As several of you know, I travel the country extensively for the work that I do. ATL-BOS flights yesterday and both airports Logan and Hartsfield-Jackson I'd estimate about 10% wearing masks. The nice thing is, nobody seems to pay it any attention. So if you're comfortable wearing a mask, by all means do it. Personally, I stopped as soon as mandates were dropped.

Fairly similar to the attitude on NY transit nowadays. Most people don't wear masks anymore, and nobody cares if you do or don't.

About damned time.

Cayman Islands dropped all Covid entry requirements. Unvaccinated can go without a negative test, for instance. It's 2019 entries down there.

It will be nice when the US and Canada drop all vaccine and/or testing requirements for entry. Now that we know that the vaccine has waning efficacy, why can I go to Canada now because I was vaccinated in April 2021, but someone not vaccinated can get in at the same time? What would the difference be between being vaccinated in April 2021 and not being vaccinated if someone wants to go to Canada in July 2023? Why do I need a negative test to (re-)enter the United States by a plane, but don't need any test to (re-)enter the US when driving over the border?

São Paulo dropped today masks requirement on public transportation; starting tomorrow

Only in hospitals and health centres they will be still required.

Last month, the federal government dropped the requirements for flights.

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The 7-day average deaths stand at 245 in the US and 94 in Brazil. Both countries in a downward curve and both are very good on tracking Covid deaths: excessive deaths matched perfectly with the announced Covid deaths.

At this level, Covid doesn't impact death rates in Brazil anymore. In the US, they still do.

Covid is basically a thing of the past in Portland but the wfh pajama revolution is picking up steam. Big ticket foreclosures are on the horizon also. Downtowns flagship Hilton is being foreclosed on and put up for auction. Wowzers! Honestly most of downtown looks pretty good but the businessy part of the core is doing pretty bad and hotel bookings are in the crapper. We have the third lowest office attendance record in the country. :(

Liberal west coast politics and mandates during the pandemic absolutely decimated our downtowns and business centers. SF, LA, PDX, and Seattle seem to be doing horribly in their downtowns collectively, we're not even close to seeing pre-pandemic office commuters. There's just no way it's untrue. I wouldn't be surprised if the downtowns in major cities of the South or more conservative states are doing better...I would imagine WFH is less encouraged in these places and therefore more white collar folks are giving life to their city centers.

Some phone company is measuring CBD pings to represent pedestrian activity. Portland. SF and CLEVELAND are the bottom 3. Thats amazing. :( salt Lake City is the go getter. 155% cbd activity. Even more people than pre covid. Jeez. I don't want to be mormon.

That's odd. Downtown São Paulo is booming more than ever. New residential towers popping up everywhere, new restaurants, bars, nightclubs opening almost at daily basis. The energy is amazing.

The downside is, homelessness, that increased a lot. Criminal activity as well.

Seems to be the exact same case with Austin. Downtown San Antonio is booming as well but nowhere near the homeless problem of Austin.

Interesting that places like Texas/Florida/Nashville/Charlotte/Phoenix are booming right now, while the west coast and parts of the north east *seem* to not be doing so hot. Big policy failure in a lot of states/cities.

Anyone on here know how Orange County/San Diego area have fared throughout this?

It's still wild to me that places are just now dropping mandates... Texas hasn't had anything in over a year and a half LOL.

Where in the US still has mandates? Even "terrible" Canada hasn't any any COVID restrictions since the early spring, minus some ridiculous border crossing rules which are wildly unpopular. The only place I still have to wear a mask is in Hospitals, which honestly sort of makes sense even if COVID weren't a thing. I've heard wayyyy to many stories of people picking up new health issues from hospitals..

The only outstanding COVID issue is WFH and it's impacts, but that's employment market related and not government policy.

Yes, and even though Brazilian Federal government is this nightmare, all states and municipalities followed very strict protocols since the very beginning.

Still, urban life is thriving everywhere, people are traveling like crazy. It's hard to compare because it's been so long ago, but my feeling is things are busier today than back in 2019.

Anyway, today I took transit for the first time without a mask. As mask mandates on other public spaces were gone at some point in 2021, having to use them only in the transit was a nuisance. But people adhered completely. And even today almost everybody was using it. Probably the news haven't reached them.

Portland is the introvert capital of America. We will be the last to go back to the office. If ever. Also in America, covid reactions fell strongly along political lines. The further right of center, the less ppl gave a fck. And the exact inverse. Thats why red/swing state cities are doing better than blue, blue ones.

CalOSHA (California) still has mask requirements for employers with over a certain amount of cases which means most big companies will continue to have them.

God, this is very bad.

Will be good for folks to return to the office. Will add some more vibrancy to the daytime populations for certain cores. Plus, will help to justify further office construction.

People also forget the impact on local businesses. Less folks in "X" CBD or core and your businesses, especially local, suffer.

the only times i have to mask now is when i'm interacting with any part of the healthcare world - hospitals, doctors office, dentists office, etc.

my sister is a nurse in the chicago burbs and she recently told me that she thinks full-time masking for everyone in the healthcare world might be here forever, a true "new normal".


oh, and we went to a play at a small theater company recently and they were still requiring masks and vigorously checking vax cards and all of that nonsense, which thankfully seemed very anachronistically odd to me now. i was like "really? we're still going to go through this meaningless charade? ok......"

In a way for healthcare workers, masks on a permanent basis might not be a bad idea, considering there are more pathogens than Covid floating around. But for the rest of the masses, as its been since the invention of masks, optional. With respect to Covid, its so contagious that there is no way around it. Part of the background noise of life at this point.

But I don't think in general it will manifest to masks on a permanent basis for healthcare workers, and more a function of "X" hospital or facilities internal policies. While mandates or requirements may go away in time, up to the employer in the end as now it will be a matter of their rules and internal regulations.

Well I work in a hospital and a very good percentage of doctors and other healthcare workers just keep it on their chin. It's pulled up for show when at meetings or entering a patient room. Sometimes even in a patient room it is taken down to communicate with elderly patients that are hard of hearing, they need to see your mouth due to lip reading.
Of course in the cafeteria no one wears masks.

Masks will be around for a long time I suspect. But actually wearing them as they are intended, in very many cases, no longer exists.

I also can't think of a co worker that has not already had Covid over all of these years. People that work in a hospital have good immune systems. It's pretty rare anyone calls in sick, except for Covid. And quarantining for Covid is down to 5 days and workers often come back coughing like a chimney for up to 3-5 more days after but are still allowed to work in any area of the hospital.

The Fall and Winter is usually the lynching hour with the Covid, so we shall see with the rise of the BA.4.6 variant. Also the question of the new boosters.

A lot in the pipeline. A universal Covid AND flu vaccine is in the works and I believe in human trials. That could be big stuff if it pans out well.