Are You Ready To Ditch The Mask?

10 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

Colorado Public Radio reports, the most visible and hotly-debated symbol of the nation’s fraught battle against the COVID-19 pandemic is about to go away, as both federal health officials and Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado say it’s safe for vaccinated residents to stop wearing masks even in most crowded indoor settings. In practical terms this is the end of the mask mandate outside specific high-risk situations and private establishments who choose to enforce one, since there’s no way at this point to easily sort the vaxxed from the unclean:

“If you’re vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask at all,” [Gov. Jared] Polis said. But he added that if you are not vaccinated the state will continue to “suggest” that you wear a mask when indoor around strangers.

Masks may still be required at events with more than 500 people, and will be required for most schools, childcare and health care settings and in any other business that mandates them. But now even teachers and students who are fully vaccinated can ditch the mask for the last few weeks of school if their school district agrees, even inside the school if they choose.

For the most part, what was required for much of the past year is now simply “suggested” or “advised” and only for the unvaccinated.

“This is certainly a big step,” Polis said. “We have reached a level of immunization where the pandemic isn’t over, but we are safer.”

For those of you who believed that the mask mandate would never be lifted because Democrats were secretly looking to impose them upon American society like burqas, we’re sorry to disappoint you! As it turns out nobody, not even tyrannical socialist babysmugglers like Joe Biden and Jared Polis, wanted us to wear masks longer than it was medically necessary to slow the spread of a disease that has killed over 585,000 Americans. On the reality-based side of this debate, on the other hand, there are those who argue not without evidence that the state hasn’t reached the case decline to safely justify ditching the mask mandate.

Loading ...

10 thoughts on “Are You Ready To Ditch The Mask?”

Diogenesdemar says:

May 15, 2021 at 11:03 am

Wrong question — of course the overwhelming majority of people would be “happy” not to have to wear a mask . . .

The question shouldn’t be about “happiness.” The question is, “Should the mask mandate be ending?” (The correct answer being, No — not until the new case numbers get way further down, and not until a substantial majority — maybe 65% to 70%, children included — of the entire state population has been fully vaccinated.)

For the record, I’m fully vaccinated and will continue to wear a mask whenever I’m indoors in a public setting. (Even though I have the good fortune to live in DougCo, where our wise county commissioners solved this pandemic by bravely all voting to finally end it here over a month ago.)

Log in to Reply
1. JohnInDenver says:
  
  May 15, 2021 at 7:09 pm
  
  Was at a funeral (non-COVID) today, talked with someone who has a brother in CSprings who ….. had COVID in 2020, essentially as it came to Colorado, with relatively long hospitalization, even longer rehab. He got vaccinated early in 2021. And came down with a new case of COVID about 6 weeks later. Symptoms not as severe this time … But if there is a "breakthrough" case for someone AFTER a previous case AND vaccination, I expect I will be wearing my mask while inside around other people for weeks or months to come.
  
  Log in to Reply
davebarnes says:

May 15, 2021 at 12:06 pm

Yes.
The vaccines are effective.
Most of the people I am going to hang out with in the Socialist Paradise of the City & County of Denver have been jabbed.
Our neighbors had a soirée last night for 12 people. Felt perfectly safe. Youngest person there was 60.

Log in to Reply
RavenDawg says:

May 16, 2021 at 6:30 pm

Yes but…

I am glad to not wear a mask outdoors or when meeting with smaller gatherings of friends/family, all of whom are vaccinated. I will still be wearing a mask indoors to businesses like grocery, into a restaurant when not seated. Last I looked my employer is continuing to require people working on-site in our large building to wear masks, and I'm just fine with that.

Log in to Reply
NOV GOP meltdown says:

May 17, 2021 at 8:52 am

I honestly expected to see a lot less mask wearing where I live after the announcement, but I would say 90 % of people here in Louisville are still wearing their masks indoors. I am fully vaccinated but continue to wear my mask indoors in stores, etc., because I kind of feel like an asshole if I don't. I just can't bring myself to walk around with it off with people not knowing if I am vaccinated or not, which may cause a lot of anxiety.

In other parts of the state it is quite different. I was at the Wal Mart in La Junta a week ago…no masks anywhere except for the employees, and everybody seems fine with it.

Log in to Reply
1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  May 17, 2021 at 12:37 pm
  
  I am fully vaccinated but continue to wear my mask indoors in stores, etc., because I kind of feel like an asshole if I don’t.
  
  . . . kind of feel like [I’d be mistaken for a Republican] if I don’t??
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. NOV GOP meltdown says:
    
    May 17, 2021 at 1:22 pm
    
    Something like that, as these days there sadly isn't much daylight between being a Republican and being an asshole. There of course are exceptions, but far too few.
    
    Log in to Reply
2. Conserv. Head Banger says:
  
  May 17, 2021 at 1:08 pm
  
  It also depends on any store rules. At least here in the metroplex, Kroger (King Soopers, City Market), Target, Home Depot, still require masks. Walmart does not.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. kwtree says:
    
    May 17, 2021 at 1:32 pm
    
    Walmart is also bankrolling the voter suppression efforts across the country. Another reason to stay away.
    
    Log in to Reply
Genghis says:

May 17, 2021 at 3:39 pm

But, as [Polis] spoke, the coronavirus continued to tear through Colorado at levels rarely seen before in the pandemic. Colorado on Sunday sat atop a New York Times tracker for national hotspots, recording the worst 7-day average rate for new coronavirus cases in the nation. (It first rose to the top spot on Friday.)

Measurements of how well the virus is under control are near the lowest they’ve been since the start of the pandemic. An estimated one out of every 81 people in the state is currently contagious with the virus. In March, that number was one out of every 350 people.

The most recent modeling projections produced by health experts at several Colorado universities estimate more virus will be in circulation this coming summer than last summer. And the virus that is circulating will be predominantly from more infectious variants — most of the cases in the state now come from the B.1.1.7 variant, which is believed to be 50% more transmissible than older strains.

Fucking idiot libertarians.

Log in to Reply