According to the Associated Press, the CDC is likely to strongly loosen their mask guidance tomorrow, dropping the recommendation that masks should be worn indoors. That said, I’m not sure how many places even have a mask wearing policy any longer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter, meaning most Americans will no longer be advised to wear masks in indoor public settings.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday will announce a change to the metrics it uses to determine whether to recommend face coverings, shifting from looking at COVID-19 case counts to a more holistic view of risk from the coronavirus to a community. Under current guidelines, masks are recommended for people residing in communities of substantial or high transmission — roughly 95% of U.S. counties, according to the latest data. (read more)
Is anyone wearing masks where you are?
Western burbs of Blue Chicago. Libraries undecided as I write this about pending change to mask policy. Forest Preserve Dist. Board decided to float a questionaire, asking for employee preferences. Overwhelming desire to KEEP the mandatory mask policy. (Sigh). Businesses are mixed. My informal poll indicates most, if it all, businesses still requiring masks will drop it. The places I go to know me, and they are getting tired of me, and others, asking.
Cook County Libraries are crazy strict about masks – not sure about DuPage or Lake.
I haven’t been to a library since the late 1990’s.
Born and raised in LaGrange Park and Brookfield- graduated LT. Wife is from Hinsdale. Moved to Florida in 2013. My advice is get the hell out of there- you don’t want to be anywhere near a major city right now, or in the coming years.
NE Tennessee here. Went to the DMV yesterday. 30 people coming and going plus the staff. Two people were wearing masks but from the looks of the husband he clearly had health issues so I imagine the wife was protecting him.
Went to a small blue grass venue last weekend, 60 or so people, 2 with masks. They look so odd. I’m not jabbed and have never masked.
I love my rural, free,neck of the woods.
I’m in a city near Houston, TX. Mask wearing seems random. Just depends on who’s at the store. Some days it’s less than half of people wearing them and other days it’s more than half. There’s a pretty even mix in my area of white, asian, hispanic, and black. I had to laugh at some of the asians wearing the helmet facial shields in 2020 & 2021 when I went for walks in the neighborhood. Seriously? You might as well be in a hazmat suite if you’re that scared. Haven’t seen a facial shield in a while now so at least people are wising up about that.
My son has been home schooled since March of 2020 so no masks or vacs for him. Still blows my mind that they want kids to take this shot with no long term data on how it will effect them when there’s such a low risk of kids dying from COVID. Sadly I have two close friends that had all of their kids injected. I think the local schools still have kids wearing masks. I pass by a school in Houston on my way home from work and still see kids wearing masks as they walk home OUTSIDE. I can’t believe kids aren’t ripping off these ridiculous face diapers as soon as they get off the school campus.
Airlines need to end the mask theater.
Anytime some member of the COVID fascists starts screaming at you for not wearing a face diaper, ask them where the peer reviewed, published, randomized controlled trial was published that proves mask mandates did anything to stop the spread of a respiratory virus.
Then encourage the weirdo to follow ACTUAL science instead of fascist political theater.
Yes they do. I hate wearing masks in the airport and worse – on the plane 🤬
In this area at the stores are very few wearing masks and basically cannot tell who is and who is not vaxxed. In S. Dak. the only mask wearing is to the medical institutions. The ones who should know the real science, in DNA and mRNA and how the 23 Amino acids that make them up are/and can be manipulated in a lab, are the most easily duped. Their common sense flew out the window and left us nothing in the medical field but a bunch of robotic idiots.
No, doctors typically know squat about respiratory protection. Who does? Industrial hygienists. Who has the media and politicians studiously avoided interviewing? Industrial hygienists.
Very true. I received respirator training, with OSHA requirements, from an industrial hygienist annually for 11 years. One thing for sure is that dust masks were totally unacceptable for protection from anything other than dust.
My response to anyone who touts masks is: Try getting into a lab where viruses are tested with just a mask. Logic is not a strong suit for mask wearers.
EXACTLY! My “colleagues” seem like zombies incapable of researching the medical literature, preferring instead to regurgitate whatever the war criminal Fauci and the incompetent fool Walensky put out as the medifascist talking point du jour.
Here in suburbs of Twin Cities (st Paul / Minneapolis) the rate for mask wearing is probably 65 to 70% — despite being outside any of the mandates imposed by the mayors of either large city.
The stores by in large post notes saying masks encouraged, but not required (unless you’re unvaccinated!!! Dirty vermin!!!). I’ve never been hassled except for one hardware store where a masked employee ran away from me as I attempted to ask her a question, and then motioned for me to stay away.
The populace here in the land of St. George Fentanyl Floyd is highly compliant. I still see a very goodly amount of people driving solo with masks, or walking around outdoors with masks.
Can’t leave here soon enough. I know Southern California (coastal) is the same, as well.
