Hellobee Boards

@Corduroy: My governor (republican, but in New England) has decided that Covid is over given high vaccination rates and most localities are going along with it even though our hospitalization rates are similar to winter 20-21. We still mask indoors because DD is higher risk and too young to vaccinate and I'm pregnant, but we are in the small minority. Our state is shutting down government run testing sites when the federal money runs out (expected to be this month, but nobody knows) and already stopped reporting detailed county level data publicly. None of the kids summer programs appear to be doing anything. Our yoga studio is about the only place that still requires kids to mask indoors. The library has a sign on the door encouraging but not requiring anyone who isn't vaccinated to mask.

Ultimately, I favor an approach like what your county seems to be doing, where recommendations are based on community transmission levels, especially since not everyone can be vaccinated and even with vaccines Covid seems to be evolving around our defenses. Masking isn't anyone's favorite thing, but it has been proven to slow the spread, and we're still seeing hundreds of deaths per day and rising in this country. And if being slightly inconvenienced can save someone's life, I'm willing to take on the inconvenience.

Just got COVID for the second time in 6 months (I had it in January too); fully vaccinated and boosted and was just booking booster appointments for my kids when they tested positive. I don’t see any summer activities being changed here (DC area); camps are sending out notices to stay home if kids have symptoms and I would be surprised if there was loud objection to indoor masking again. Seriously doubt that will happen though as our new Republican governor was super happy to revoke mask mandates…

@Lowell: Ugh, I’m so sorry you’re going through it again so soon. Hope it passes quickly!

We are very similar to @Alexandra603:. I'm close to Chicago, with high rates of vaccination and a Democratic governor. We are still in a surge with high transmission rates that started in early May. For a couple of weeks during the second half of May, more people started masking again voluntarily, but that seems to be tapering off again. And no changes to requirements or protocols for summer camps.