NCAA-W refs still in masks?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Ignats75

No booster for me. Turns out that both my wife and I carry a gene that causes our blood to clot. We have never had issues but two of our children do. My oldest son severely. The incidence of blood clotting from boosters is too high for my comfort.

Thanks for reminding us that some can't get the COVID vaccine for medical reasons. All the more reason for those of us who can get the vaccine to get it, to protect those who can't get it.

Hopefully, as more of us get the vaccine and/or more us get COVID (and natural immunity to some degree) and survive, we can reach something close to herd immunity, and knock down this infection to something similar to seasonal influenza, with annual vaccines based on the "variant of the day", some will get sick, some schools and businesses will suffer, some will die, but, hopefully, not to the extent of the last twenty months.

Until then we need to do the best we can to prevent preventable deaths. Get vaccinated if possible. Wear masks in indoor public settings. If possible, stay home from work/school if you feel ill. Test when necessary. Stay away from gigantic crowds (I skipped Christmas Eve mass). Hopefully scientists will continue to come up with better and better therapeutics/treatments.

My daughter-in-law is Chinese. People in east Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, etc.) have been masking up during cold and flu season for years (some also doing it for particulate air pollution from burning coal).

Originally Posted by Rufus

At the end of the day it'll be interesting to see how this shakes out since the virus is here to stay and this seems to be moving from pandemic to endemic (i.e., something we live with and treat instead of try to prevent).

Save for a miracle, COVID isn't going away anytime soon. This is not your great grandfather's smallpox, your grandfather's polio, or your father's measles.