Apple Stores Will Continue to Require Masks for Now

[hans1972]

How were they verifying your vaccination status previously for hepatitis B, diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, flu, polio, rotavirus, pneumococcal, Hib, chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis a, hpv, meningococcal, etc.?

With the exception of the flu, there have been very little spreading of these diseases in Apple stores and they aren't a problem in the US compared to Covid-19 for the last year.

I wouldn't be surprised that more business will implement changes to reduce the spread of the flu in the future.

 

[Belly-laughs]

At this point, considering I have not had even a stupid cold this whole year of COVID because people were actually wearing masks and washing their hands more often, I will forever wear a mask indoors in public places. Don’t know about you, but I like not being sick. I’m fine to be the weird person with the N95 at the supermarket or on an airplane and not get sick. Survival of the fittest has become survival of the smartest. Whatever…

Happy under stimulating your immune system. Your smarts may make it unfit.

 

[randomgeeza]

Just in time for the Indian variant... coming to a public space near you, Soon! Already here and spreading in the UK.

 

[verpeiler]

Happy under stimulating your immune system. Your smarts may make it unfit.

You don't know much about the immune system, do you? It doesn't work the way you think it works..
And I'm pretty sure alle the doctors and nurses around the world who wear masks practically every day are always sick, because their immune system isn't "stimulated", right?

Go away with your made up medical advices..

 

[BuffaloTF]

Can you link to support that statement? I've seen "less likely", and "reduces viral load" and "growing evidence to conclude", but I've yet to see any definitive statement that it has never happened and find it really unlikely knowing that there are breakthrough cases which are likely also transmissible.

How exactly can I provide a link to a negative statement? You'd need to provide a link that said it has happened, but you won't find one... thus proving my statement.

I want to throw something in here to consider with regards to masks too. We might want to consider them being a staple in life, at least through winter months when more of us are pushed indoors. Maybe we'll be able to eradicate this disease. But beyond that, we pretty much did that to the seasonal flu this past season. 38 million cases the year prior down to ~2000? That says something, and what it's saying has a lot of exclamation marks after it.

 

[brendu]

If you are vaccinated you can still get Covid-19 and then you can transmit it to others.

From https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html
"
What We Are Still Learning

• We are still learning how well vaccines prevent you from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19 to others, even if you do not have symptoms. Early data show that vaccines help keep people with no symptoms from spreading COVID-19.
• We are also still learning how long COVID-19 vaccines protect people.
• We are still learning how many people have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the population can be considered protected (population immunity).
• We are still learning how effective the vaccines are against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

"

Zero probability is very hard to achieve. Let's say 300 million people in the US gets the vaccine (not very likely) and there are 10 cases among those vaccinated, it would still represent a probability of 0,0000333% of getting infected.

Thanks for the info. That’s good enough for me to say vaccinated people have absolutely no reason to wear mask at all anymore. The risk simply isn’t high enough to justify it.

 

[sdz]

I guess the only problem that quite a few people have is that, with a 99,7% survival rate,

Survival is death only.
I personally can't even take a stuffed nose!
there is a grey area before death. Weeks of suffering maybe? Longterm suffering?

 

[Shanghaichica]

This upcoming Thursday I'll be fully vaccinated (will be 2 weeks after my second shot). Never really found mask wearing to be that difficult, especially if it had the chance of saving lives and not spreading Covid. What I did find interesting was the attention it brought - mostly of people laughing and being mad at me for wearing a mask. Even had a police officer (last year) "look at that idiot trying to exercise with a mask" (he said it loud enough to know I heard). lol Whatever.

Was surprised how quickly some of these companies did away with the policy after the CDC announcement - I wonder how the proof of vaccination will be provided? The slightly thicker than printer paper cardstock vaccine record card isn't going to last long. I'm told that some places refuse to laminate it for fear of destroying it. Well, is a photo of my vaccine card good enough?

Going to be interesting. I'm very happy with how Apple has treated its employees - got to talk to a few when they opened back up - employees were all paid, many took the time to take college classes, get certifications, etc (from what I was told).

I’ve been fully vaccinated for over a month. I’m in the U.K and the rules are different here. You have to still wear a mask in shops and indoor spaces regardless of vaccination status. I would still wear one even if the requirement was removed here.

