Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
What is your perception on attending events now that this guidance has been updated? When/Will FIRST update their guidance on events with this release?
I’d like to see the cdc update their guidelines for events. But I’m assuming that’s largely an administrative delay since the last update was 4-27.
Was the guidelines I’m referencing. They seem focused towards event planners more than attendees so that’s what I’ve been watching for “good ideas for planning events” for the last few months.
Has anyone able to find how the CDC is defining some of these terms for event size? Worship services can be small (20ish people) to extremely large (thinking some of the Mega-Churches that exist here in Texas). Small, crowded, etc are terms they use and I can’t find any definition of their terms.
Even if the data and CDC guidance suggests that a return to normal for vaccinated people is possible, I am still quite hesitant to do so. Only 46% of people in the US have had their first dose, and countries like India are battling hundreds of thousands of new cases daily. As FIRST is very STEM and scientifically focused, I can understand the return to full in-person events coming this fall, but it’s going to be a gradual process since this pandemic has truly changed lives.
(Note I think this replied to the wrong person, and fixing it on mobile is a huge pain. Sorry)
From the linked page (accessed 5-13-2021)
CDC continues to recommend avoiding large events and gatherings. Currently, CDC does not provide numbers to define small and large events.
Large gatherings bring together many people from multiple households in a private or public space. Large gatherings are often planned events with a large number of guests and invitations. They sometimes involve lodging, event staff, security, tickets, and long-distance travel. CDC’s large events guidance might apply to events such as conferences, trade shows, sporting events, festivals, concerts, or large weddings and parties.
Small gatherings are informal in nature and may occur with family and friends you regularly socialize with, often at someone’s residence. They typically do not involve long distance travel. Small gathering guidance might be more appropriate for social gatherings that are more intimate with close friends and family, such as small holiday parties, family dinners, and small special celebrations.
I’d attend an event right now. I’d still plan to wear a mask out of respect for others (not fear/concern for myself).
Most students won’t be vaccinated for another couple months so I’d expect to see FIRST lag behind this new guidance. I’d be surprised if we didn’t see new guidance from FIRST before the end of the summer.
To me I think the question will not be about live events (those are happening), but what restrictions should take place.
Personally I would be okay with requiring masks at an event as of right now. It’s going to take a bit more to me to get used to no masks around people I do not know. Though I know we will get there at some point.
I do think that social distancing can be relaxed a bit with a mask requirement in place and while I am for many of the sanitizing implementations that have happened do believe that this can be laxed a bit also.
I wonder if future events that have capacity restrictions in place (like FiT Cup) will be changing how many can attend.
CDC has been very conservative with guidance, and I’m sure there were some very robust discussions leading up to this. I suspect there are many things which factor into this guidance, but one that looms large in my view is the recent update on aerosol vs. droplet transmission. There have been other recent updates though. It’s been interesting to watch; the evidence behind these updates is very strong and has been accumulating for some time. It’s also the case that a great deal of what one sees in the press has been in the face of accumulating evidence and, too often, at odds with it. There’s a lot of human nature and built-up inertia to unwind.
There are lessons here. One really needs to be a sophisticated consumer of information, to know how to think, and to apply skills in these areas. One also must be open to being wrong. My hope is that, in time, much will be learned from all of this. But, that’s on us.
I would rather have events that are occurring be more stringent than less as most of the events the CDC guidance has covered are for shorter time spans than a typical FRC Off-season event. Also most of these events are not in the ballpark of the scale of the Texas Cup, which is approaching the size of the Texas State Championship, when it comes to the potential number of participants.
Not a problem. I have a higher than average tolerance for reading government docs and have largely kept monitoring various parts of the cdc site since last January.
Vaccination numbers aren’t nearly high enough to trust that any random person not wearing a mask is actually vaccinated.
If the event is mixed vaccination, I won’t go without mask enforcement. If the event is public and vaxed-only, I need a gleefully brutal vax enforcement policy to feel safe. There are approximately four people I know who I trust to be gleefully brutal enforcers, and I am not one of them.
If they’re not vaccinated, they could be pre-symptomatic, and if I get a facefull of their covid particles, my J&J shot only gives me a ~85% chance of avoiding symptomatic infection of my own. Given that any COVID can lead to Long COVID complications, **** those odds! I have several chronically ill friends (Lyme, CFS, about my age [~30]) and would happily give up my right* foot and knee (and I’d think long and hard about the whole leg) before I’d choose those symptoms for myself.
*(I need my left for the gearshifter, but rear brake is overrated )
To me, the question is really, how many ppl who wasn’t vaccinated but will act as if they are and will go around without mask in or out door. That to me is the biggest risk factor.
So no, I’m not comfortable in any indoor event without asking everyone to be masked at a min.
I can’t speak for Jon, but we’re “requiring” students above 16 to be fully vaccinated (barring medical reasons to come to meetings by early June, and figuring out a cutoff for students under 16 at the moment.
I say “requiring” because all of our students were already looking for vaccine appointments well before we announced the requirement, and our team(fortunately) doesn’t have any students/mentors who are active consumers of disinformation about masks/vaccines.
We’ve already had several meetings which were entirely fully vaccinated members (both shots + 2 weeks) and were able to drink water indoors for the first time in over a year (following the CDC guidance on small events with vaccinated people), which was definitely a novel feeling.
In one month or so, any person above the age of eleven who really wants a vaccine will be vaccinated. People who choose not be vaccinated are then responsible for their own health.
At that point, there is no reason to keep large events closed. We need to recognize that COVID cases will change and the death rates will be much like the flu. If we don’t shut things down for the flu, we shouldn’t shut things down for COVID at that point.
People skipping vaccination are providing a reservoir and breeding ground for new cases, endangering people with actual suppressed immune systems, and endangering vaccinated people.
If I get a big face full of covid from a presymptomatic maskless antivaxer, I’m rolling the dice on an asymptomatic or even a symptomatic infection, and long covid complications, because they refuse to take this seriously. That’s on them. That’s on their selfishness. They’re endangering everyone around them. I’m not going to “let it go”, I’m going to protect myself from them with masks and vax requirement event attendance rules.
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