[rconti]

Wait, are you saying Europeans are surprised talking about it is still a thing, because everyone wears them? Or because nobody wears them?

Just got back from Germany yesterday, and while masks are required on most public transport (but not airplanes), you'll see a decent amount of compliance (50%?) but not anywhere else indoors.

Minimal masking in public spaces on public transport, stores, airplanes, etc in my experience in Germany/France/UK. There's absolutely more masking going on here in the Bay Area.

[amilios]

Unfortunately I'm quite sure it's the latter. Even in Canada, in MTL where I live, on public transit it's maybe 5-6% that is masking. For most people the pandemic is simply "over", regardless of what the data says or how overwhelmed hospitals are.

[TurkishPoptart]

To be clear, hospitals being "overwhelmed", i.e. their capacity, is a function related to personnel. When our state (WA) fired thousands of healthcare workers for not getting an experimental vaccine that few of them needed (natural immunity is a thing, as much as Big Pharma would like to suppress it), our capacity decreased because we lost nurses. It doesn't necessarily mean that _no beds are available_.

[anon_coward_ghk]

I am a medical resident working in WA state, just spent a month in the ICU, can confirm the shortages are primarily nurse based, not bed based.

Also note that while I saw several influenza cases in the icu, I didn't see any covid.

[fnordpiglet]

Btw masks work for influenza too! I plan to keep wearing masks during viral outbreaks. Why not? Beats the hell out of being sick.

[anon_coward_ghk]

I myself don't mind wearing a mask, but in general I don't believe we should force others to do so in most circumstances.

[fnordpiglet]

Im fine with that being a public health decision. Given how rarely mask mandates have been used it seems like public health officials prioritize choice except for extreme situations. That’s fair to my mind. At least in the US the Supreme Court has found public health can trump individual liberties up to a point, and that point is usually forced medical intervention. So they can’t force you to vaccinate. But they can levy fines or quarantine you by force if you refuse. This was decided several times but the key case was one where Boston was inoculating people against smallpox. Someone refused because they had already been inoculated and had had a bad reaction. They wanted to force it on him so he sued and it went to the Supreme Court. Instead he was fined for not inoculating. Interestingly compared to the covid vaccine, which had a whole kerfuffle, the smallpox inoculation was actually a pretty unsafe thing. The micromorts for the covid vaccines are extraordinarily low.