50% are vaccinated. Add to that those who are not vaccinated but have recovered from covid, and then add to that the young who are generally not going to be adversely affected by covid. This is well into the herd immunity range and the daily plummeting new case numbers are bearing this out.

Its going away, fast! Probably much faster than some want it to, and certainly faster than a bureaucracy can deal with.

Nobody wants it to stay around.

The longer we invest in the precaution of masking; the lower the chance of a pandemic flare-up will be when we decide to end the investment in masking. But the problem is that by the time the rate of infection reaches near zero, the investment made in years of masking will be just too high to take the chance on unmasking. The analysis will always be, “We have sacrificed so much, so it would be a shame to lose it now just because we unmasked a few days too early.”

At that point, the rationale may just shift to permeant masking. Why not? Covid will always be out there, and more variants will always be developing. There will be other new viruses, plus the common flu. All will be slowed by masking on a permanent basis. Anyone who opposes this will be stepping on the rights of others who want to take the safest course possible.

This, I suppose, is my greatest fear.

As an aside. Have any of you noticed that since the relaxation of the mask mandates and we are now able to see faces again, how interacting with people has taken on more meaning? With someone wearing a mask, I don't really see that person. I see things in human form, but not a PERSON. There is something dehumanizing about a mask. Our faces are our identity. They convey not only who we are, but our emotions, our feelings, and is an incredibly important part of face to face communication (even the term face to face conveys its importance). Covering up our faces is having a psychological impact on how we treat one another. We don't need more ways to dehumanize each other. We need ways to reestablish our commonalities. I think this very important side effect of masking has gone largely ignored.

You are about to be condemned and contradicted--as I was--for pointing out the obvious--as I did earlier in this thread.

Apparently all that stuff you find positive is not at all worth even the SLIGHTEST chance that someone could get sick.

I'd think that would be more of an individual thing, but in my case, it would likely involve the creative (and fast-moving) placement of something very heavy in reply.
I thought about this on Saturday when I was a brakeman, I had a couple of riders who really griped about the mask thing. I explained the whole, "Keeping the ERs free for people who really need emergency care right now" deal and that guy said he'd never heard it that way before. I don't doubt it as that message was common at first but you hardly ever heard it now.
Like I wrote several times here, it's all about keeping your Aunt with the heart condition from dying in a choked ER with COVID patients that otherwise could have helped her. That was always the nightmare scenario, one that is being played out every single day in other countries and happened in the US in numerous occasions. I just found out from an old friend of mine, he lost a family member exactly like that, who coded out in an ambulance looking for an ER to go to because all the hospitals in the area at that moment were choked with COVID patients. On a normal day, the ambulance would probably have gotten that poor soul to an ER in time.
I doubt it. Rick simply point out a societal shift, which I agree with (as would most people as it's pretty obvious). He wasn't posting that seeing someone's smile was more important than keeping the spread down with masks.
Besides, with the disconnect in society before the pandemic due to internet use (nothing is sadder than a large group of people sitting down for a meal and all on their smart phones, never saying one word to anyone else), I get a feeling the change in person interactions might actually be welcome for many.

“With someone wearing a mask, I don't really see that person. I see things in human form, but not a PERSON. There is something dehumanizing about a mask. Our faces are our identity. They convey not only who we are, but our emotions, our feelings, and is an incredibly important part of face to face communication (even the term face to face conveys its importance). Covering up our faces is having a psychological impact on how we treat one another.”

That has not been my experience. I’ve interacted with friends and co-workers with masks and had no problem seeing their emotions in their eyes and general body language. Occasionally a cashier at a store sounds muffled and I have to ask them to repeat something but that happens without masks too... I just can’t blame the masks so I feel more awkward asking them to repeat! :) ha.

I don’t claim to be any sort of expert in psychology, just saying my personal experiences.

