Mandates

Now that schools are starting or about to start, there's a lot of debates at the local level about whether to mandate masks in schools. The anti-mask faction is very vocal (and aggressive), but surveys have shown most people favor requiring masks - even in conservative areas.

In our state, the governor has said he's going to leave the decision to school districts. In our neighboring state, the governor has made a blanket mask requirement for all public schools. My own local district famously just voted unanimously to require school staff to be vaccinated. (Not sure what the alternative is - wear masks? Get tested?)

My own employer also announced last week that all employees would need to have documentation of their vaccination on file, or else be tested twice weekly. Which is a better option than some employers, which are requiring vaccination or you're fired. Also, the testing is done at our employer's expense and should be relatively convenient. But it will be required for everyone, whether they're working on-site, remotely, at home, in the field, etc. For simplicity's sake, it's a blanket requirement for all employees.

An old friend of mine just announced that they have COVID, even though they were vaccinated and wore masks indoors. Now they're isolating in their bedroom while their spouse takes care of the kids, pets, school, work, etc. for 10 days. We're hearing a lot more about vaccinated people's experience with breakthrough infections, and it's no fun even if it is a "minor" case. Also, we don't know what the long term effects of even a minor infection are. Even vaccinated people are reporting "long COVID" with lasting effects.