Right, the change in attitude since the 4th has given me whiplash. I can't overstate my mom's at-risk status (pulmonary condition), and yet she hosted a small indoor gathering on the 4th after a year and a half of doing literally nothing. We even had a few unvaxxed folks there, and we all felt pretty good about it. A month later we seem to have all escaped unscathed, but how cruel would it have been if that had turned into a spreader event.
I think a lot of people feel this way. I attended a pretty modest family thing, maybe 15 people including children and my at-risk grandparents. Since everyone except the children have been vaccinated, we felt confident about the relative safety of it. But the numbers have changed, and that's an easier determination to make when breakthroughs are at about a 1 in 30 odds than it is when it drops down under 1 in 10. My main concern when the CDC dropped their mask mandate, well before we acheived our expected vaxx rate, was that if and when it would be necessary to go back to wearing masks, that would be a difficult genie to put back in the bottle. Like the lockdowns, a premature lift can be more damaging in eroding the public's trust, and surely mask-deniers
have taken advantage to either claim how this proves that masks never worked in the first place to how vaccines are a sham anyways. Basically, the CDC needs to stop being concerned about the optics because someone will always be able to distort them for their ideal narratives. But I do understand why they may have been hesitant to stress the increased possibility of delta infection if that message also increased the potential for vaccine doubt. It's a tough call, and clearly people are not making it easier.
It's been a blow to my morale, I'm afraid. For my mom's sake I've been even more vigilant than necessary at times, and I'd finally gotten to the point where I felt like I saw some light at the end of the tunnel, only to have it taken away mere weeks later. And the realization that the solution to this thing depends on my fellow man not being ignorant a--holes about literally everything doesn't leave me much hope.
Well, I don't think it's so despairing quite yet. We
are in a better place than we were last year, or even six months ago. There was even a bit of a vaccine bump since the 4th as this delta outbreak has had some effect on inspiring some of the holdouts to get vaccinated. But of course....
meanwhile---I've currently got 5 unvaccinated relatives on vacation at Disneyworld*. Two of them are obese and one suffers from asthma. They've been unmasked in every photo they've posted on FB. Have fun, I guess....?
It's a very profitable market for jackasses right now.