Alberta has lifted most restrictions.

Masking will still be required in high-risk settings including Alberta Health Services-operated and contracted facilities, all continuing care settings, and on municipal transit services.

I share your dismay, housewife. There is a a strong likelihood that we could see a new variant that causes another surge of infections. People tend to misunderstand public health info - if they ever receive it in the first place - and nuances are often misunderstood, ignored or overlooked as well.

It's very clear now there are a great many people who don't seem to know how disease can be spread.

The 1918 flu pandemic lasted around 3 years.

I went to a supermarket this morning, and I was the only one wearing a mask. The only one. The staff hasn't been masked in ages, but the store attracts an elderly clientele, most of whom have worn masks up till now. I saw some very elderly, frail looking shoppers, Not a mask among them. I guess they've been waiting for the CDC to give the okay.

On the news last night I saw that three groups of people are supposed to continue to wear masks. At the top of the list were those who are not vaccinated. Really? My guess is that the unvaccinated are the least likely to put on a mask. The other groups were the severely immuno-compromised and those who live with the first two groups.

Today I did a pickup order at Target and shopped inside the store at Aldi's and at Wegmans. The Target worker who brought out my order was masked; in Aldi's the employees were masked but I seemed to be the only customer wearing one. At Wegmans the employees and most of the customers were wearing masks. I am in Erie county Pennsylvania.

Here in my little corner of the world, masks are now optional for customers and clients in most indoor venues (except hospitals, airports and public transport); however, masks are still required for workers in supermarkets, food services, law courts, day care, etc. I just got back from the supermarket and I'd say roughly 50% of the customers and all the staff were masked. Given that vaccination levels are significantly higher here in Australia than in the US, and infection rates are much lower, I think this is a reasonable compromise. I'm still wearing a mask: it's a lesser inconvenience than getting Covid would be.

In my Aldi's last night about half were wearing masks including the staff and in the library tonight, everyone was.

We're still under a mask mandate. We don't have to show vax proof anymore though, and indoor dining is back to 100%

I just wish someone could explain to me the hardship of wearing a mask. I will happily wear one in public for the rest of time if we can avoid another pandemic.

nekotish, I agree but I also feel there are grey areas. We are about to lift our mask mandate, but I will still wear one in most public situations for a while longer.

However, I teach 6 year olds and this is the first year they have all been required to wear them all the time. I have seen a huge detrimental effect on their learning and social emotional development that can be directly attributed to mask wearing. I believe it was necessary for awhile, but now they should be prioritized to be the first to go mask free. My administration is not planning to go mask free, and I am trying to figure out a way to convince them without getting fired.

The other thing that is so important to realize is that masks do work. Unfortunately, they work so well that my students have avoided all those childhood germs and viruses that they would usually get and I worry so much about them growing up with weak immune systems.

ETA: Just want to clarify that I am in no way an anti-masker. I just believe that there are shades of grey and this is one of them.

I believe the idea that kids, et al. getting exposed to colds and flu, etc. 'strengthens' immune systems is a pseudo science fallacy.

And little kids may live with others who are vulnerable - what could possibly go wrong?

Daisy - I hear you on the little kids in school. They are in what I would consider a cohort, so a limited amount of people. My daughter is a HS teacher and says it is much harder know to read kids' expressions and emotions and apparently she often tells her class "I am smiling madly under my mask." It's a very difficult situation for all of us to be in. I beleive a lot of the Asian nations have long worn masks in public if they feel ill or have sypmtoms of sickness.

Our mayor in Edmonton didnt lift the mask requirement, but i noticed that more people are coming in to Safeway with no masks. Grocery stores are the only stores you dont have to wear a mask since its considered essential.

The story that I heard is that, catching the large, if virus-carrying, drops of liquid leaving on my expelled breath, my mask is (mainly, almost entirely) helping others near me.

But after those big drops leave and break down into smaller ones in the air, my mask does a limited job, if much at all, of catching them, including whatever viruses they may carry, as they enter my lungs.

Comments?

ole joyful

If you are wearing a mask, it will protect you from the large airborne droplets carrying the virus. So your risk is reduced substantially just from that.  It's true that very small droplets might get through, but they will be carry very small amounts of the virus so any exposure you do get will be at low levels.  If you do contact Covid it's likely to be a milder version because you have been exposed to less of the virus.  The same applies in reverse, to people you might infect.

"If you do contact Covid it's likely to be a milder version because you have been exposed to less of the virus."

Source? Viruses replicate once an infection begins, this doesn't seem correct.

Yeah, I've never heard that either Elmer....news to me. I have even heard of asymptomatic people spreading to someone that ended up dying. I think a small amount of virus is just as bad as a large amount, if you end of catching the virus.

There has been plenty of info about viral load and how it affects infection severity.

Most of us were boosted in December. The efficacy drops considerably by the fourth month, so keep that in mind when you're out and about. We aren't much more protected now than we were a year ago. Fortunately the current variant is less deadly.

"The efficacy drops considerably by the fourth month, so keep that in mind when you're out and about. We aren't much more protected now than we were a year ago."

Efficacy may wane after a period of time but the booster still provides far more protection against hospitalization or serious illness than doing without. So to say that we are really no more protected now than we were before receiving a booster - regardless of its timing - is invalid.

The continuing saga of covid misinformation!!

Alisande, I would be surprised if anyone said they watch CNN, since they've lost most of their viewership. You can't really blame us for assuming people on the left watch left-wing media. People on the left usually assume we all watch Fox, which isn't always true either.

I don't know for sure if masks work or not, but I'll keep wearing mine for now. It seems this Omicron variant is going to infect most people anyway, regardless of what precautions we take. In the beginning they were saying we needed "herd immunity", and it seems like we should be getting close to achieving it.

I had a customer come to the cash register yesterday NO mask on, plunk down a bunch of cough/cold medication stand BESIDE the shield that is supposed to separate the customer from the cashier (the company I work for put up the most useless shields ever!) then looked directly at me and and said, "the cold has gone through my house!" I had nowhere to back up. Yes, I had my mask on but: masks are not 100% especially when one of the two people refuse to wear one. And you're only 3' apart because I CAN'T BACK UP ANYMORE. Now, how do I know it's "just a cold"? I don't. This is why I feel it's important for people to continue wearing them. They've done this in Asian countries for years: wear a mask if they feel they're ill out of COURSTESY!. Out of RESPECT for fellow citizens. Why do we in North America feel our "rights" are being infringed upon with the simple task of asking people to wear a mask to protect others from getting sick? Yesterday was seniors day too! Lots of elderly people in the store. Do I LIKE wearing a mask: no, I do not. I just do it because it feels like the right thing to do. My store owner asked me if anyone has bothered me about it as a few cashiers have been asked why they're still wearing theirs. I said if anyone asks me I'll say, "you didn't need to ask that question but you did anyway" or "you have pants on and you don't have to" or "your opinion wasn't asked for". I need to come up with more witty things to say. I said my resting b*tch face must be really bad because so far nobody has asked me. But I do see it in the maskless faces as they walk towards me. ;)

FWIW, my answer is usually a pleasant, "Because I don't want to get sick - or spread it either!" 😃

And of course there are plenty of people who do respect and care about their fellow humans. The minority playing this risky game of mask & vax disdain have been, and are being, encouraged not to care, IMO - along with being told they're somehow being dissed and wronged.