 

[hans1972]

How exactly can I provide a link to a negative statement? You'd need to provide a link that said it has happened, but you won't find one... thus proving my statement.

You can't prove something will not happen by pointing out it hasn't happened yet.

But you have to me more specific in your claim.

"In a sufficiently large population, N, and m+n = N where m is the number of people having gotten fully vaccinated and n not having been fully vaccinated, no member of m (vaccinated) will get any of the current or future strain of corona-viruses and will not infect, for the rest of their life, any member (vaccinated or not) of the population N for all values of m and n?"

Is this an accurate description of your claim?

If so, I think you are incorrect.

 

[I7guy]

Highly unlikely!

What's the science behind CDC's decision to say fully vaccinated people don't need masks? | CNN

A fresh batch of data from a big study of healthcare workers across the country helped prompt the CDC to say fully vaccinated people can go without masks in most circumstances, the agency said Friday.

www.cnn.com

...After weeks of telling people that even fully vaccinated people might carry virus in their noses, mouths or throats and breathe or spit it out onto others, the CDC says the evidence shows this is unlikely.
The reason -- viral load. At least three major studies have shown that fully vaccinated people are not likely to test positive for coronavirus, which indicates they are not carrying it in their bodies, whether they have symptoms or not.

Tell this to the Yankees.

 

[moxxey]

No. The vaccination is supposed to protect you from getting the virus. That's the point.

I'm afraid, it's not the point. The vaccine offers a 'very decent' protection and you're unlikely to become ill if you do get it, but you *can* get it even vaccinated. You can then pass it on.

"While a COVID-19 vaccine will protect you from serious illness and death, we still don’t know the extent to which it keeps you from being infected and passing the virus on to others."

 

[I7guy]

One could argue that Apple and other companies never followed the science or adjust after evidence.

There is an MIT study that argued that physics distancing never worked and I believe the type of masks questionable and what would reduce risk is limiting ones time indoors and best to be outdoors to reduce infection.

One can be argue that following the science also means tempering abrupt changes with common sense.

 

[Muzzakus]

Well if Apple says masks are still needed despite CDC. I mean they are good at making phones after all.

 

[MacStreamer]

this isn’t forever the pandemic is still raging. Stop being so alarmist.

The CDC said vaccinated people don’t have to wear masks. End of discussion. Yet that’s not good enough for some of our members.

 

[Reindeer_Legal]

Vaccination works by giving your immune system a warning about the virus so your immune system can detect and fight the virus earlier and more efficiently. If you get an infection, there will be fewer viruses circulating in your body and it will be less contagious. This talk about "preventing complications but not infections" ignores the basic biological mechanisms of vaccination. Vaccination will reduce transmission.

 

[David G.]

no it's not and stop spreading misinformation.

How did hundreds of years worth of knowledge regarding vaccines dating back to Edward Jenner and his smallpox vaccine suddenly become irrelevant with this particular vaccine?

 

[MacStreamer]

What expertise does Apple have regarding COVID and vaccinations? Is it more than the CDC?

 

[Reindeer_Legal]

they don't they work by lowering complications from an infection. and most viruses don't die in you body. in fact they stay in your body and live as long as you do. take chickenpox for example. you can have the vaccine and get infected and have no symptoms, but the virus will remain in body for your whole life and the minute you body has a dip in immune system it will resurface as Shingles during which you can infect other people. just because you didn't have symptoms doesn't mean you didn't get infected and aren't carrying the virus

Some viruses can "hibernate" in certain cells inaccessible to the immune system. But the coronavirus does not. In addition, most viruses do die in your body (agglutinated by antibodies or eaten by T cells). All of your sentences are scientifically incorrect.

 

[BuffaloTF]

You can't prove something will not happen by pointing out it hasn't happened yet.

But you have to me more specific in your claim.

"In a sufficiently large population, N, and m+n = N where m is the number of people having gotten fully vaccinated and n not having been fully vaccinated, no member of m (vaccinated) will get any of the current or future strain of corona-viruses and will not infect, for the rest of their life, any member (vaccinated or not) of the population N for all values of m and n?"

Is this an accurate description of your claim?

If so, I think you are incorrect.

Can Vaccinated People Spread the Virus? We Don’t Know, Scientists Say. (Published 2021)

Researchers pushed back after the C.D.C. director asserted that vaccinated people “do not carry the virus.”

www.nytimes.com

This covers, in full, what I said about Dr Walensky plus what others at the CDC said in response -- that they're still researching.

