kmb717 said:
Davie, or anyone really, do you think we'll ever be able to fly again without masks?
I want to say of course we will. Ever is a long time. I say this with the admission that i despise our leadership. I think we're led by children who consider 4 things and 4 things only: special interests, control, power, and winning. So i won't pretend to predict what they will try to do, but I think we're witnessing what many felt would happen in regards to viral illness.
We've seen this virus morph over time to one that seems really infectious but less virulent. For all the venom spewed at them, i truly feel the vaccines offered a refuge from severe disease for so many to give time for the virus to do its thing and defang itself. As this thing becomes less virulent and the norm is mild disease, the newness will wear off, acceptance of endemicity will be the norm, hysteria will cease, and it'll be another coronavirus that isn't even tested anymore and the vaccine debates will cease because they won't be needed anymore. But i can't pretend the vaccines didn't serve their purpose to buy time and save lives and morbidity. Going forward, they may not make as much sense. Who knows? None of us know what the virus's next course of action is. But I THINK it's going to continue this less virulent course. If so, life will return to normal with a new cold virus hanging around. No masks, no vaccines, no mandates needed. But then what will we talk about here?
As I've argued before, the message all along should have been, "here's what we think, here's the little we know, here's what we can say at this moment, here's our current strategy, and always remember this will change as the virus viruses." But that's not the message we got. I hope you guys think that the (hopefully apolitical) info i was allowed to offer here based on direct observation helped in some small way in this regard.