Thoughts:
Florida sure is doing good even though they are a bunch of neanderthals
Anyways, ate out at a Chicago suburban restaurant a few days ago and no wait staff were wearing mask. I was also in downtstate Illinois a month ago and mask-wearing was very optional.
After the freezing conditions of today, I will no longer laugh at people wearing masks outdoors. One of the best things to come from Covid rules, masks outside in the winter! Love it.
Also, took the L and Metra to go to work about 2 weeks ago. First, it was super nice and I was super lucky to not have to wait for either train. Pure luck, I know, but still. The L train was quite packed and I loved it. I felt like I was in a major city and didn't feel weird like I had in the start of the pandemic riding the train (barely anyone riding, so it was creepy).
So its looking good for Chicago, we'll just see how long they think their mitigation strategies work. Chicago is supposed to end mask mandates if cases go down to 200 or less per day for a week. We aren't anywhere close to that so masks will probably stay around for another year.
By the way, Illinois is in "Phase 5", has anyone in the media asked the governor "when do we leave phases completely?" Or is this just a neverending cycle of governors being allowed to do whatever they want, forever?