For those fully vaxxed, do you socialize with those who aren't ?

I only know the unvaxxed very casually, and I always have my mask on. I am fortunate to live 8n a very well vaxxed area.

Not knowingly. I don’t know any. Actually there is an exception. There are kids too young to have been vaccinated that I forget about.

Generally not but I did go to a boardwalk hang out last week and hugged some people I hadn’t seen in a few years. I assumed they were vaxxed but didn’t really know. However, we were all outside. I think if I really wanted to see them I would do an outside visit and maybe try to stay masked but I wouldn’t be too worried about it.

I have a couple of friends who haven’t been vaxxed, but I still hang with them. I’m fully vaxxed, so I’m not too worried. I’m not hugging them or touching ( I don’t like being touched) so it’s all okay.

I wouldn’t.

No !

Go to a store; I wear a mask.

It is hard to really tell who is and who isn’t. I still wear a mask everywhere.

No. I only socialize with my family members, and a few friends who I know are vaccinated. I am fully vaccinated, but still mask up in the grocery store. I really don’t go anywhere else.

Yes. It partly depends how you define socialize so I will be more specific.

I know at any given time possibly some people in the zumba room with me are not vaccinated.

I have a friend who cannot get vaccinated and I see her at zumba and outside dancing. I have not done anything with her where I would be in close proximity for a long time indoors, but it is worth noting that some of the zumba rooms are smallish, about 20×40 ft. I did have a 45 minute conversation with an unvaccinated person two weeks ago indoors and we were sitting about 8 feet apart, but she had been staying where I live for over three weeks at the time.

For the most part where I live I am not worried about it, unless someone recently traveled outside of our city bubble then I would be a little more wary of that person.

Where I live I usually wear a mask or shield in the grocery stores, but if I forgot my mask I would go in maskless. When I go into drug stores I wear a mask.

If I don’t know someone’s vaccine status I try to distance at least 6 feet.

I’ve not been jabbed, never had any intention to & mix with all the same people.
They’re well aware of this & literally nothing has changed in attitudes since pre pandemic.

I trust my perfectly stable immune system see!

I still mask in public areas but not with neighbors. I do keep a distance that previously I wouldn’t have. Even if it wouldn’t put me in hospital, I hate being sick.

All my friends are vaccinated so no worries on that part. If I did have friends that weren’t vaccinated I would hang out with them outdoors if they were wearing masks. I still mask up in stores.

I’m not vaxxed. But I have had the virus. And now, there is a study that shows there is no reason to vaccinate those that have already had it. The chances of getting it again are no greater the disease than those that have been vaccinated. So I don’t really care who I socialize with.

Your article says the study is “not peer-reviewed” @seawulf575

CDC says – - “Yes, you should be vaccinated regardless of whether you already had COVID-19. That’s because experts do not yet know how long you are protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19. Even if you have already recovered from COVID-19, it is possible—although rare—that you could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 again. Studies have shown that vaccination provides a strong boost in protection in people who have recovered from COVID-19. Learn more about why getting vaccinated is a safer way to build protection than getting infected.

If you were treated for COVID-19 with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma, you should wait 90 days before getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Talk to your doctor if you are unsure what treatments you received or if you have more questions about getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

If you or your child has a history of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults or children (MIS-A or MIS-C), consider delaying vaccination until you or your child have recovered from being sick and for 90 days after the date of diagnosis of MIS-A or MIS-C. Learn more about the clinical considerations people with a history of multisystem MIS-C or MIS-A.

Experts are still learning more about how long vaccines protect against COVID-19. CDC will keep the public informed as new evidence becomes available.”

@Tropical_Willie Not peer reviewed, but done by the Cleveland Clinic on 52,238 people! Although, only 5% of those people had had covid previously. Still, That study is not nothing. It should move forward for review, and I assume there are other studies happening on this topic, because it could make a real difference in countries like India, Brazil, and other parts of the developing world where vaccination is not happening as quickly. Even in America we asked people who had previously had covid to wait at least 90 days so others could get vaccinated.

It is a bit sad that I am no longer surprised by the people that not only have no interest in protecting the vulnerable others, but are so proud to proclaim it.

No. But anybody I would possibly socialize with is vaccinated. We are actually planning a gaming convention with an extended group and two are antivaxxers. So we are not going to game with them.

605,000 dead from COVID-19 in USA and 400,000 died because they went against CDC guidelines.

Waiting “peer review” is just that.

