It really is annoying/dumb being told to wear a mask after getting vaccinated, but I think you may be picking the wrong nit here by focusing on a tweet from John Legend.
If that’s what he meant, he wouldn’t need to mention unmasked. Unvaccinated or (unvaccinated and unmasked) is logically the same as unvaccinated. I would interpret it the same as @Astrodome. He is urging people not to attend indoor large gatherings if they are unvaccinated or unmasked or both. That is sound advice, and I’m not sure why we should be criticizing him for giving it. Reasonable people should understand that there are cases where it would be more OK due to much reduced risk — e.g. it’s a very large indoor space with good ventilation and you know everyone is vaccinated and hopefully also tested. Given what we know of the risk for asymptomatic spread, it probably would have been a good idea to require guests to take a quick 15 minute self-test before entry and reject anyone that tests positive. It wouldn’t have been difficult for them to arrange that.
Why dumb, though? If you are vaccinated and you got back a positive COVID test even though you have no symptoms — I assume you would agree that you shouldn’t go out in public unmasked?
It's not really sound advice to tell vaccinated people to wear masks, but it becomes necessary when we can't verify people's vaccination status or conduct on-site testing (like you suggested). I'm not sure whether he's speaking to the former idea (you should mask as a vaccinated person for no good reason) or the latter idea (we can't prove who is/is not vaccinated so everyone needs to mask up).
The chances of getting (let alone transmitting) covid after being vaccinated are not large enough to warrant mask wearing. Of course you shouldn't be doing anything if you test positive, but that's not really the question here. Some don't seem to understand this, but it undermines the vaccination effort to tell people to mask up even if they've been innoculated. Less people are going to bother getting the shot if there's no tangible benefit to actually getting it (i.e. having to take the same precautions you did prior to getting vaccinated). That being said, the circumstances I spoke to before are still in play and so it becomes necessary to tell everyone to wear a mask because we can't verify their vax status. We're being kneecapped by the holdouts, and it's frustrating.
I understand the concern about it undermining the vaccination effort, but I look at that as a separate matter. As for chances of transmitting COVID, I think with Delta we just don’t know enough at this point. That lack of definitive data is frustrating. At least I haven’t seen anything clear in Delta transmission rates for the vaccinated. There is a fair amount of evidence that vaccinated people with breakthrough infections can spread it due to similar viral load as for those who are unvaccinated. And we also know asymptomatic people are a major driver of spread as well.
There is no evidence to suggest that the Delta variant is vaccine resistant. There is evidence to suggest it isn't in that vaccination rates and rate of spread by region are holding steady in their negative correlation throughout... pretty much the whole world. "Breakthrough" infections are exceedingly rare, and "breakthrough transmissions" are even more rare. We'll have to wait and see on Lamba (there's like one preliminary study out of Chile that suggests Lamba is vaccine resistant, but it's really early in that ballgame), but until then, there's no good reason, other than the one I already posited, a vaccinated person should be masking.
I hope you are right, and that would certainly make the case for vaccinating much stronger which I support. I’m not as confident as you on how rare breakthrough infections and transmissions are. It doesn’t seem to me that we have strong data to really track this. Maybe I missed it.
Nope. He followed guidelines, reduced the scale of the event and all there were vaccinated. If the rest of the nation had been that careful, we wouldn't be in situation we are now.
I am of like mind. I'm not too enthused to wear a mask just because unvaccinated people can't tell which other people are also unvaccinated. My only reservation though is that I have some kids too young to be vaccinated and I don't know how great is the risk that I act as a carrier to get them sick. I also have parents at an age where vaccines are less effective. So I'm still held hostage for a little while. As for Obama and John Legend, I haven't cared enough to read an article. They are both pretty irrelevant to my pandemic experience. But to return to an earlier point, @Astrodome is right that an outdoor tent with doors is an indoor space as far as Covid is concerned. Yeah you can put some AC in there that will draw outside air with filtration -- just like you can do with any building.
Has Obama said anything publicly about mask mandates? If he hasn't called for them, then I fail to see the hypocrisy.
There are also a not insignificant number of vaccinated people who got the J&J vaccine, which is apparently much less effective than the mRNA vaccines at preventing hospitalization. They aren't as vulnerable as the unvaccinated, but they can still be impacted.
Y'all will do anything to make excuses for your boy Obama, even when it's right in your face and undeniable. These are the same folks who call Trumpers brainwashed. The point is this....at this point, everyone can STFU about Covid related mandates, restrictions, guidelines, and vaccines. People will do what they want, how they want, from the political elite to the common man. The folks that try to lead the crusade on what should be done are wasting their time. Live and let live.
Kids are a big sticking point. We know that COVID is far, far less harmful to kids, but it would be good to know how well/poorly they act as vectors of transmission. IMO schools should be open now that teachers can (should) be vaccinated and, until we know more, kids (and teachers if they want to set a good example) should be masking. The state stepping in and stopping municipalities from deciding this on their own is really out of line.
Guidelines are exactly that -- guidelines. People should use their brains to assess the risks their actions pose to themselves and their community. Be reasonable and don't hang out in densely crowded indoor places where risk of spread is very high, particularly while unvaccinated or unmasked. That's a good general rule for people to follow. If you know the risk will be very low because the people are all vaccinated or tested and other measures that have been instituted, then it's less of an issue.
I get that when you're the President you wear every-single-totem related to your party around your neck, but really, if you have evidence of Obama's hypocrisy, you need to post it.
Did he not endorse Biden for Prez? He stands by him and his policies until and unless he openly says he opposes mandates. You don't get to just stick your toe in.
