Best to keep wearing one for now
From ArsTechnica:
Delta Air Lines on Tuesday walked back calling the deadly pandemic virus SARS-CoV-2 an “ordinary seasonal virus” after widespread backlash from health experts and travelers, who noted that the virus that has killed nearly a million Americans so far is neither ordinary nor necessarily seasonal.
The downplayed descriptor for the coronavirus appeared in a news release the airline released Monday announcing that masks are now optional for employees and customers on domestic and some international flights. The change came on the heels of a federal judge’s order that vacated the federal mandate for masking on mass transit and transit hubs, which include airplanes and airports but also transit stations, buses, trains, subways, ferries, taxis, and rideshares.
“We are relieved to see the US mask mandate lift to facilitate global travel as COVID-19 has transitioned to an ordinary seasonal virus,” Delta originally wrote in its news release Monday. The company updated the release Tuesday to read: “We are relieved to see the US mask mandate lift to facilitate global travel as COVID-19 transitions to a more manageable respiratory virus—with better treatments, vaccines, and other scientific measures to prevent serious illness.”
Many travelers celebrated the end of the federal mask mandate, and many businesses, like Delta, swiftly dropped their policies requiring face coverings Monday and Tuesday, including the country’s three other top airlines: United, Southwest, and American. Reports quickly began circulating online of air travelers gleefully removing their masks mid-flight as requirements were lifted.
But many health experts and others—particularly immunocompromised people, such as cancer patients and parents of children too young to be vaccinated—were horrified and angered by the abrupt change. For those more vulnerable to the virus, the policy reversal suddenly makes essential travel on stuffy city busses, crammed commuter trains, and cramped airplanes more dangerous. And the close quarters in rideshares and taxis may not translate to less risk for those who can afford them; Uber also updated its policy Tuesday to make masks optional for riders and drivers.
The unmasking comes as cases have once again begun ticking up in the country, particularly in the Northeast, and booster uptake remains abysmal at around 30 percent of the population. According to data tracking from The New York Times, cases of COVID-19 have increased by 43 percent in the last two weeks, with a seven-day average of daily new cases of around 40,000. But officials point out that the true number of cases is likely significantly higher, given that states and local health departments have scaled back testing and more people have opted for at-home tests, the results of which are generally not included in official tallies.
The rises are thought to be driven by yet more transmissible subvariants of the ultra-transmissible coronavirus variant omicron. The initial version of omicron, BA.1, led to a spike in cases 386 percent larger than that of the delta variant, and the peak hospitalization rate among children was four times higher. Now, omicron subvariant BA.2, which is more transmissible than BA.1, accounts for 74 percent of the cases in the US. And an even more transmissible version than BA.2—dubbed BA.2.12.1—is gaining ground. BA.2.12.1 now accounts for around 19 percent of US cases, according to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With the pandemic threat still lingering, many health experts are dismayed by the joyful shedding of even basic precautions, such as masking on crowded transit. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends masking on transit, but it is unclear if the federal government will pursue reversing the federal judge’s order vacating the mask mandate.
As Andy Slavitt said on twitter this morning, airlines don’t serve peanuts and ask people not to eat them on the plane in order to protect unknown people with peanut allergies, why won’t they ask us to wear a mask on the plane to protect small children or immunocompromised people from COVID? Instead, they are celebrating and throwing their masks off with glee. I mean, they couldn’t even ask people to do it?
Well, it’s done. Now it’s all up to the individual at a time when 500 people a day are still dying of this thing. Laurie Garret laid our a series of questions we all should ask as we are assessing our risk:
Since the burden of #COVID19 prevention is now on the shoulders of individuals, not government or community, here are some risks for you to personally calculate when deciding 😷or 😃:
1.) Since vaccination doesn’t not block catching or spreading virus, am I a risk to others?2.) If Delta was more contagious than Beta, & Omicron more than Delta, & BA.1 more than Omicron, & BA.2 more than BA.1…is it inevitable I will get infected if I am unmasked?
3.) Each time a new variant emerges, who do I believe to tell me if it is able to bypass my vax?
4.) If I’m in a crowded subway car & an unmasked guy is coughing, what do I do?
5.) How many vaccines/boosters do I need, when, & at my specific age & health status to feel safe going mask-less?
6.) If I’m dining & the waiter wears a mask, do I have a moral duty to 😷, too?
5.) If people don’t get vaxed & don’t wear 😷s, is their #COVID19 illness their fault? As a taxpayer, must I cover their hospital costs?
6.) If a stranger asks me to please don a mask because they are #COVID19 vulnerable, must I do so?
7.) Am I my brother’s/sister’s/their keeper?
By the way, answering the above questions, variant-by-variant is becoming increasingly difficult and complex for the best scientists in the world, so good luck with your personal calculating.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01069-4
Originally tweeted by Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) on April 19, 2022.
This piece in the NY Times says that wearing your own proper N95 mask will reduce your chances of getting the virus so it’s worth doing, particularly if your are vaccinated and boosted. It doesn’t reduce it as much as if everyone was wearing one but that ship has unfortunately sailed. At least we can buy good masks now. That’s something.