The Coronavirus Panic Thread

[Victory Sabre]

from my understanding last years the reps and senators AND the Supream Court will not let our Governor do a mask mandate again

You are correct on that.

Here in Minnesota, the Legislature finally voted to end the Governor's "emergency" powers, but they did not vote on legislation to prevent it from happening again.

I know my employer will not require us to wear them, unless the government forces them to - like what happened last time. I hope it doesn't happen. The panic attacks wearing that crap were getting bad at the end for me. I love my job, and they love me (I just got another raise - 3rd one in 9 months), but I don't know if I can deal with the panic attacks again.

[Smapti]

This county is going back to requiring masks for everyone effective today, so naturally I'm looking forward to once again dealing with people pretending to have a medical condition so severe that they can't breathe through a loose-fitting piece of cloth yet are completely OK piling into a crowded grocery store during a respiratory pandemic when the temperature outside is close to 100 degrees and the sky is literally the wrong color because EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE.

I and most of the rest of my coworkers never stopped wearing ours.

[Racket_Man]

I don't know if I'll continue to mask after being fully vaxxed. I don't think we have a mandate in WI. Work does; now everyone in the building, vaxxed or not, has to mask 100% of the time. (I guess you'd take it off to take a sip of your drink and I don't know what they do about people eating lunch. There are two lunch rooms but still could be hard to distance. I always used to eat at my desk.)

from my understanding last years the reps and senators AND the Supream Court will not let our Governor do a mask mandate again

[Food Lady]

Restaurants here have always gone with "You need a mask on until you are seated." When possible, they tried to do a "seat one table, skip the next" system.

Same here for a long time and we've gone out a few times on random weeknights when it was dead. I'm avoiding that at the moment because of Delta. I just read that the Pfizer is only 47% effective against it and Moderna is 78%. I think that means effective in preventing it; I didn't look that closely. I get my second Pfizer Monday. It's hard to know what to do but this Fall maybe it would be good for me to mask just because of seasonal sicknesses in general, like flu. I'm just at the point where my nose and mouth want to be freeeeee!

[Monterey Jack]

The only place I mask up anymore is when I'm taking the train, and only there because its required.

[EricKei]

Restaurants here have always gone with "You need a mask on until you are seated." When possible, they tried to do a "seat one table, skip the next" system.

[Food Lady]

I don't know if I'll continue to mask after being fully vaxxed. I don't think we have a mandate in WI. Work does; now everyone in the building, vaxxed or not, has to mask 100% of the time. (I guess you'd take it off to take a sip of your drink and I don't know what they do about people eating lunch. There are two lunch rooms but still could be hard to distance. I always used to eat at my desk.)

[EricKei]

My state has important health guys (TM) recommending masks and vaccinations, but I doubt it's gonna go any further than that down heah.

Sis-in-Law got a relapse of the 'Rona (had it in December, vaxxed since that time) and isn't happy; we're worried because a) relapse and b) cancer survivor, but she has already been checked out by the doctor after an afternoon in the ER and has been at home doing as much "absolutely nothing" as possible for the past few days. Her hubby (also vaxxed) and all 3 kids are down for the count, as well (too young for vax), just with milder cases. I got a scare today when I felt sick, but it turned out that I had just eaten some (apparently) bad food (my front door shares a yard with their back door).

[csquared]

My company has postpone their big 25 Anniversary celebration. Probably not a good idea to put 95% of the employees (plus guests) in a room together for an extended period of time. While most of the employees are vaxed (we had an employee vax event), I can just see 75% of them calling out with breakthrough cases.

[telecom_goddess]

And the mask mandate is back on in my state, due to cases rising as bad as they did last year, if not worse. Thanks to the unvaccinated. I don't mind I don't think the mandate should have been dropped in the first place. But it just goes to show that rushing to open things is NOT helping at all, it's making it worse.

[Food Lady]

My company isn't requiring vaccination to continue working there but they have made a policy as of today. If you're vaccinated you're golden. Any side effects from the vaccine itself will get you excused from work/paid. So will quarantine, if you're vaccinated. That would be for you being sick or if you live with someone who is and you have to quarantine. You get paid time off. If any of those things happen and you haven't had the vax, you have to lose your personal time off. You have to use your vacation, etc. I'm glad I'm in the middle of the Pfizer shots and that I never get sick except food poisining.

[Smapti]

Thursday was Reopening Day here in Statesylvania. It was a good time for it, as it's just before the Big Annual Holiday and right after we've emerged from the most crippling heatwave This Particular Part Of The Country has experienced since recordkeeping began. We've got about 70% of our population vaccinated. Almost all restrictions on businesses and public gatherings have been dropped except that large venues still have to operate at 75% capacity and masks are still required for unvaccinated people (and also liars), though from what I've seen most people around here are continuing to mask up anyway.

It's nice to see things finally going back to normal around here, though I fully intend to keep wearing masks in public forever from now on.

[Food Lady]

My daughter's job has announced that they are slowly going to start bringing people back into the office....and they've proven that it is easier for all the staff to work from home instead of making them go into the office.

Same here. Some people return on the 12th and it's fully voluntary but I'm sure eventually they'll want us all back in the office, even though we--my team, anyway--are more productive at home.

[Ironclad Alibi]

That is not the only isolated place. Campobello Island in Canada is only accessible by road via Maine.

On the other side of the continent, Point Roberts, WA, is accessible by road only through Canada.

[Victory Sabre]

I'll do my best to not go beyond the rules here, but this is very close to my heart.

I live in the state of Minnesota. I also live in outstate MN, not the metro area.

There's a very interesting quark to my state. If you Duck Duck Go (or any other search engine) to a map of my state, you'll see a little point at the top of it. That point is called the Northwest Angle, or Angle Township. There's very few ways to get there. By land, you've got to have a passport, and go into Canada (Manitoba) to get back into the US. You can also by boat, across the lake to the Angle. You could also fly into there by seaplane, or else there's a small airstrip there.

The land border is closed right now, to tourists. So the only way to get there is by air or boat.

Me and my friends went to the Angle by a boat shuttle service.

When we got to the resort - Angle Outpost - we found out that we're the only guests in their 12 cabin resort, and there won't be more until July 7th.

This family of 9, who are trying to survive, are getting killed by the land border being closed. 2 of the oldest daughters are getting married this year, and their dad, and the one brother, who is still a kid, are going to North Dakota, to do construction work to keep the family resort alive.

I so love this place. I don't want to see it die, but the governments seem to not give a damn if the 100 people who live there make it or not.

Open the border so we can get there. I'll promise to not to stop in the RM of Piney to open a hog factory - they have signs that they don't want them there. Jason and Lisa Goulet are part of the group hurting there.

I just hope there's an Angle Outpost for me to go to next year.