“Our data from the C.D.C. today suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don’t get sick,” she said. “And that it’s not just in the clinical trials, it’s also in real-world data.”

Dr. Walensky went on to emphasize the importance of continuing to wear masks and maintain precautions, even for vaccinated people. Still, the brief comment was widely interpreted as saying that the vaccines offered complete protection against infection or transmission.

In a pandemic that regularly spawns scientific misunderstanding, experts said they were sympathetic to Dr. Walensky and her obvious desire for Americans to continue to take precautions.

---

And again, there's no proof that a vaccinated individual has infected anyone. Which is what would be required to disprove this.

Her statements are based on the research the CDC released in this article:

Interim Estimates of Vaccine Effectiveness of BNT162b2 and mRNA

mRNA COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection

www.cdc.gov

 

[xalea]

Anyone who thinks a piece of mask paper is going to protect them or anyone else from a virus needs to look again at germ theory. Also, how about people be responsible for themselves - if you want to wear a mask, I support you. But you also need to support my freedom to make decisions for myself. People just want to control each other soo badly. It's quite sad. If someone is truly that afraid of being in public, they can stay home. But that wouldn't let them control someone else's behavior..

 

[mollyc]

The reality is that not everyone who wants a vaccine has one yet. And not everyone who has two vaccines is fully immunized yet. My teenagers just got their first shots yesterday; they are still at least five weeks away from being fully immunized. I got my second one on Thursday, so I still have nearly two weeks for full immunity.

I would like to see mask mandates in indoor public spaces for another two months or so to allow everyone who wants vaccines the time necessary to get them. And of course, this doesn't even help small kids.

As for masks not working, my husband never stopped going to work. My kids went to in person school this year, albeit with social distancing. We all wore masks. My kids don't even think twice about putting one on, and none of us got so much as a cold this year. It was really nice, and I am seriously considering continuing to wear a mask in the winter months to avoid cold and flu season in future years.

Once we get a critical mass of people fully vaccinated (two weeks past last dose), then drop mask mandates. The reality is there is a core group of people who will never get this vaccine and if they want to risk it, that is their personal choice. But can we please continue to protect those who haven't had their opportunity yet? The 12-15 year old crowd just got approval on Wednesday. Let's get them done too.

 

[Dreamer2go]

lol I don't even know what the issue about mask mandates. It's to protect you and others from getting the virus. Since wearing a mask in public, the chances of getting a cold or flu is so low now, it's actually super beneficial.

I'm going to wear the mask on public transport even when the whole pandemic is over.

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

I had my second shot 3 weeks ago. If I have to wear a mask in your business I will go elsewhere. This will happen and happen a lot and I bet we see a quick change.

Anything short of a N95 mask worn properly was worthless. At this point they are a political statement.

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

The reality is that not everyone who wants a vaccine has one yet. And not everyone who has two vaccines is fully immunized yet. My teenagers just got their first shots yesterday; they are still at least five weeks away from being fully immunized. I got my second one on Thursday, so I still have nearly two weeks for full immunity.

I would like to see mask mandates in indoor public spaces for another two months or so to allow everyone who wants vaccines the time necessary to get them. And of course, this doesn't even help small kids.

As for masks not working, my husband never stopped going to work. My kids went to in person school this year, albeit with social distancing. We all wore masks. My kids don't even think twice about putting one on, and none of us got so much as a cold this year. It was really nice, and I am seriously considering continuing to wear a mask in the winter months to avoid cold and flu season in future years.

Once we get a critical mass of people fully vaccinated (two weeks past last dose), then drop mask mandates. The reality is there is a core group of people who will never get this vaccine and if they want to risk it, that is their personal choice. But can we please continue to protect those who haven't had their opportunity yet? The 12-15 year old crowd just got approval on Wednesday. Let's get them done too.

Then you wear a mask. I am not.

 

[I7guy]

I had my second shot 3 weeks ago. If I have to wear a mask in your business I will go elsewhere. This will happen and happen a lot and I bet we see a quick change.

Anything short of a N95 mask worn properly was worthless. At this point they are a political statement.

Don't bother shopping in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut then.

And I'll bet this won't happen a lot. It will happen, but not to any great extent to get stores to change policy.