Posted: 9/18/21 at 5:26pm
hearthemsing22 said: "Yeah even if you’re outside and unmasked AND vaccinated, remember that vaccines aren’t 100%. There are variants. This is like saying they don’t care. There was a big musical festival…last weekend? The weekend before? And now there are people who have been exposed. So don’t say this is fine."
I am not saying it's fine or not, because that's for epidemiologists do. What we know from them is that no precaution is 100% but we have to learn to live with covid, just as we have learned to live with lots of other viruses. Did you avoid being unmasked and in crowds pre-covid when the TB vaccine wasn't 100%? What science tells us is that the risk of getting seriously ill from a breakthrough infection is tiny (way less than the risk of ending up in the hospital from crossing a street in the theatre district) so we deal. As I have said a million times before on this board, each of us has to assess our own risk aversion and deal accordingly. That may mean steering clear of these odious groups who go to stage doors (something I did and encouraged pre-covid for unrelated reasons) and it may mean wearing masks when you don't really need to. There are two concerns: the public one which is pretty well managed in NYC right now (much to dismay of the gross theatres that are suing the city to get vax mandates lifted), and the private one that each of us gets to regulate on our own whether that means wearing masks everywhere, staying away from people, staying home, etc. Or not. Whatever one decides, though, it is wise to understand the science before we decide what we are comfortable with. Science says I can go to outer space. No thanks.