Signs of ‘normal’

I absolutely hate the idea that, long-term, we have to go around with masks. So much of our communications is through our facial expressions. We become anonymous to others. It's dehumanizing. We all have to do this right now but I would like to see people talking about a not-to-distant future that does away with the mask. It's past time to have all K-12 kids back in school, at least part of each week. My 11th grade son has not had an in-person class since March 6th. I get teachers being concerned about their health but there comes a time, once they are vaccinated, when they are being called to the Nation's service to do their duty, as much as any service member is called to do theirs'.
 
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“Buy [on] the Rumors and Sell [on] the News”

Masks/shielding is here to stay, mostly in the colder months .... Wearing a mask protects against more than just Covid.

My wife being a 2nd grade teacher, brought everything that her students brought into the classroom Home. She only meets with her students one-on-one right now once or twice per week, and she hasn’t gotten sick with the seasonal cold/flu for over a year. She would normally be “Down-and-Out” for 1 to 2 weeks during the fall and winter. It hasn’t happened.

I would normally get a bad cold or flu at least once a year because what she brings home, and because of the few times I worked from the office during the week.

I am 100% remote now, and I haven’t gotten sick, and my Productivity has gone way up.

Alas .... I think Masks 😷 in the Military will have a place going forward. It is Common Sense.
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My son has only one in-person class at USNA right now. He has the same professor for two classes who has a hearing issue that requires him to see a person's face and lips moving. Therefore, he cannot teach in-person where the Mids are wearing masks. Mids are supposed to be wearing their masks while in their rooms with their roommates, so this is a bit of a challenge. I understand that Ford has developed some kind of mask that is see-through. I wondering how well that works.
 
ders_dad said:
My son has only one in-person class at USNA right now. He has the same professor for two classes who has a hearing issue that requires him to see a person's face and lips moving. Therefore, he cannot teach in-person where the Mids are wearing masks. Mids are supposed to be wearing their masks while in their rooms with their roommates, so this is a bit of a challenge. I understand that Ford has developed some kind of mask that is see-through. I wondering how well that works.
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These are the types of issues that spur Innovation and Growth. This is a good thing.

Good or Bad, medicine and society in general, wouldn’t be where it is today without what we have learned on the Battlefield. Covid and contagions are a battlefield too.
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i think VOLUNTARY mask wearing is here to stay (like the way it's been for a long time in places like Japan), especially in flu season. not everyone will do it, but people won't think you're a weirdo if you wear a mask on the subway like they would have not too long ago. i also think there will be a continued awareness and focus on washing hands etc and especially not going to work if you feel sick. the stigma of not sucking it up and going to work sick isn't going to come back for a very long time.

but once we are a few months past the date that everyone in the country has the opportunity to get vaccinated and there are no more long lines to get it, then the idea of mandatory mask wearing, distancing, reduced capacity in restaurants/gyms/arenas/etc, plastic barriers separating seats at a bar, is just not going to be accepted by the public. if we're not yet at herd immunity because 30 or 40% of the population refuses or is too lazy to get vaccinated, then i think the prevailing attitude will be " that's on you, you can choose to take a risk but we're not shutting things down because of you". i hope the government doesn't resort to coercion, ie. requiring a 'vaccination card' in order to travel between states, stay in a hotel, go to a movie, get on the subway....

i think there will very likely be businesses that choose to mandate masking (just like business can prohibit smoking) , and in those cases the public will vote with their feet

huge caveat is that the vaccines actually work as advertised, these new variants aren't resistant to them, and the death rate is at or below the normal/avg death rate of the flu. it's never going to go to zero
 
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It’s Ok to wear a mask ... and it’s Ok if you were “always into being anonymous” and the Pandemic has brought out the “Real-you”, even though no one else can see your face these days.

Btw ... if you work at a corporate headquarters, or in high government place, you rarely ever see the CEO or any of the Officials. They have always been germaphobes, and for good reason.
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Dr. Strange Love said:
Btw ... if you work at a corporate headquarters, or in high government place, you rarely ever see the CEO or any of the Officials. They have always been germaphobes, and for good reason.
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Your mileage may vary. I've worked at a number of both military and corporate senior staff locations and the big bosses have just about always been "out and about" types and in some of my jobs, I often met with them multiple times per day. I had one CEO who on a number of occasions stood with his hands on my shoulders and kibitzed/corrected as I submitted answers to last minute customer questions to high $ proposals.
Not much shyness about dealing with others in the bunch that I've dealt with.
 
OldRetSWO said:
Your mileage may vary. I've worked at a number of both military and corporate senior staff locations and the big bosses have just about always been "out and about" types and in some of my jobs, I often met with them multiple times per day. I had one CEO who on a number of occasions stood with his hands on my shoulders and kibitzed/corrected as I submitted answers to last minute customer questions to high $ proposals.
Not much shyness about dealing with others in the bunch that I've dealt with.
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This is very similar to my experience as well.
 
I have a friend at Koch Industries - Charles Koch is very hands on. He typically eats in the employee cafeteria.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
I can't agree.... Leaders have to be seen; Managers hide.
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Being seen and getting the message out — like Officials are supposed to do — is different than mingling and elbowing.

Distance works against any virus or contagion.

Btw ... I am not advocating against mingling and elbowing. It’s what you do the military. I am saying that as a practical measure, masks and distancing will have a place going forward in the military, especially in colder weather.
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Dr. Strange Love said:
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Being seen and getting the message out — like Officials are supposed to do — is different than mingling and elbowing.

Distance works against any virus or contagion.