SW Florida again. Super senior status and have/had regular visits with 6 different medical practices. All require masks of regular patients. Now have 5 who have allowed me to be mask less due to severe breathing problems. But it hasn’t been easy. Had to fight for every exemption. Dropped and replaced 3 doctors. The others know I’ll drop them too. Suspect Medicare or their Insurers are holding “CDC Guidelines” over their heads OR the practices use them as a cover for their own cowardice.
Same here. We are looking to be in Florida by December or January and need to find doctors/hospitals that don’t require masks. I know of one in FL. We found a hospital in rural VA that allows a face shield instead of a mask.
The CRIMINAL organizations known as the democRAT party and CDC mandated masks that DON’T WORK, LOCKDOWNS that destroyed the economy costing people their livelihoods, invoked EXPERIMENTAL GENE THERAPIES that DON’T WORK (and also kill people with their side effects) and REFUSED early treatments such as HCQ & Ivermectin KILLING THOUSANDS of PEOPLE. These are CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY and America.
Is anyone wearing a mask where I’m at?
Only the dolts clinging to them and refusing to give up their security blankets!
I believe that they are addicted to the Fear Porn.
And so the COVID clampdown draws to a close, not with a bang but with a rash about the nose and lips.
FJB
WASSOB
Depending on their success cheating in the midterms, they are going to lock us all down again. GUARANTEED.
I am in San Diego and I am usually the only one NOT wearing a mask. Unbelievable. No wonder our country is in the mess we are in.
Same for me in the western suburbs of Chicago.
We moved to Florida in 2013. I was born and raised in Brookfield. Wife is from Hinsdale. Please send pizza! 😀
I don’t quite understand San Diego being this way. Los Angeles County yes but San Diego??
We spent every August in San Diego for 33 years. No more. Its not pleasant to vacation in a communist country or fascist or whatever you want to call the California of 2022.
To moderator – I’ve only commented a handful of times over several years visiting this site, yet my comments post briefly and then apparently land in moderation. Wondering why?
Took hubby for some tests at hospital, masks were required and only one support person per patient, Ann Arbor, MI.
I have been anti-mask and very vocal about how stupid I think they are. Sucked it up so I could be with him, (he knows what a lucky guy he is).
Older folks like me wear them in large retail stores.
I have other conditions and in spite of being vaccinated, COVID is just one more morbidity with which prefer not to tangle.
I’m not trying to be snarky here, I’m genuinely curious. Do you have any evidence that mask wearing actually helps? The only honest studies I have seen have indicated that masks are essentially useless and may even cause harm.
I am 73 so I am an “older folk” and I have never worn a mask in any store, including Walmart and Costco. i just walk past the signs and waved my hand dismissively in 2020 and 2021 when there was an employee at the door checking.
I think a mask will not have any effect at all on whether you have to tangle with COVID.
This from Oregon:
Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority announced Thursday the state will end indoor mask requirements for public indoor spaces and Oregon schools on March 19.
Which is far better than what they were talking about late last year and earlier this year. Making the mask mandate permanent.
Why not today? People of Oregon need to wise up and vote her out.
The Republic of Delaware still has mask mandates in schools and I read the University of DE is loosening some mask mandates for the students. However, in UD classrooms Professors, Teachers, and students need to wear masks at all times. It appears the Newark City Council has the most draconian mandates in the state and UD is in Newark.
Some stores have signs on their outside windows stating masks are required regardless of vaccination status; I ignore the signs and have never been chastised
Went into a medical office earlier this week and there was a sign that patients needed to wear 2 masks but no patients did. My dentist has the silliest requirement of all – you need to text their office when you arrive for your appointment and stay in your car until an employee ushers you in.
I work with a person who wears 2 masks and a face shield.
One of the early EO’s issued by Virginia Gov Northam (gone now, thankfully) had an exemption for mask wearing if you claimed a medical reason, with no proof needed. So I carried a hardcopy of that EO with that section highlighted in yellow. I was only confronted a handful of times by store managers who let me pass when I showed the exemption text in the EO.
The gov agency I am a contractor for leased and renovated a large facility previously used by Verizon here in the DC suburbs two years ago, with plans to consolidate all their local offices to a single location. It was finished last fall but 95% of us are still working remote. I just hope the mask mandate is lifted by the time they decide to bring us back to office work.
At least the federal contractor vax mandate has been overturned by SCOTUS. VERY glad for that!
My County (Contra Costa, CA) dropped the mask mandate (but still suggested we all still wear them) a week ago. I have been out to several places since then … and here is what I witnessed:
All because my fellow N.CA sheep live in FEAR … fear of viruses that we all lived with maskless for all of human history. Omicron is no more (probably less) dangerous than any seasonal flu variant. But the constant FEAR campaign by our legacy State media outlets has been very, very, effective here in the “highest educated place in America”. People here ACTUALLY believe their masks are saving them. And yes, ALL our schools require kids wear masks … still … even outside on the playground.
“I’m not sure how many places even have a mask wearing policy any longer.”
Unfortunately, I live in Los Angeles County. It is soul crushing to see the huge percentage of people who wear a mask, inside, outside, while riding a bike, while driving alone in a car, etc.
