Love seeing numbers backing this stuff up. Good post!

Post-COVID thread soon?
I wanna know if there are plans to extend the viral knowledge into other areas in technology and other fields. Was this like the creation of the internet or the pet rock?

There's definitely a major disconnect at the policy level and the population level at this point, that much is for sure.

From my night time bike rides around the city this weekend I could see plenty of obvious house parties (both indoors and out); while the parks were packed with revellers until the early hours of the morning. I hosted a small backyard party on Saturday night with several of my neighbours doing the same. Went to the islands the next day and it was similarly busy with parties large & small. Aside from masks being required on the ferries it was indistinguishable from 2019.

Life feels like it's back to normal in many ways - except with all the stores shut. People, to their credit, are just working around the restrictions where possible though. Neighbourhoods like Kensington and the Ossington strip are filled with people buying takeout food and to-go cocktails and just enjoying them on the street. Which begs the question - why not just open the patios? It's basically the same thing.

Yeah, that's weird. We know that the virus doesn't spread well outdoors, and have known that for a year. Moving everything outdoors last spring is how much of the northern U.S. kept transmission rates so low.

Allowing bars and restaurants to re-open for outdoor dining and alcohol service was part of New York's phase two. AFAIK, no part of the state has ever reverted below phase 2 since June of last year when NYC moved into it.

Ontario (legislators) are still living in April 2020, it seems.

Farewell to this thread
 

As a regular participant of this thread, I wanted to say goodbye

Other than wearing fabric on my face when going to my job and many other places (as well as a pesky eviction moratorium which will finally end this August), the effect COVID has had on my life is really minimal at this point.

I've eaten out, I'm planning a flight this summer, I've sat at a bar and drank a pint, and my local grocer doesn't require masks for the vaccinated.

Science and vaccination have saved us, although I realize that many less scientifically literate people who've mostly stayed home for the past year are still scared and uneasy about things.

But since this pandemic is really not affecting me any more, I'm going back to living my life--the short time that I have on this Earth will no longer be impacted by this virus.

Toodles, folks!

I went to a popular bar in Brooklyn yesterday afternoon/evening and it looked like 2019. Since the state dropped its mask mandate, this particular bar doesn't require masks for "vaccinated" patrons anymore. Almost none of the staff was wearing a face mask, none of the patrons inside were masked, and it was pretty crowded (inside and out).

Sounds great. As it should be.

nyc is giving away 3 day governors ball passes and gym memberships via a lotto for new vaxxers. thats a fun idea and will rope some in.

the vaccine efficacy debate has been moved to the covid thread in CE, where it belongs.

this thread is about how the pandemic is impacting life your city.

I'm required to keep 6 feet away from others as part of (unenforceable, but I'm a stickler for rules) pre-travel self-quarantine, so I've been going out on walks in the evening (too crowded during the day). The riverwalk was hopping even past 10 pm on Monday night...

24 hours bars are back in New Orleans starting on Friday and second line parades are allowed to happen again. New Orleans is fully open for business again.

https://www.nola.com/news/coronaviru...ca0f5bcf3.html

It should be a huge weekend coming up for the Delaware beach towns. The beach economy couldn't withstand another closed summer.

Just about all restrictions were lifted in Delaware last week. It's effectively like 2019 again.

Sounds like Australia has a lockdown again. So even their totalitarian approach hasn’t worked as well as America’s more laissez-faire one. Singapore is another example that should caution the “Covid zero” crowd.

Australia still only has 13% of it's population with a covid vaccine. It's very exposed still.

I don't think you can say Australia has done worse than the US - that's absurd. The whole country has only 910 deaths from COVID so far, that's equivalent to the US having around 12,000 deaths. That's about 2% of the US per capita death rate. It's not even close to comparable.

Australia has also enjoyed a relatively normal year with minimal localized lockdowns, and extremely low cases for the vast majority of the year.

Saying Australia has done worse than the US is so hilariously wrong I honestly don't know what to say. It has done better in literally every metric - level of restrictions, length of lockdowns, covid cases, deaths, etc.

The only metric it has done worse in is the speed of vaccinations, which has allowed the US to safely open now while Australia still needs to roll out public health measures to keep things controlled until they can get more shots in arms.

Yesterday, my partner and I went to one of our regular restaurants we go to, and the guy who is usually our waiter, as soon as he came to our table, told us we could take our masks off. It's been our routine that we come in wearing our masks, get seated, and then don't take off our masks until after we order and are given our drinks. But our waiter said "You guys can take your masks off, you're good. Probably in a few weeks none of us will be wearing our masks anymore." The proprietors even came and talked to us a few minutes later (we're on a first-name basis we go there so regularly) and said that they and all the staff are fully vaccinated, and we said that we are too, and that they'll be anticipating more people being able to be seated indoors as well as outdoors.

There definitely is that "light at the end of the tunnel" feeling around here.

Exactly. Australia has actually had relatively few restrictions compared to just about everywhere in western Europe, the U.S., and Canada.

yeah the difference is that their restrictions weren't half assed, so they actually accomplished more than the bare minimum.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-1...e_below_a_pos1

But it’s only killing old people and fat people so who cares.

glad to see people are getting fired for not getting vaccinated:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coron...~1~4~art%20yes