Will it ever get to a point where highly vaccinated states/counties do so much better in terms of hospitalization, cases, economically, etc., that the low vaccination states/counties wake up and smell the coffee? Delta variant could turn out to be a major challenge for low vaccination states. And it takes time for someone to become fully vaccinated: five or six weeks. It’s not something you can quickly fix during an outbreak which can flare up very quickly.
Well, I am also in Texas and I ever seen any evidence that Texas will learn from any other state on any of this type of thing.
One thing that I also thinks hurts at this point is that people see cases are relatively low and basically feel that Covid is "over" and they don't have to worry about it. But, they don't realize that if you just did a graph of unvaccinated people the picture looks different. That is, the number of vaccinated people makes it look like Covid is less of a risk than it really is for the unvaccinated.
I've definitely noticed just in the past couple of weeks a real decrease in things like masks. Back when CDC said vaccinated people didn't have to wear masks, a lot of stores went to a policy of vaccinated people don't have to wear masks, but the unvaccinated do. Of course, there was no checking of that. But, most workers in stores still work masks and a lot of customers wore masks (some of whom were likely vaccinated).
The last two weeks things seem to have changed. Much fewer workers wear masks. Now, that probably does mean many of them are now fully vaccinated. But, I also see a LOT of workers wearing masks below their nose. You figure they are not vaccinated (because then they wouldn't wear a mask) but it is useless under their nose.
And, in general, far fewer customers wear masks. Some of this is probably vaccinated customers being more comfortable mask free now (I know I am). Some may be more people reaching the fully vaccinated level. But, a lot is people who are unvaccinated. Often, the big clue is the family with the children who are without masks (children under 12 but old enough to wear masks).
All the medical offices require masks that I've been too. I did recently go somewhere that I was required to get a Covid test at their facility 2 days before my appointment. They didn't trust anyone else's Covid testing. And, any time you walked in the door they gave you a new mask. If you went outside and came back in they gave you a new mask.