Originally Posted by Pedestrian (Post 9277193)

The problem would have been the human consumption of wild animals and/or the confinement of different species wild animals that may not normally come into contact with each other in close proximity.

[...]

But we should probably focus on minimizing the interactions of humans with intermediary species like parasites and eating wild animals.

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 9277206)

And there would have been no demand for wild bats or whatever else exotic animals for humans to even buy and eat; my assumption is the desire to even buy and eat those things became a "status" thing, created by deregulation and the capitalism that they didn't use to have in China. Because eating bats wasn't (and still isn't) a common thing in China.

But hey, that's just my spin on it.

Originally Posted by edale (Post 9277019)

I don't think you're talking to me since I said I don't really care if people choose to wear a mask outside, but I'll chime in here. Wearing a mask outside, especially if you're vaccinated, is essentially virtue signaling. It's a sign that people have lost trust in science and official government guidance, as the CDC has said people do not need to wear them outside. That is troubling, I think. Further erosion of trust of government and facts is never a good thing.

I wear a mask 100% of the time inside, as I believe you are still required to in CA. Continuing to wear them outside, to me, feels like a hesitancy for people to allow themselves to return to some semblance of normal. I don't want to live in a world where everyone has their faces covered, and where people are afraid to even walk by each other on the sidewalk. I choose to not wear a mask outside because I am vaccinated, but when I see everyone else masked up outside, I feel like people view me suspiciously or think that I'm not taking the pandemic seriously. :shrug:

Originally Posted by iheartthed (Post 9277317)

The government didn't say that you should not wear a mask outside. They said that you don't need to. That's a huge distinction that seems to be confusing a lot of people.

Originally Posted by iheartthed (Post 9277317)

I'm fully vaccinated and I mostly wear a mask outside out of convenience. I have no problem walking around outside without a mask, and I spent plenty of time in outdoor settings last year without a mask, well before the CDC confirmed what was pretty obvious. But most of the time when I'm outside I'm in transit from one situation where I'll need to have on a mask to another where I'll need to have a mask on.

Originally Posted by iheartthed (Post 9279201)

Hopefully this is the swan song of the pandemic in America:

Originally Posted by homebucket (Post 9279246)

But what’s to prevent someone that isn’t vaccinated from entering a business and just lying that they are vaccinated? Might as well just say no masks for all regardless of vaccination status.

Originally Posted by iheartthed (Post 9279277)

I think it's aimed at bringing workers back into offices.

Originally Posted by iheartthed (Post 9279201)

Hopefully this is the swan song of the pandemic in America:

Originally Posted by homebucket (Post 9279246)

But what’s to prevent someone that isn’t vaccinated from entering a business and just lying that they are vaccinated? Might as well just say no masks for all regardless of vaccination status.

Originally Posted by Pedestrian (Post 9279296)

I don't think it means much about the pandemic one way or the other. I think what it means is that the people arguing that getting vaccinated needs to be "rewarded" more with more freedoms and a greater return to normality are winning the argument. I think the CDC has decided to encourage vaccination to the maximum extent it can by telling everyone vaccinated folks can go back to "normal" but not so much unvaccinated ones.

Originally Posted by homebucket (Post 9279304)

I would've changed it to something like:

If your county has reached herd immunity, defined as 70% first dose or greater, or 50% fully vaccinated or greater (ideally it would be 70% fully vaccinated or greater but we're not quite there yet), then masks are not required in any setting, regardless of vaccination status.

Because there's no way to enforce proof of vaccination. Might as well reward the counties that have good vaccination rates. And it'll incentive areas that have low vaccination rates, although these areas probably aren't enforcing mask mandates anyways.

Originally Posted by 10023 (Post 9279373)

The CDC has no power to allow or disallow anyone from doing anything.

Originally Posted by Camelback (Post 9279480)

The CDC is now saying fully vaccinated people don't have to wear a mask (common sense has always told us that the risk to fully vaccinated people was close to 0, similar to anybody under the age of 24). This new guidance is a U-Turn from what they said 2 weeks ago.