I still have a problem with the wording of the original question:

>>>Administration graciously gave vaccinated freedom from masks and distancing<<<

The administration graciously gave nothing... no freedom... nothing. They only restored the freedom for vaccinated people which they already had before the administration removed that freedom! But for unvaccinated people, their freedom has yet to be restore... nothing gracious about removing one's freedom and thus nothing gracious about having it restored!

So I stand by my response... they graciously gave absolutely nothing.

FWIW

He started changing his mind so early, it is a wonder he still has the job. He’s over 80. He could retire.

I was being humorous.

Showtalk said:

I never cared for Fauci and I suspected he was nothing more than a convenient spokesperson when he said masks don’t work and are not necessary then changed his mind after others told him to.

Oh, please stop promoting this falsehood.  Yes, originally he said very early on in the pandemic that masks were not necessary but then as the pandemic worsened, he changed his advice. It's what scientists do. It was NOT a flip flop.

If I asked you 2 years ago how old you were and then asked you again yesterday how old you were,  I could say "Look, Showtalk changed his answer - he's flip flopping!"  Same thing with Fauci - he gave an appropriate answer for what was happening at that moment.  If you have to resort to these kind of dishonest tactics, then it says a lot about your position.

It’s not dishonest and it’s not false.  Fact knew masks didn’t work very well. They work a little, we know that.  Face shields and N95 masks work very well.  But they weren’t available to everyone.  Fauci actually was more honest early on than he is even now.  He is a politician first, a scientist second.  That doesn’t bother me, it is who he is.  But they could have a much better spokesperson.  

You’re entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

  My facts are factual. I spend a lot of time researching and reading.

YWN666 said:

Allowing mask restriction to be eased for those who have been vaccinated is good, but I'm afraid those who refuse to take the vaccine will take this as a sign that the pandemic is over and prompt them to get back to reckless behavior.

I think that's what has happened. I see people engaging in reckless behavior already. Expecting to see a new outbreak among the pools of anti-vax and anti-mask ultra-entitled folks, as well as the people who never really had much opportunity to get vaccinated due to misinformation and barriers of transportation and time off from work.

So there will be those who either willfully avoid it or those who slip through the cracks due to the traditional barriers to things raised by poverty and class separation that have plagued the world pre-covid all the way to the Dickensonian times or even back to the feudal times.

Marci (marcinmin) said:

I was there Friday, and I only saw one customer with her mask below the chin.

I saw those al the time - usually on the chin but below the nose - even during the more strict requirements for mask wearing.

I'd try and keep my distance from those because I could picture a steady plume of virus entrained in billions of droplets streaming from their nose into the air (and everything else in their snot) with every exhalation.

Yep. Because virus particles are normally expelled in relatively large droplets, which a mask stops quite nicely.

But I see "One Delta Ten Tango" (1D10T) types wearing a mask down on their chin, or with their nose poking right over the top of the thing, where they expel snot droplets laden with whatever pathogen is in their nasal passages.