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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectIt depends
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13477453&mesg_id=13482402
13482402, It depends
Posted by handle, Tue Apr-11-23 01:30 PM
tldr; If you're young and healthy and not around a lot of older/less healthy folks then you'll probably be fine.

>is covid still a serious health risk for most people?
Depends on who you are. It's so contagious that it's very easy to get.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home

It says we've had 104,242,889 reported cases in the U.S. and 1,127,104 deaths. That means that 1.08% of people who caught COVID died of it. But let's be serious, while I suspect that more people probably died of COVID than reported there were likely 2 or 3 times more infections than reported too.

The CDC also reports 452,024 hospitalizations from COVID. That has had serious impacts of those folks - and on others who couldn't get healthcare because of it. And CDC reported last year that 7% of folks who got infected reported "long covid" symptoms.

So your personal risk, depending on your age, health, immunity (via vaccine or infection or both), and some luck COVID is not a personal death sentence - it never was for most.

Getting sick and feeling bad and missing work and giving your friends/family it are other factors.

>the reason i ask is because i'm still masking in public
>EVERYWHERE i go. but when i go out, i pay attention to the
>people i see and i'd say 10 percent or less of the people i
>see are also masked up.

They may have underlying health conditions - or they may just chose to wear the mask because 'why get COVID while grocery shopping?' if wearing a mask would lower the risk dramatically?

>not gonna lie, it's hard when you see everyone else not masked
>and seemingly healthy, and not want to join. and just from
>what i'm seeing it seems like it's not really a risk for most
>people anymore especially if you're vaxxed up.
>
>am i buggin?

If you get the current variant, are healthy, are younger, have some immunity from vaccination or prior infection, get Paxlovid or another treatment you may just get a mild flu like illness and you're 99% or more likely to survive and over 92% chance - or more- to not get long Covid.

If your risk profile is worse, like you're an 80 year old with HIV - it's a different calculation.

So within those factors you have to decide when/if to wear a mask. Or if you're around folks who have a different risk profile a lot you may have to factor that in too.

I got it, it fucking SUCKED for me. Healthy 50 year old when I got it, but it knocked me out and sent me to the E.R. because my blood/oxygen level went to 89% on my home monitor - and %93 on the one in the E.R. (Paxlovid was not approved at the time.) My mom, a 74 year old who has weakened immunity from chemo therapy did a lot better than I did.

(All of this changes if a new variant comes around too - it's a moving target.)

But people are getting still sick, and we're still on track to have 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S this year - that's 2x3 times our "normal" flu deaths in the 21st century.

I still mask everywhere where I'd regret getting COVD - Walmart, Target, Vons, Home Depot, etc. I didn't mask when I had workers in my house recently. I don't mask when in a car with friends either.

I think this way "If it was 2013 and the flu got more contagious and was killing the same amount as COVID is now would I have worn a mask?"

For me, the answer is yes. I suspect for most of the people I know the answer would have been no.