What really hurts me to see are parents who are masking their small children everywhere. Inside, outside, 24/7. There are a lot of them here in LA county, CA.
It is really disheartening to learn just how stupid the average person is.
My daughter lives in Dana Pt. … Orange Co. very, very, few people wear masks anywhere. And I absolutely LOVE her local Ralph’s store. Everything is about 30% cheaper than I pay here in N.CA … and there are no masks … and no mask Karens
Unfortunately it is political science. The actual science — that masks with 100 micron holes cannot significantly impede the progress of a 1 micron particle — was established a while ago. Even surgical masks in an operating theater showed small or sightly negative effect. I guess moving from an operating theater to “safety theater” was not that far a leap.
In mid NH-VT some towns require masks, so it is about 60% compliance. For places which don’t require masks, only about 10% of people wear them. That is really how it should have been from the start, if you believe masks keep you “safe” you should feel free to wear them, otherwise don’t. Honesty from places like the CDC which is supposed to run studies of airborne virus propagation mechanisms and not hundreds of rubbish “Covid-19 equity”studies would have been helpful.
Kansas City metro area: I work for the VA in a non-healthcare setting. We still have to wear a mask in the office when away from our desks. I wear one at the doctor’s office IF they ask me to. I don’t wear one anywhere else.
NASA and all federal govt work sites mandate masks and a complicated decision tree related to the Wuhu Flu. Our center procedure is 30 pages of insanity that even the liberal believers hate.
Nope, not intelligent people. We still see morons running around in sunlight and driving by themselves in their cars. I now just laugh at them. Fauci must be put before a grand jury and when indicted go to trial. Masks are for ugly women including several papere grocery bags.
Yes. We have to wait until 3-19 to be mask free. What about airports??
There’s plenty of dumbasses wearing masks around Western PA.
There’s no requirements which makes these dumbasses even more stupid.
No doubt in the Pittsburgh area you’re correct. I doubt north of I-80 there’s much to see until you get to Erie.
Every store I go into there is 20-50% of people wearing masks. Hennepin county MN (Liberalland) still requires masks in all it’s empty buildings. Even the library where there might be 6 people in a large room, you are required to wear a mask. Schools in Bloomington MN still have “mask required” signs but on caucus night hardly anyone wore them.
Some businesses still require masks for employees entering and away from their desk. All retail, restaurant, and grocery I visit still have all workers wearing masks.
I have an experience this week which relates to masking. Local political event with candidates held in a restaurant back room. Full enough you had to bump into people when crossing the room. It was a bit loud due to the talking. Shaking hands and eating pizza appetizers, speaking to people close in order to hear them, and only a handful of masks. No symptoms or issues yet since Mon night.
Every thing I read says 2-5 days for Omicron symptoms to appear. If ever there was a gathering that would infect me, this was it. I got original vax, no boosters, and so far so good.
The only place I ever wear a mask is when working in the hospital (but remove it when by myself in the office writing notes) or when flying to one of the multiple states in which I work because of the worsening shortage of physicians.
I’m in Kentucky – rather conservative area. We have to wear masks in medical facilities, but shopping – no. I’ve noticed an uptick of masks with all the omicron propaganda, but not extreme. There is one store where there are more mask wearers than anywhere else – Kroger. Do mainly “woke” people shop Kroger? I go for the sales.
Virginia here, seems as if it’s majority maskless. I don’t pay attention much anymore. We traveled to North Carolina last week for a student performing arts event and it was majority masked and stern about it. I was shocked (we homeschool so I’m not accustomed to the school strictness over it). We didn’t comply, I was bugged by a couple of theater management people but I brushed them off. My kids did not comply.
Have the Communist Flight Attendants Union agreed to this? The AFL-CIO was pushing for Masks on Airplanes for the rest of 2022. Brain Dead Biden is owned by the Leftist Unions.
We are in Brevard County, Florida. I personally haven’t worn a mask since the summer of 2020- save for airline flights and doctor’s office visits back in December of 2020. Fortunately, haven’t been to the doc since. I would say that from day one, the highest rate of masking was *maybe* 65% – 70% back in 2020. Hasn’t been over about 30%-35% (that I’ve noticed- this is anecdotal of course) since the stolen election. Currently? It’s very odd- and I suspect people are getting more and more uncomfortable wearing them because I think they’ve pretty much realized it was stupid to start with.
Just so we’re all clear on this covid nonsense, take a watch, in the words of Sundance, you’ll never be able to unsee what you’ve already seen…
https://www.brighteon.com/33b9bd88-35be-488c-bd12-43d2ed7a9344
Well, Raytheon still requires muzzles be worn at all times…. Oh, and they fired me for not complying with their ‘covid 19’ vaccine policy (which never existed on paper at the time of my firing last month) so there’s that too….
Just wondering if anyone looked at the page the NIH has up on the harmful effects of mask wearing?
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc8072811/
I was adversely affected by wearing a respirator in 1996.