county of population 1.671 million, giving a daily average case rate of just under 10 per 100,000 residents.

w00t!

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Is that a daily average? My county (Alameda County, CA) is currently at a daily average of 166 cases in a county of population 1.671 million, giving a daily average case rate of just under 10 per 100,000 residents.

w00t!

Yes. It is the somewhat confusing statistic of daily new cases per 100k, as averaged over the past 7 days.

As of today, we are down to 5.9. You are (in one of my old counties ) at 9.9 by the same metric. W00t indeed!

 

[jollystomper]

I just play it by ear. If a place wants me to mask up, I'll mask up. If it is optional, I'll just judge the situation and decide. I do try to avoid crowds so thick that you can tell what others have been eating , but in truth those have been few and far between.

Our area never had a high covid rate relative to the rest of the state or country so I am never been super concerned. As for air flying, I we flew to Florida during their peak covid time in 2021 for BIL's funeral, and felt comfortable on the plane and in the airport. DW has since then flown several times back to help out MIL without incident. We will be taking our first international flight in 3 years in a few weeks, and we will just take the same precautions and attitude.

In truth, I pay more attention to keeping my hands clean and not touching/rubbing my face than I do masking. Perhaps because I have experience with this from having allergies (which are going to hit within the next week or so), it is not a difficult thing to do.

 

[foxfirev5]

Deleted

 

[Act2]

Our local health dept has us at ‘medium’ transmission, recently down from ‘substantial’. And that was down from ‘high’, where we spent a lot of time. Covid Act Now has us down to medium risk as well, recently.

When we get down to both low transmission and low risk, I will start unmasking indoors. I’ll probably keep masking in elevators, crowds, and grocery stores awhile longer after that.

Still not dining indoors but truly enjoying patio dining when weather permits!

 

[fh2000]

This is how I feel.
However, I have an air fare credit from a 2020 Hawaii trip that didn’t happen. Anyone have thoughts on flying- being crammed into a fully booked plane? I haven’t been to any crowded events in over 2 years. I can’t decide if I really want to fly-I do want to go to Hawaii. It’s the getting there and back that’s the scary part.

On March 1, we flew business from San Francisco to LAX. Our seats were A1 and A2. We wore N95 masks, and were the last to get on/ first to get off. We turned down on board drink/snack offer. I think that is about the safest way to travel domestically nowadays.

 

[audreyh1]

I looked at that CDC map and ours is one of very few counties still at the high level, darn it!

Cases have been taking forever to come down.

At least most people mask inside stores here, and have for a long time.

 

[Amethyst]

Was astonished that the tool reports my Florida county's risk as low.

Only the hospital and medical centers still require masking (as I think they always should have, and always should).

I agree that guidelines are confusing. I'm still not sure when, or if, to get a second booster.

Did you check your COVID community level at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html ?

Lucky me, my area is still “high.” Very few people wearing masks anyway. I think the current CDC guidelines are too complicated for many people, like the rainbow of terror threat levels that came out after 9/11.

 

[becca]

Right now I am very happy to wear a mask. Had Mohs surgery last week resulting in a skin graft on my nose. I am currently sporting a bolster covered by a huge bright white dressing that resembles a large birds beak. I can cover all this mess up with a mask and go about my errands without having people stare at me. My county just moved from High risk to Medium and I would say about 50% of people still wearing masks here, so I don't feel odd wearing one. Heading to the library and grocery store today with my mask on. I get the bandage and bolster off tomorrow and expect I will still need a smaller bandage on my nose for a few weeks.

 

[Badger]

On March 1, we flew business from San Francisco to LAX. Our seats were A1 and A2. We wore N95 masks, and were the last to get on/ first to get off. We turned down on board drink/snack offer. I think that is about the safest way to travel domestically nowadays.

A straw would have come in handy for the drinks.


Cheers!

 

[Badger]

Did you check your COVID community level at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html ?

Lucky me, my area is still “high.” Very few people wearing masks anyway. I think the current CDC guidelines are too complicated for many people, like the rainbow of terror threat levels that came out after 9/11.

I just checked my county with the link. Seems like for the moment my county is classified as Medium (from where is was the worst county in the state) with the surrounding counties as High and counties next to them as Low. I guess the virus doesn't cross county lines.


Cheers!

 

[kgtest]

I masked up on the airplane since it was mandated. Other than that I stopped masking. Nobody in our family had COVID that we knew of. We my youngest 2 daughters are not vacced but our son is and DW and I are boosted. I generally tend to not live life too much on the paranoid side though so maybe its my nature. My sister passed away 6 months ago and I was very cautious for her sake at the time. School and bus rides no longer require masking so our DS and DD no longer mask up per the updated regulations. We don't exactly go out into public a lot. We have been to a movie, we went to a waterpark this weekend, but otherwise we are just around a very small circle of people. I'm not trying to justify or defend, but I also feel like case counts have gone down showing that the trend of infection is far less prevalent.

 

[disneysteve]

A straw would have come in handy for the drinks.

Which would require removing your mask, which it sounds like they didn't want to do.

 

[JRon]

We haven’t worn masks, except in medical offices, for almost a year. Things are back to normal and have been for some time.

Did travel to AZ in January so we had them with us. I think the only place we went that required them was a grocery store.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

Masking in my county has been basically non existent even though we were high risk until last week. We are medium now but I wouldn’t be surprised if we went back up to high.
I would definitely wear a mask on the plane. It’s whether or not the other people on the plane will.
It’s approximately a 5 hour flight so I will need to have water but I think that’s still doable.
Decisions decisions. If only we had a crystal ball to see into the future. [emoji23]

 

[easysurfer]

Got back from the concert last night. I was one of about only 5 people who work a mask. Think I was the only one with a N95. Did notice some people about to enter tuck away their masks once realizing masks were optional.

In a crowded, indoor environment I'm not ready to back to normal. As during the encore when everyone was singing along, found myself saying happy I had one on.

 

[Chuckanut]

I am in a low-risk county and while out on a Sunday walk yesterday, noticed a number of peole still wearing a mask while walking outside. Of course, that's their choice, and there may be circumstances in their lives I know nothing about.

Given the fact that I haven't had a cold in two years, I can see why some people will continue to wear a mask even if Covid disappears completely from the face of the Earth.