@Tropical_Willie Just keep in mind that my Publix grocery stores, and most stores, didn’t require masks for weeks, while I was writing them every week in April to require masks and sell masks, because they said they were “going by CDC recommendations,” and the CDC doesn’t do a recommendation unless they have the data. We can use our brain for educated guesses without the full data. The data might prove the opposite in the end, but erring on the side of caution is not a terrible idea. For a country where there are limited vaccines and they have to decide who gets vaccinated first, it is logical to hope the previously infected are immune and start with the people who have never been sick, putting front line health workers and some other officials as a priority too.

The US is in a different spot now, because we have plenty of vaccine to go around. Mind you, the medical establishment will dose people with vaccine even when people don’t need it as long as it does not appear to be causing harm.

Yes, April @JLeslie, but people still didn’t wear them after Dr Fauci said they should because of someone . . . in the WH said would go away by summer.

We have people in my county that have never worn a mask, we also have 13% of the people as COVID-19 survivors and 3% dead.

@Tropical_Willie I’m not sure what people listening to Trump has to do with the CDC not recommending it and grocery stores not using them. I wrote the store and told them they can SELL them also. Which eventually they did.

It’s common knowledge masks help to prevent the spread of disease, it was a good guess they would work. We already had preliminary proof from countries in Asia that masking up appeared to be preventing the spread. It always seems to me like Democrats are afraid to tell some of the truth, because they think Republicans will latch on to anything they can and twist into their narrative. Hey, Republicans do do that, but also they know when something doesn’t make sense and they latch on to that too and run with it.

I am not saying people who had covid should not get vaccinated, I think at this point better to get at least one shot, to be on the safe side. The studies for the shot acting like a booster look promising. If it were me I would do at least that and hope more conclusions come out from the studies being done. I probably would go ahead and get the second one too, not sure.

My dad currently is trying to decide whether to get a third shot. I know a woman who had a really hard time getting a J&J after she had a bad reaction to her first Moderna, she was advised not to get a second. Both of them have logical reasons for going off label in my opinion.

@JLeslie 65% of the adults in my county are not vaccinated, a month ago is was 67%.
98% of the people are unmasked in stores (must be vaccinated to do that) I had four semesters of statistics in college; that just doesn’t compute ! I’m part of the 2% wearing a mask and I’m fully vaccinated. SMH !

@Tropical_Willie I had two semesters of statistics. I agree with you about the 98% unmasked not making sense in that scenario. That was the situation when I was in Nashville, TN, USA recently. Low vaccination rate and very few people wearing masks there. Where I live we have a very high vaccination rate and we started taking off our masks when everyone in the room was vaccinated BEFORE the CDC recommendations that it was ok.

Pretty much where I live we have been ahead of the official recommendations the whole time. We started making cloth masks before they made an official recommendation. We were outside “socializing” and exercising while still distancing before official word that being outside has very low transmission. It’s not that we guessed right and deserve some sort of special credit, it is that there was some science regarding it that people were looking at or derived from other health situations.

We also have too many people here who never wore a mask or are total covid deniers, but luckily it is a minority of people, and the herd should help protect us from them. Let’s hope.

I focus on the vaccination rate in my area, not the country. Hopefully, your city has a higher rate than the 35% vaccinated.

Nope @JLeslie city and county about the same. I know where you live in has many counties with one community.

^^Part of my state has counties with very low vaccination rates unfortunately, and they are seeing more cases. Florida isn’t doing great compared to other states. I think we are near the middle in the rankings.

@seawulf575 Just curious, if you hadn’t had Covid would you get the vaccine?

@chyna I probably would have. I was actually planning on it, but then got Covid instead. At that point, I saw no reason. Now that I’ve done more research on the vaccines, I’m glad of that choice.

@seawulf575 People do get covid twice. It happens more than I would have expected. Do you factor that into your analysis?

The really frustrating part is it is not clear whether an antibody test completely demonstrates immunity. People who have antibodies, then that seems very clear, but people without antibodies might still have other immune cells that recognize the virus and can spike immunity, but still seems prudent to get a shot if no antibodies are present. I like to know whether I actually need a shot or not, but that seems hard to know for sure.

One friend of mine had covid early on, and tested positive for antibodies, but by the time the vaccine came out he didn’t test positive anymore. He did get two shots and his husband had covid and got the shots also. I have a lot of friends who had covid who also got vaccinated. Two in particular their doctors even got them early, before their age group, because they had such a hard time with covid and both have asthma.

@JLeslie Looking at all I can find, it looks like people get Covid twice extremely rarely. There were only something like 5000 cases of a second infection out of all the cases of covid. And there were even questions about whether those 5000 actually had covid once or not. Some did, but others were assumed to have had it. But there are already that many cases (and more) of people that were vaccinated that later got the disease.