Btw ... I am not advocating against mingling and elbowing. It’s what you do the military. I am saying that as a practical measure, masks and distancing will have a place going forward in the military, especially in colder weather.
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Dr. Strange Love said:
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I agree with the masks and cold weather. I wore one last weekend at the Snowmobile races and it worked! My mask protected me and my face never got cold!
That was the only protection it offered however......
 
shock-n-awe said:
I agree with the masks and cold weather. I wore one last weekend at the Snowmobile races and it worked! My mask protected me and my face never got cold!
[Cold weather] was the only protection it offered however......
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Ahh, I see, the alpha response ...

And I suppose you might believe if you saw me for the first time, a cripple like me, from the time I was born, is supposed to be relegated to life in Wheel Chair ... right? .... I am not supposed to be able to do the things that I do .... There is no way that he built this house with this deformed body and disfigured hands. There is no way that he can maintain this farm and do the physical things that he does. He’s not supposed to be up there on that 35 foot ladder doing trim work. His will to live can’t be stronger than the crappy disease he has been dealt.

Well. Seeing is believing ... and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Whether you believe it or not, tests show that masks do offer protection.

It is Ok to say that you prefer not to wear a mask, and it is Ok to believe that they don’t work. Just don’t use Broad statements that don’t support facts.
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Execs, contrary to popular belief and widespread personal experience, are people too, so you're going to find executive behaviors that match the breadth of human capacity for prudence, bull-headedness, charity, greed, idiocy, perceptiveness, wisdom, impulsiveness and anything else you seek or seek to avoid. And there are even more managers than execs, so expect some of their actions to fall beyond even those bounds. That's a long way of saying it's really hard to make blanket statements about large groups of people where germophobes like Putin and slobs like Boris Johnson are peers. People are all over the place.
 
justdoit19 said:
Re: Ike vaccinations
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I talked to my Plebe tonight. He is in ISO with TWO strains of flu and COVID. He overheard while getting tested yesterday that staff think the Brigade will be vaccinated in late April.

Depressing new COVID rules just came down, apparently in response to the variants that are more transmissible. Mids have to be masked when not 6' apart, even when studying in their rooms. They are trying to wrap heads around an instruction to reconfigure racks so that heads are 6' apart, which he said is not even physically possible in many rooms.
 
ThereseInDenver said:
I talked to my Plebe tonight. He is in ISO with TWO strains of flu and COVID. He overheard while getting tested yesterday that staff think the Brigade will be vaccinated in late April.

Depressing new COVID rules just came down, apparently in response to the variants that are more transmissible. Mids have to be masked when not 6' apart, even when studying in their rooms. They are trying to wrap heads around an instruction to reconfigure racks so that heads are 6' apart, which he said is not even physically possible in many rooms.
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Ugh. Sorry about ISO. Our plebe has done that. The new protocols are not making much sense to mids who have cohabitated since June 27-30 until now. I wish yours and mine and others patience. And good health. Oh, and a new chem professor.
 
I don't know anyone who has gotten the flu or even the common cold in the past year.
Masks and social distancing have to be the reason.

I wonder if we will unknowingly eradicate influenza and the common cold from the planet, as we continue to take on the 'rona scurge?
It seems hard to believe, but maybe it's possible.
 
THParent said:
I don't know anyone who has gotten the flu or even the common cold in the past year.
Masks and social distancing have to be the reason.

I wonder if we will unknowingly eradicate influenza and the common cold from the planet, as we continue to take on the 'rona scurge?
It seems hard to believe, but maybe it's possible.
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You may be on to something here.
 
THParent said:
I don't know anyone who has gotten the flu or even the common cold in the past year.
Masks and social distancing have to be the reason.

I wonder if we will unknowingly eradicate influenza and the common cold from the planet, as we continue to take on the 'rona scurge?
It seems hard to believe, but maybe it's possible.
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I’m involved in daycare circles (retired from my own, still active with groups and friends...plus all their school aged siblings and families).

Guess what? You are EXACTLY right! Not ONE single snotty nose. Or cough. Or cold. Or flu. Not one. Imo, it’s beyond the masking. It’s the sanitizing. And hand washing. Schools and daycares have strict cleaning and sanitizing protocols around here. It’s a LOT of work. But it’s really cut down on illnesses. And masks help as well, if you are around somone who is sick. Or are sick. But the sickness in the first place, at the root of it, is disinfected away with the strict and frequent sanitizing going on. I still have one little guy I watch (neighbor), and his hand washing skills are mad!! Different than before. Scrubs under his nails.

I returned to Mass last weekend (finally...that was weird, but amazingly comforting), and the wooden pews are a noticeably lighter color from a year of bleaching wipe down across the top, where hands rest, after each service.

I would love to see some numbers about influenza. And wouldn’t it be cool, if we kept all these precautions, including masks if people wanted? Imo, some precautions are too extreme (kids isolated by plexiglass during lunch, for example) for long term, every day use. But I think some are very, very good for managing illnesses, especially in large groups.

It will be interesting in 5, 10 years what we have collectively held on to as new ‘status quote’ in this arena. Also neat to see how much of it really is within our control, and doable (strong sanitizing/personal hygiene habits).

Adding this: our school has been “live” the whole time (not our public school. They began offering live just this week. 342 days). Our school put up plexiglass around desks, lunch tables. Smaller classes. Etc, etc. But have been in person other than a few days since last March. A lot of extra work for the staff, but it’s worked for them. They have not had an outbreak, in school or any of the ECA’s, including sports. Amazing to look back at a year, pretty proud of our school!!
 
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