Emphasis is mine. I do wish you would stop spreading misleading information. Here's a page from John Hopkins that touches this exact topic:

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/ ... t-risk-too

I don't understand why so many of you are having such a huge issue with masks in general. I agree that in instances of those who are hard of hearing, such as with Mr. Mitchell's example, masks do prove to be a hindrance, but by and large there is simply no reason not to wear a mask when in a public space. Hell, for those who are truly worried about your rights and what the government can and can't do, wearing a mask actively makes it significantly harder for Big Brother type security systems to recognize you. Besides, until we know that vaccinated people can't spread the virus, it's just the considerate and polite thing to do for those around you. Nobody goes to a museum or tourist railroad looking to get sick. If it came to my knowledge that I got a visitor - who paid money to my organization for the privilege of being there - sick or ultimately killed because I couldn't be bothered to wear a mask, I'd be extremely upset. Wouldn't you?

I was speaking to one of my engineers a few weeks ago about this, and he provided an apt observation that I'm modifying slightly to meet the PG rated limits we typically hold here:

"Railroaders are the biggest bunch of Billy Badasses out there, but wearing a piece of cloth over part of your face makes all of them turn into [wimps]."

What I was pointing out was also the same g*dd*mned "societal shift"--re-humanizing interactions with strangers.

I'm sorry that my writing style led you to think that I think being able to see smiles and other emotions in personal interactions is "more important" than the mere chance of possibly catching a disease with a rather low mortality rate in total. I'll try to write down at the second-grade level from here on in.

Disease is bad. We should try not to spread disease.

Smiles are good. They show that people are friendly and human, and make people seem human instead of robots or rude.

Wearing masks hides smiles and frowns and sad faces. It makes it hard for people to tell how other people are feeling.

Masks and staying away from other people helps reduce the risk of disease, but does not eliminate the possibility.
People wearing masks all the time definitely reduces being able to see smiles, and reduces many people's ability to hear someone clearly.

Better?

If RyPN had a like button, I'd click it three times.

The link that you provided discussed people 18 and older. I was mainly referring to those 18 and younger. This from Harvard:

"Children, including very young children, can develop COVID-19. Many of them have no symptoms. Those that do get sick tend to experience milder symptoms such as low-grade fever, fatigue, and cough. Some children have had severe complications, but this has been less common. Children with underlying health conditions may be at increased risk for severe illness."

Could that be distilled down to "the young who are generally not going to be adversely affected by covid" and be accurate? I think so.

Again, reduced to the "simpleton" level because it's been amply demonstrated nationwide that the ability to understand sarcasm, satire and other nuances are eroded by fear of the virus:

How would it "come to your knowledge" that you--specifically, YOU--"got a visitor sick or ultimately killed"?

You--not that person's immediate family, close friends, co-workers, drinking buddy, some random restaurant customer, fellow churchgoers, fellow students, random passerby in a public park, your friends' kids, your kids' friends, whoever?

You are making decisions based on something that can't actually be ever confirmed, if indeed it ever happens.

By this degree of thinking, I'd better never drive a car down to work, the store, the post office, or the rail museum, because something could happen beyond my control, and my car could hit and kill or maim someone. I'd be extremely upset--even if the person deliberately ran out in front of my car to commit suicide. "Wouldn't you?"


Ultimately, an entire generation of scientists, economists, and the like are going to have their work cut out for them for decades analyzing how much of this current pandemic's impacts were medical and how many of them were sociologically, politically, psychologically, and/or psychiatrically induced.

This just in:

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... h-sept-13/

It's too bad as adults we can't make informed choices about our actions. I think if you don't want to wear a mask then don't, if you want to sure whatever, I don't care not my life. I gave a friend who works at a chemical plant, with silicates, he doesn't wear a mask, and will likely due earlier of silicosis, which he knows but made an informed choice that he would rather no wear a respirator. I spent years on a class 1 with every piece of safety equipment at your disposal and bosses encouraging you to take some home and use it on the weekends, some did, others did not.

I for one am tired of this tyrannical overstep by the world's governments. The country I live in mandates it outside constantly unless you're exercising, but a stroll with your wife and kid away from anybody else doesnt count, this country also thought that forcing kids to stay inside for 52 days straight was a good idea.

I digress, we need less overstepping tyranny and more informed choice decisions.

The assumption that all people are capable of being well informed and weeding out real information from the barrage of alternative facts and making rational unemotional decisions in the best interest of themselves, society in general and civilization in the long term can be proven wrong just by reading this thread.