As I said, the more I looked into the vaccines, the less interested I was in getting the shot(s). And the more pissed off I get when I see being vaccinated as some sort of superior thing. It actually scares me a bit at how the vaccines are being used as a political weapon. I could go much, much deeper into all this, but it really is outside the purview of this particular thread. And I don’t want to hijack this thread.

@seawulf575 Bringing it back to the Q, I think a lot of people are afraid of covid and their impatience or avoidance of people who aren’t vaccinated is born from frustration, fear, and anxiety.

You might perceive it as a superiority thing, and I’ll give you that sometimes it is, but more than anything I think people just want to feel safe. So, I’d just say try to keep in mind most of the time the person trying to convince you is at least partly scared.

Furthermore, anti-vaxxers tend to be no maskers. The combination is not a good one. I know you wore a mask and it doesn’t sound like you are an anti-vaxxer by the extreme definition.

How do you feel about people who have not had COVID, won’t get a vaccine, and who don’t wear masks or distance unless required like in an airport. They are taking a risk for themselves and put each other at risk and people like my dad who seemingly did not get immunity from the shots. Would you advise that person who has not had covid to get the shot?

@ucancallme_Al Do you also trust that everyone has a perfectly stable immune system? And do you not trust your immune system to handle the vaccine?

@JLeslie I’ve never been a mask guy either. I wore one when I was required to, but as always, I did research. I found several peer reviewed studies by groups like the CDC and the WHO that showed masks do nothing to stop the spread of viruses. The only ones that even vaguely showed anything to be effective were N95 masks, if they were fitted properly, and if they were thrown away after only one use. Sound like anyone you know? It didn’t to me.

As for the social distancing, the 6’ distance that many places adopted…do you know where that distance came from? It is the distance the average sneeze can spray water droplets. So if you are closer than 6’ to someone and they sneeze right at you, you might be in trouble. But most people don’t sneeze right at people anyway. And MIT just did a study that shows that inside a building with recirculating air, social distancing is meaningless.

@JLeslie As for the fear and anxiety, I understand that as well. I’m not purposely trying to stoke people. But let me ask this: what will it take before they are completely at ease? If 100% of people got vaccinated, we would still have to worry about variants, right? I mean at some point you just have to accept there are diseases in this world and there is really nothing you can do about it. At the end of it all, we all will die anyway. I, personally, don’t feel like living my life in fear until I hit that end.

@seawulf575 So far the vaccine has covered the variants, most importantly the Delta Variant. And the Delta Variant is making people really sick for those who are unvaccinated. The rates of Covid among vaccinated is close to zero. The rates of Covid among nonvaccinated are quite high.

@seawulf575 You are remarkably lucky to have made it this far considering your attitude. And I don’t say that simply in ridicule. Life indeed has it perils and risks, but let me ask you: how do you suppose the current fad so rampant with conservatives to shun vaccination will effect the mutation rate for the disease? Do you see why there is an excellent chance that your grandchildren will grow up with masks more routine as a rule than cell phones?

@Caravanfan How about rates of Covid among those that have had it but aren’t vaccinated? You keep leaving that group out.

And, @Caravanfan You are completely ignoring the damage the vaccines HAVE done. over 6000 dead from the injection, thousands more with long term, probably permanent disabilities and many, many very bad reactions that may or may not have long term impacts. The AAPS, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, recently opened up a call for people to anonymously report problems associated with the vaccines. It makes interesting reading since this is unedited…exactly how the respondents reported things.

Once again you’re quoting fright wing websites And of those deaths, VAERS reports that 1,770 followed COVID-19 vaccinations. But it’s inaccurate and misleading to say these deaths were caused by COVID-19 vaccines., So where are you getting your number . . . Oh I see !

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is an ultra-right wing rag WIKI on the AAPS ! !

Publishing of non-mainstream or scientifically discredited claims

Articles and commentaries published in the journal have argued a number of non-mainstream or scientifically discredited claims, including:

that human activity has not contributed to climate change, and that global warming will be beneficial and thus is not a cause for concern.]
that HIV does not cause AIDS.
that the “gay male lifestyle” shortens life expectancy by 20 years.
that there is a link between abortion and the risk of breast cancer.
that there are possible links between autism and vaccinations.
that government efforts to encourage smoking cessation and emphasize the addictiveness of nicotine are misguided.

A series of articles by anti-abortion authors published in the journal argued for a link between abortion and breast cancer. Such a link has been rejected by the scientific community, including the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and the World Health Organization, among other major medical bodies.]

