So, NYC and most places in the US seem to have dropped that whole vaccine mandate to participate in society. As such, have we all fully embraced the my body my choice mantra in terms of the covid vaccine? I know i have. These side effects suck and getting vaccinated doesn’t really stop the spread anyway, just possibly lessens your own symptoms.
If im not close to 100% by tomorrow im going to officially regret this booster. I assumed today id be in bed all day, so thats fine. After today not so fine and id rather have risked covid.
Dunno. I went to Canada for the weekend. Prior to the trip, I downloaded their app, uploaded all our vaccine information. Had our vax cards ready. The border agent didn’t even ask. Didn’t mention COVID at all. If Canada is letting Americans in with no screening or vax requirements, then maybe we really have rounded the corner the last time.
I also think that bars and restaurants hated being made to be the vaccine mandate enforcers. So many of them just flat out refused to do it. And it’s not like local governments had the funds or ability to hire vaccine enforcement officers. So, in the end, I think it’s mostly that vaccine mandates were unenforceable.
ah, likely. my point is, i don’t think it was right to force people to get vaccinated in the first place and think that “my body my choice” should apply here.
although, those on the right like to use “my body my choice” for mask mandates too and that’s just ridiculous. vaccines have real consequences though, so not a fan of forcing it on people.
It does feel like we are at or nearing the ‘endemic’ phase, depending on who you ask. My company mandated vaccines and the first booster, but recently announced that they are not mandating the new booster. We will still be required to test daily for all in-person events, including just going to the office for folks that do that. We’re a public health company so we are more risk-averse than many places, but our CMO and her staff decided it was safe enough to drop the mandate.
you have to swab your nose just to go into the office? that seems really extreme.
when the vaccine first came out we required people to get vaccinated to go to the office and it was a NY requirement to attest via a short form that you weren’t having symptoms and wasn’t exposed when you went to the office. nobody was required to be tested though. we have since dropped the vaccine requirement entirely. i don’t think the booster as a requirement. now no vaccine is required at all. i think most of my coworkers probably got vaccinated though and nobody wanted to go to the office at the time it was required, so it didn’t really matter.
Yeah, almost certainly. The vaccine rollout started in earnest around January 2021. (A few were vaccinated in December 2020.)
Delta didn’t become the primary strain until May 2021 IIRC. The vaccine had far more success against the earlier strains, which were also more severe, especially among the elderly who were a large share of the early vaccine recipients. I bet the vaccine saved a lot of lives.
For many people it probably served to postpone when they’d get Covid. Instead of an earlier more deadly strain, they got the milder Delta or Omicron strains. There were also better treatment options as time went on, so postponing people’s first bout with Covid was hugely beneficial.
I will still get vaccinated, but don’t mind the mandates dropping at most places. Current strains are much less lethal and hospitals aren’t overwhelmed. Also, a big % of the anti-vaxxers have already caught COVID at this point. If they caught a current strain, they might have better immunity than fully vaxxed people.
I think in September 2022 that’s probably a reasonable place to land. In January 2021 when my exhalations are potentially deadly to you, I think the mandates made more sense.
Of course Covid can still kill you, and so can flu and other airborne illnesses. But the likelihood of death is now so much lower than it had been that I think it makes sense to transition to treating it like flu rather than smallpox.
The computer terminals the CBSA agents use automagically bring up your ArriveCAN confirmation, if everything has been properly filled out and matched.
If that’s not the case…they can deny you entry and issue you a fine. (However, as a practical matter, if doing a land crossing, I think they just send you “inside” while you do the ArriveCAN thing. When entering by air, the airline should deny you boarding if you don’t have an ArriveCAN receipt.)
I have heard rumors that ArriveCAN is here to stay, as a means to facilitate the customs process, even if they might relax vax/testing requirements.
I thought that there was something about Omicron that caused it to be more likely to manifest as a milder upper respiratory thing than the prior variants.
Of course, I could also easily believe that vaccinations, prior cases, and fewer lockdowns / less compliance with pandemic protocols completely biased the manifestation patterns with Omicron as compared to prior variants.
Without better information, I’ll hedge my bets and suggest that it was a combination of both those things.
you have to swab your nose just to go into the office? that seems really extreme.