Delta is more contagious than chicken pox, so masks only go so far.
Were the folks testing positive sick? I’m not going to get tested if I get cold symptoms (delta symptoms) unless I’m going to see a really high risk person and/or am feeling unwell.
And if I’m feeling unwell, probably won’t see the high risk people.
Covid is here forever, so there is always a risk of testing positive while traveling or going to events.
“I’m still going to be thoughtful and careful,” Bob Wachter said, but “if I’m not going to do it now, I’m probably saying that I’m not going to do it for the next couple of years, and I might be saying I’m not doing it forever. I hate to say that, but it’s possible that this is it."
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/COVID-new-normal-risks-16557732.php
This is behind a paywall. Can you summarize for us? Thanks.
His tweet about what he will do now is here:
https://twitter.com/bob_wachter/status/1450880584281051137
The article notes that last week “He hosted a 300-person medical conference in downtown San Francisco, with people traveling in from different places”. And continues:
“Eradication, meaning complete elimination of this virus from the world, is not going to happen,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, a UC Berkeley infectious disease expert. “We’re going to be living with COVID.”
While that might still necessitate changes in our behavior, he added, he’s optimistic — “we’ll adapt to it, we’ll live with it, and life is going to be fun again.”
Well we shall see. We are supposed to go to SF for a med conference in 5/2022, that normally pre-Covid would draw up to 18,000 mds/PhDs from all over the world & their families. They canceled for 2020/2021. Will see what happens for 2022. Their similar org of chest MDs had a hybrid conference in Orlando this past week. No idea what attendance was like—probably much lower than usual.
Paywall
We traveled to CA for a wedding. D and I went there directly. H went to a conference and then came to the wedding. S went to a music festival before the wedding. It’s been a week since we all got back and so far, so good. Given all the travel, the wedding festivities themselves (no masks, all folks vaccinated), I was very nervous.
Folks wore masks on the flights/airports. Kid sitting next to me on one flight had his mask around his chin and kept falling over me sleeping. I woke him up and asked him to put his mask on correctly. I stayed away from food and drink the whole flight and kept my mask on!
Want to make some plans for the holidays…we’ll see.
On our last day in Costa Rica. Tested negative yesterday for the return home and I’ll feel good on the plane knowing all have tested. Masks are required indoors and strongly recommended (but not enforced) outdoors. We stayed in a small resort so there was minimal contact with others.
Loved CR. How was the weather? Did it still shower every day?
All of the airlines are changing and cutting flights arbitrarily. I was scheduled to fly from Newark to London and they then informed me that the flight had been switched to a JFK to London flight. AA just cut 1000 flights over the weekend. Southwest also had a big cancellation. In my limited experience in the Covid era, they will try to reschedule if you call.
Some places are better than others. In Sicily, they were not great on vaccines but have really turned it around. Lots of outside eating and indoors they check for a vax passport (the Green Passport). With a doctor who is very cognizant about managing risks, he was happy eating inside in that setting (very small restaurants with only vaccinated folks.) Portugal has a 97.8% vaccination rate.
In contrast, we usually go to an even in South Carolina that pre-Pandemic had about 1000 attendees. It had big, big halls with indoor dining. They cancelled it last December but this time they are running it. We will skip it. Can’t be certain everyone will be vaxxed, that all who say they are vaxxed actually are vaxxed. Also, we think our biggest risk is from eating in big rooms indoors with people who have flown in from all over the country. We aren’t attending a wedding that will have have folks flying in from all over and will have indoor receptions.
Friends from Israel just spent a month in Italy, mostly in the north. They had a fabulous time. The PCR test they needed to go home cost more than the RyanAir ticket to fly home.
Fortunately, the US seems to be allowing antigen tests as well as PCR tests.
Yes, US does allow antigen tests. An antigen test takes 30 min sample to “fit to travel” letter at Heathrow and costs about $45. Ask me how I know… 
I just came back from Italy. Not going to lie, I had a great time. I had to do a rapid test before I left and came back. My test for going there was free and test at Italy was 15 euro. I just got tested again because I am going to see my granddaughter today for Halloween. Some people on our tour used airline testing recommendation and paid $150/person.
I had my booster shot before I left, so I wasn’t that concerned. We had to wear mask indoor and they checked our vax cards.
Glad you had a great time–my friends did too. They paid the 15 euro which is around what RyanAir charged for Tel Aviv to Rome! And they got a rapid test upon arrival in Tel Aviv.
There was heavy rain when we first arrived and rained for about an hour only twice during our stay. Great for us but the ziplining guides said it’d been a really dry rainy season. Not good for them, unfortunately. We are definitely returning!
Yes, we choose the antigen test for our return from Costa Rica.
We just returned from two weeks in Florida. Our flights on Delta were all on time or even early. Disney World was very strict about mask wearing and I saw NO protests.
I really want to go to Europe next year, sigh.
You’ve probably all seen the news reports about American Airlines weekend meltdown with 2,000 flights cancelled. We got caught up in that. We just returned from an 11 day trip (which was supposed to be 10 days) to NYC, then Hyde Park/Poughkeepsie and ending in Albany. We were supposed to fly ALB-PHL-PHX on Saturday on American, but when we got to PHL and rushed to the gate for our connecting flight (on the opposite end of the airport, naturally), we saw the display at the gate switch from “Boarding in 3 mins” to “CANCELLED.” GRRR! This happened to us with American back in September, when we were at the gate ready to board and our flight was abruptly cancelled. That time we were able to just go home and come back later, but this time we were stuck at the Philly airport overnight.
We got a room at the Airport Marriott for $200 but we didn’t have our checked luggage and hadn’t thought ahead to have a change of clothes in our carryons. At least we had our toothbrushes and medications! We got onto a noon nonstop flight on Sunday. Meanwhile, our AA app on our phones notified us that our luggage had arrived in PHX early, and we should go to the AA baggage claim office in PHX. In both the PHL and PHX airports, there were huuuuge lines at the AA customer service desks. We were able to do our rebooking on our phones, but when we showed up in PHX at the baggage claim office, there was an hour long line to retrieve our luggage.
I’d like to swear off American Airlines, but PHX is an AA hub and usually gives us the best options so I’ll probably keep repeating this like Charlie Brown and the football. DH is going to submit our hotel and meal receipts to our Amex credit card trip interruption insurance and see if he can get any reimbursement.