A 2003 paper published in the journal, claiming that vaccination was harmful, was criticized for poor methodology, lack of scientific rigor, and outright errors by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics. A National Public Radio piece mentioned inaccurate information published in the journal and said: “The journal itself is not considered a leading publication, as it’s put out by an advocacy group that opposes most government involvement in medical care.”

The journal has also published articles advocating politically and socially conservative policy positions, including:

that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are unconstitutional.
that “humanists” have conspired to replace the “creation religion of Jehovah” with evolution.
that “anchor babies” are valuable to undocumented immigrants, particularly if the babies are disabled.

The organization published on its website an article claiming that Obama hypnotized audiences with his speeches, using “extra slow speech, rhythm, tonalities, vagueness, visual imagery, metaphor, and raising of emotion.” The “O” in Obama’s logo was compared to a crystal ball used as a “point of visual fixation”.

Never a question of “handling the vaccine” lol, don’t need it!
As for “everyone”...you’re jabbed & as the chorus goes, “protected” me, I like my chances.

The AAPS is not a valid physician organization. It is a far right wing political action group.

CDC reports 879 deaths from the Covid 19 vaccine. Quite different from @seawulf575 reporting 6,000 deaths. Although either number is better than the 34 million that have died within a year and a half from Covid 19.

@Tropical_Willie You do understand that there is much proof in what you claim as discredited statements. I guess the question becomes, who are you relying on to discredit these things?

@Caravanfan So you don’t like the source. Are you denying that there are severe adverse effects from the vaccines? Are you denying that they have caused deaths?

There are a few physicians in my family: my brother and his wife, my nephew and his wife, my niece and my cousin. They are all vaccinated. We are all vaccinated. I do not know of any close family member who is not vaccinated.

For those who do no believe in wearing masks, would you let a surgeon in an operating room perform surgery on you without a mask? Would you like nurses handling stuff in your hospital room without masks and gloves?

@seawulf575 It will likely take over 90% of the population having immunity to really squash the virus. Let’s say having had COVID does give most people immunity at least a year (I have no data for that) plus over 80% of people are vaccinated, then cases will get so low I think the majority of the population will feel comfortable. I see it where I live.

@seawulf575 I think some of the posters from AAPS lost their license to practice medicine because they were selling “snake oil products” to the Rubes !

AAPS is not a valid source and maybe getting from your friend Putin.

@Yeahright I’ve heard the old surgeon operating schtick before. My original answer was that as long as he didn’t drool into me I wouldn’t care much. But let me turn that around and ask you: would you let a surgeon perform surgery on you while he is wearing the exact same mask he has worn every day for the past week? I mean that is, after all, a closer analogy to what is actually going on in the world today, isn’t it? Do you wear a mask? Do you throw it away every time after you go into a store and get a new one for the next place you go? I will venture a guess and say that 100% of the population does not. So the masks are actually spreading disease. They get saturated with water vapor and then every breath you take pushes more out the other side.

Push how far and at what velocity? The purpose of the mask is to retard the dispersal of aerosols in BOTH directions. How is it then possible to conclude that no mask at all might EVER be preferable to one worn dozens of times?

” . . .would you let a surgeon perform surgery on you while he is wearing the exact same mask he has worn every day for the past week? I mean that is, after all, a closer analogy to what is actually going on in the world today, isn’t it? Do you wear a mask? Do you throw it away every time after you go into a store and get a new one for the next place you go? I will venture a guess and say that 100% of the population does not. ”

Wrong winged again, I have cloth masks which I microwave for a minute in a sandwich of moist paper towels after every outing. I wear them until I get home to put them in the microwave.

@Tropical_Willie So you are damaging the threads after you have worn the mask to conceivably multiple locations. You have touched things with your hands and then touched the mask repeatedly in the mean time. Not to mention that most masks people are wearing “because it’s better than nothing” really aren’t better than nothing. The porosity is a joke when it comes to trying to filter out viruses. You are fooling yourself into believing the mask is somehow effective…you are not fooling me.
And just a question: have you ever read the reports on how ineffective the masks are? I know…it’s science that doesn’t agree with your fantasy so you would never consider it, but maybe you should.

The masks have a interweave layer that is not quite FDA approved, sandwiched between the two other layers and I’m not the one that is getting fooled.You cut and pasting right-wing sources claiming the have medical credence.

You look for any source that “Harmonizes” with you opinion and POV.

@Tropical_Willie Not sure what right wing sources I am supposedly claiming here. I found the studies on the CDC and the WHO sites. Are they right wing sources?

