You can get a dozen people in Zoom a lot quicker and easier for a "face to face" than trying to arrange a meeting in a conference room.
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Apple Delays Plans for Return to Office Three Days a Week, Masks Required in Common Areas Amid Rising COVID Cases
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You can get a dozen people in Zoom a lot quicker and easier for a "face to face" than trying to arrange a meeting in a conference room.
While I agree, there a lot of people in tech that work with next gen hardware. That is something that cannot be done 100% from home.
No one is saying everyone has to WFH. Some can't. But there are many that can.
How are COVID cases still going up? So many people have natural immunity. Is this really an issue, still? Perhaps it’s the vaccinated whose immune system was wiped out by the shot.
At any rate, here in Indiana any of that COVID fear would seem highly misplaced.
At any rate, here in Indiana any of that COVID fear would seem highly misplaced.
Because there is now - arguably, of course - a better way of doing things. Depending on the nature of their jobs, some people can be more productive at home. And the cost (not to mention carbon emissions) of commuting is significantly reduced - something Apple would surely be in favour of.
The irony that Apple makes billions producing the very technologies that allow people to work remotely cannot be lost on them. ;-)
There is no such thing as "natural immunity."
Not necessarily. Though people not getting a booster (or a vaccine at all, for that matter) doesn’t help , remember that the vaccine doesn’t provide full immunity to the virus. One can still get infected by sars-cov-2 even after gettlng 2, 3 or 4 doses of the vaccine, only the symptoms will be milder than otherwise. One can even get infected again after having already had Covid. There is no full immunity. That’s what people don’t get and why cases increase every time people start relaxing the safety measures. Add to that the appearance of new variants such as omicron and it gets even worse.
Like those testing Apple’s coming iphones, ipads and apple watches. They can’t be tested outside Apple’s premises because that could compromise Apple’s secrecy on the hardware to be released later this year.
I don’t work at Apple corporate, so I don’t know much about conditions for people that work there. I also know you can’t compare AirBnb to Apple. They have physical projects, and software that requires lots of secrecy around it. I understand working from home is a flexibility that people enjoy, but it’s new and it’s a system Apple hasn’t prepared for. I think people need to be more realistic. I don’t think they’d spend billions on a building, and after a few years decide “ok, just stay home”.
Almost all immunity is natural immunity. Vaccines prime your system to produce its own immune response. Similarly, exposure to a virus causes your system to develop its own immune response. However, then you have to hope your immune system can develop that response sooner than the virus can replicate, spread, and overwhelm systems.
Because there isn’t full immunity. One can still get Covid even after several doses of the vaccine or get it again after having already had it. Add to that the existence of variants and people who won’t vaccinate or don’t care to get a booster and you get the picture of why cases increase again when the safety measures are relaxed.
The virus mutates constantly and is really interested in its host remaining alive for as long as possible, so Omicron and other sub-variants are very contagious but far less lethal than Delta, for example. Vaccines will be playing an eternal catchup with these viral mutations, as it has been for ages with common seasonal flu.
But there’s no full immunity to covid, you can still get it even after being vaccinated or after you had it and recovered. Unlike with other diseases such as polio or measles, with covid there is no 100% immunity as in being sure there’s no possible way to get it once you got vaccinated or already had the disease. That’s what people don’t seem to understand.
this feels like fantasy land for me. I went back to work full-time august of 2020. welcome to reality 
I work for a major production studio and my department has been editing blockbuster movies from home for the past two years now, we just remote into our office computers using Teradici. Apple could certainly figure out a way.
Is this supposed to appease the whiners who work there? 2 days a week is plenty of time to transmit COVID. Another day makes no difference.
The problem is that masks are not primarily for individual personal protection but rather for "source control"—i.e., keeping droplets from an asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic carrier from infecting others. I think effective non-invasive forms of testing would be a big help in controlling the disease, since carriers could be identified and isolated more quickly. It may even be that simply requiring mask use by carriers would be enough (perhaps even without extended self-isolation). In asian countries mask wearing by people with colds and flus has been common practice for as long as I can remember.
Unless your company is building and fabbing prototypes using new hardware chip and circuit designs created with custom software development tools it is not the same.
So since your company dragged you back to the office at the first possible chance, every other company should be just as awful as yours? Your company has directly told you they don't actually care about you or your health. If you like commuting to work, more power to you. But I'm glad I have the choice to choose whether to be in the office or to work remotely. I'd take that flexibility over anything else.this feels like fantasy land for me. I went back to work full-time august of 2020. welcome to reality
Yeah. It's just a casedemic at this point. Nobody is in danger.
I’m going to bet anything you can wear a mask for more than 30 minutes.
yeah… i don’t understand this. covid isn’t going away. can’t delay or make excuses forever
This is not really news, just another aspect of Mark Gruman using anything about Apple to get increased views. The opinion rendered below in the news is from 6 days ago.
Santa Clara county has seen a slightly higher up tick then rest of California against testing positive for the new variants.
Dr. Sara Cody's message: Keep your mask handy, wear indoors in crowded spaces as virus once again surges
With the novel coronavirus once again on the rise, Santa Clara County's top health official, Dr. Sara Cody, shares a message to keep your mask handy and to wear it indoors, especially in crowded indoor spaces. She adds that we need to take more precautions than we did a month ago.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - With the novel coronavirus once again on the rise, Santa Clara County's top health official, Dr. Sara Cody, shares a message to keep your mask handy and to wear it indoors, especially in crowded indoor spaces. She adds that we need to take more precautions than we did a month ago.
"All metrics that we follow are pretty much ticking up," Cody said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference with her latest update. "What we're seeing now is similar to what we were seeing in mid-February and it's more than what we were seeing at the height of the Delta surge."
The county that Apple has its largest campuses is suggesting caution instead of people assuming it’s all over. Apple is only trying to be as cautious as before using the Santa Clara county’s Covid 19 metrics to judge when it’s safe to bring employees back to work.