Meh,@seawulf575, I still hope you are safe from Covid, no matter your thoughts on the vaccine. I don’t wish a horrible case of it on anyone.

He’s already bragging about the fact that he had it and survived. Throw away your mask and join him, Trump, Chris Christie, Herman Cain, virtually the entire Republican White House and all the other sagely conservatives following their manly instincts to get sick and tough it out. Leave the masks and vaccines to the sissies. I wonder just how many of these dummies this disease will ultimately cull from our midsts?

@stanleybmanly to answer your question about “dummies” ^^^^. About 1.7 percent will die and three quarters will have Long-Haul COVID-19 which include heart and lung issues. Also blood clots in the brain (stroke) and in limbs (amputation) are known long-haul issues.

@seawulf575 I wouldn’t because he wouldn’t be 6 feet apart from me in the operating room. However, I think that old masks are as effective as new ones in protecting against the exchange of fluids. Using old masks is actually harmful for the person wearing them because they can house a lot of bacteria that can go straight to the wearer’s lungs. Sure, I do wear a disposable mask every day and throw it away. I try to wear a new one every day.

@Yeahright You wouldn’t let a surgeon work on you because he couldn’t be 6 feet away from you? You do understand a surgeon has to be right on top of you right?
As for disposable masks, they are not effective at all at stopping the transmission of viruses. And even if they were vaguely effective, changing them only once a day is not sufficient. They should be disposed of after every use. Get out of the car to go to the store…put the mask on. Come out of the store…throw it away. Go to another store…get another mask. Meanwhile, you are also failing to address all the millions of other people that aren’t wearing disposable masks, aren’t throwing them away, etc. I mean after all, isn’t that all that is being pushed…have something covering your mouth and nose? I have seen people with bandanas, baby bibs, face masks, etc…none of which will do a single thing to stop the virus from being released from them. People always forget that we are talking about a virus. it is much smaller than even a bacteria. If you are breathing out and your glasses fog up when you are wearing a mask…you are releasing virus if you have it. You might be just creating a cloud around you that you spread as you walk, but it is still there.

^You wouldn’t let a surgeon work on you because he couldn’t be 6 feet away from you? You do understand a surgeon has to be right on top of you right?
You are misquoting me. I did not say couldn’t I said wouldn’t meaning he has to be close to me to operate. I wouldn’t want a doctor who is not complying with basic sterilization protocols (including wearing a dirty old mask) to operate on me because he has to touch me, lean on me etc. and that is different from the public in general because if even they wear a mask more than once, they would still be 6 feet apart from me.

The cloud surrounding you is preferable to virus propelled across the room with each breath.

@seawulf575 There is some true in what you are saying, but I still think that wearing a disposable mask is better than wearing nothing at all.

@Tropical_Willie The death rate is something like 8% over age 75 and more long term problems too.

The averages don’t tell the story well enough. It really is a very dangerous disease, and the death rate starts to climb after age 50 actually, and 50 isn’t very old. You might want to look up the numbers for your argument. I tried to get a link for you, but when I try to expand a table to see if it contains the data I am looking for, my phone is going to a blank error page.

Yes, @JLeslie the numbers I gave were for total COVID-19 cases and fatalities (for my county). Talked with a person I know that works at the local hospital, numbers are higher than that for over 75 in my county almost 10%.

@stanleybmanly How so? When you breath out, you aren’t propelling anything across the room. You are merely creating a cloud around yourself. And as you move, you move the cloud with you. So if I put my hand in front of my face, is that adequate to stop the virus? I mean, after all, I’m keeping my breath from shooting off across the room, right?

Yes. That is exactly what you are doing. The vapor of your breath in which the virus is suspended is restricted. If you don’t believe this, just attempt to blow up a balloon or blow out a candle while wearing a mask. And while attempting the experiment, get that stupid retrograde conservative mumbo jumbo out of that block head so there is some sliver of space for abstract thought.

So try this…put on a pair of glasses and a mask. Breathe out. If your glasses fog up, you are releasing virus into the air. Mic drop.

Drop the mic on your empty head. If I’m in the room, I am not as concerned with the air fogging YOUR glasses. I don’t intend to get CLOSE enough to your glasses to care. Those virus laden droplets are defeated from traveling to me by first being filtered through YOUR mask. And your misconception that viruses are too small to be defeated by masks is as usual a bungled understanding of what you think you have read. The mask isn’t expected to filter the virus. It filters the DROPLETS on which the virus hitches a ride from your nose to mine. That is why between our 2 masks, our odds improve decidedly against those of any mask free maga hat ignoramus in the vicinity. I think covid should be renamed the Wuhan/maga virus.